Etra: Sign of the times

Well, last Sunday I was going to publish a post talking about Kerstin's job on Monday painting a sign above the entrance to a bar. However, she was very worried about it for a number of reasons:


1) It's cold. Kerstin doesn't like the cold, and sitting several hours atop some dodgy scaffolding wasn't her idea of fun. Plus how do you paint well with numb fingers?


2) The kids finish nursery at lunchtime, so her time available was going to be severely restricted. Plus our babysitter had just left......for Australia!


3) Purple. Can the colour purple be a problem, you ask? Well, it turns out it can, at least with acrylic paints, and the letters of the sign were to be purple. How do you make purple? You mix red and blue together, right? Nope. You need magenta. And you can't mix that from anything else. Confused? I was (still am). Read this blog article for a detailed explanation, but basically to make purple with paints.........you need Magenta and Kerstin didn't have it.

Anyway, she was so worried that I wasn't allowed to write anything just in case it went wrong. It didn't so I have been allowed to tell you about it.


She:


1) Wore gloves. It didn't help a great deal but life is hard sometimes.


2) Got lucky. One of the kids was sick so I stayed at home and looked after the pair of them.


3) Managed to find magenta. It wasn't easy though. The local paint store guy basically emptied a little out of the magenta in his paint mixing machine. 


Anyway it went well, Kerstin liked it, the bar's owners liked it, and a few people seem to be interested in town so it may not be the last one! It's definitely better than the previous perspex sign that the local council didn't like.


Here are a couple of pictures:

 

 

Etra: Introduction

Normally you start at the beginning and work forwards. However, that's a bit boring so I think I'll start now and do the before later. Whilst also doing the later. Make sense? No? Never mind, you'll pick it up!

So why am I here? Not in a metaphysical sense, but a blog one. Well, basically to give an alternative view of EtraCeramics, which is a little company run by my partner (sounds a bit strange too, but if you're not married what else can you use?) producing hand-painted ceramics amongst other things.

It's been running for a couple of years now, squeezed between pregnancy, babies, house renovation and of course being a loving not-wife (she'll hate that!), but now she is finally pushing into the virtual world (Etsy, Twitter). Therefore, we thought it might be a nice idea to look at things from a different point of view, maybe talking about projects that don't make it onto the internet.

As you can see this is my job! Remember, Kerstin does the art, and I do as I'm told!

Anyway, I'll keep you updated........................................