The Handmade Hangout #252

So glad you are here for this week's linky party:

Handmade Hangout Linky Party

Weathered Beams & Apostle St. Andrew Resting Place

The incredible final resting place of the Apostle Andrew, in the tiny town of Amalfi on the Amalfi Coast. Duomo Di Amalfi towers above the small Amalfi square. You can see the duomo dwarfs the rest of the square, looking up these grand squares. This footage is mostly from the upper portion of the duomo, which was built in 900 AD!

Once you walk up this tall stairway, you are greeted by these impressive, tall bronze doors. I love the gold mosaics and these doors feature scenes from the apostles ministry.

Inside you are wowed by the pillars and floors decorated with intricate marble inlay. The ceilings are decorated with art from the apostle's ministry. What you don't see here are the throngs of people. We wait quite a awhile to get photos without people in them, these sites are bustling with tourists.

Unfortunately the crypt was closed while we were there. That's usually the most finely decorated space. 

Like I mentioned, Duomo di Amalfi is in the town of Almafi, on the Amalfi coast. We were there on a wicked windy day, but the terraced towns were still stunning. I hope to return on a summer day.

For this week's project, we will turn raw beams into a weathered wood dream! These were made of oak, but the tutorial will work for any species.

MATERIALS

• White Oak here, but any wood will do

• Textured or Sanded Wood 

• Weatherwood Stains' Light Oaking Stain
• Weatherwood Maintenance Oils- optional

Directions

1. SAND

You want to make sure the wood grain is open and ready for stain. In this case, the wood was textured or circle sawn, which means you pay a mill to add a texture to the wood. It also means you don't have to sand. If you wood is neither textured or rough sawn, you will want to sand with 80 grit, then 120 before staining.

2. STAIN

After sanding- you can apply a heavy coat of  Weatherwood Stains' Light Oaking Stain. Do not wipe off- allow wood to absorb stain. This timelapse video condensed 30 minutes into a few seconds. You're gonna love watching it! It looks so cool-- the gray just sort of appears out of nowhere. You can see that I applied a heavy coat of stain and then the wood does the rest. [Do NOT ever wipe Weatherwood Stains off!]

4. TONE 

OPTIONAL: We use Weatherwood Maintenance Oils to tone the color. White Oil to LIGHTEN or Clear Oil to DARKEN. First, shake very well! Wipe on the maintenance oil white with a clean white rag. Rub the oil into the wood and make sure there's no streaks. After 3-5 minutes the wood has absorbed all the topcoat it can. Use a CLEAN white rag to remove any excess from the wood. Allow the table (project) to set for 12-48 hours. Do not touch!

CLEAR

WHITE

If you have any questions, please let me know! I would love to help you get the perfect wood color.

The Handmade Hangout #251

So glad you are here for this week's linky party:

Handmade Hangout Linky Party

EASY Barnwood Wall & Pompeii ART

We took around 1000 photos of Pompeii. I was shocked at the size of it, reading about the city in history books, you cannot comprehend the scale. The ruins are 80 hectares and it took us four days to explore everything. The customer services gals said most Americans get 2-3 hours there. 

A lot of the best frescoes have been safely moved to nearby museums, which we did go see. But seeing them in their original location is much, much cooler. You can imagine the people of Pompeii living with these vivid colors and all their Gods.

It's the same with the art, the original bronzes were moved to the Museo Nazionale di Napoli. We are staying about a 5 minute walk from this museo. We were fortunate to spend several days in the museum, looking over these ancient creations. 

I love the dog mosaic made of marble, of course. The sign above the door in this home read, "Beware the Dog." And still today, many "cane" roam Pompeii.

It rained all  four days we were there. We shot a ton of footage, but this ridiculous parka video is a favorite! lol For this week's project, we have an installed cedar tongue and groove wall, then we went over it with 2 different reactive stains, varying placement to create a super rad and easy barnwood look.

Materials

• Tongue & Groove Paneling- this is cedar
• Weatherwood's SALVAGE Reactive Stain
• Weatherwood's RECLAMATION Reactive Stain
• Brush

If you need instructions on applying wood to a wall or ceiling, check out this tutorial on installing DIY Barnwood Shiplap Wall.

STAIN: Salvage and Reclamation stain were applied for this look. You can see in the above video, the stain was applied with a brush haphazardly to create a realistic multi-tonal barnwood look. 

Didn't the wall turn out dreamy? If you have any  questions, leave'm in the comments below. 

The Handmade Hangout #250

So glad you are here for this week's linky party:

Handmade Hangout Linky Party

Poplar Driftwood Dresser Makeover & Pompeii Architecture

We spent four wet, rainy, blustery February days days in Pompeii! It was incredible- you felt like you were simply falling back into time. I wish I could've brought you all with me. I've split up the art and architecture into 2 posts, because I don't want to overload you and it's ALL incredible!

The Handmade Hangout #249

So glad you are here for this week's linky party:

Handmade Hangout Linky Party

Driftwood Glam Coffee Table & Duamo Napoli

This amazing duomo is just down the street from our AirBNB! We just stumbled into this impressive Chiesa, after grabbing some award winning pizza (more on that another day.) Italy has these (nearly) thousand year old buildings all over, and then you step inside and and your jaw hits the floor. The one is from 1200's. 

It happens to be the final resting place of Naple’s patron saint- San Gennaro (or Saint Januarius in the USA). The said is from the SAME town as my Great Grandfather- Benevento- which was rad! 💀 ⛪ We will be headed to Benevento in two weeks.

The ceiling is in a style we have seen in several similar time period churches. With gold frames and several works of art depicting with the Saint interned or the story of Christ. 

San Gennaro's crypt is found below the chapel and is more highly decorated than the church above. He was a relatively young saint who was martyred proselytizing and for hiding Christians during a period of intense persecution before 3000AD. The floors are all made of marble inlay and the ceiling is highly decorated.

We've noticed the art has increased in beauty as we've moved up from Southern Italy.