COWBOY JOE CHAIR

When my sister was a child she just loved westerns and cowboys and now as I get older  I find myself looking back at the more innocent times with nostalgia and remember playing at Cowboys and Indians in the fields with friends down by the river in Oxford where I lived for a short time.

I picked this child's chair up from a skip some time ago and it has been stuck in my shed taking up room ever since.  The other day I needed to find my sun lounger in the said shed and after removing half the clutter to get to it I came across the little chair.  As the weather was so good I decided to have a go at doing something with it.


I had picked up a piece of vintage cowboys theme material at the Vintage Jumble in Northampton on Saturday and knew straight away that I would do something with a cowboy theme in honour of my sister and her love of all things cowboy.


I roughly painted up the chair, I wanted to give it a worn home on the range look,  and the started cutting into my vintage western comics to decoupage the back.  I made up a cushion out of the material and then used some vintage alphabet letters to pick out the word COWBOY.

Unfortunately the pictures are not the best as I took them in bright sunshine but I think you get the idea.  I will probably take this along to the Olney Fair on the 4th August as I like to sell my handmade alongside vintage at the fairs.

JESSIE WILCOX SMITH

I love children's illustrator's and one of my very favourites is Amercian artist Jessie Wilcox Smith 1863-1935.  I was introduced to her by by dear Amercian cousin Glynis who is an avid collector of her artwork and she started me off on yet collection.  Her pictures of children are just so sweet and I particularly like the one of children playing with their toys or reading their books.  She also did a series of mothers with babies and these are just to die for - in fact when my eldest was expecting her second child I managed to get a baby book that Jessie had illustrated which had been completed in 1911 with the sweetest entries.

 

She was prolific artist who illustrated many childrens books and  lot of her her work was published in Good Housekeeping  magazine in the 1920's and 30's and you can still find copies of them with front covers with her work on them.  I found two when I was in the States this year and have just framed the one above and am working on the frame for the second as we speak.

If you are not familiar with her work I urge you to take a look I am sure you wil love her as much as I do.