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Cross-stitched ginkgo rug and Craftsman chairs from a kit

Today I learned that the Japanese tree with the fan-shaped leaves is spelled ginkgo, not ginko. Who knew?!

I cross-stitched a ginkgo rug to go in the Craftsman bungalow vignette. The rug is approximately 2 7/8″ x 3 5/8″, stitched over one on 36(?) count fabric. The question mark is because I thought that was the size, but when I do the math (81 stitches x 104 stitches) it doesn’t come out right. Anyway, it fits well in the corner of the bungalow!

I charted this design based on a real Craftsman-style rug I found online.

Want to stitch your own ginkgo rug? I’ve made the chart available for free here: Ginkgo Rug Cross Stitch Chart (for personal use only)

I liked how the rug and rocking chair looked in the corner, and it got me thinking about these beautiful Craftsman rocking chairs that showed up in Bauder Pine’s Etsy shop last week. They were pricey ($129 for the pair), but perfect for the roombox.

I hesitated because I’d already bought a Jane Harrop kit for two Craftsman recliners, but after a bit of hemming and hawing I decided to pull the trigger… but I was too late. :(

(If the person who bought them happens to read this, I’m jealous!)

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Stained glass windows with Gallery Glass and a Sakura Glaze pen

I decided to add stained glass to the two small windows in the Craftsman bungalow. The last time I made stained glass windows, for the Victorianna, they were printed out on a transparency sheet that I then painted over with Gallery Glass paint.

Even with the Gallery Glass adding a wavy glass effect, these still look printed out. I wanted to try something different for the bungalow. (Also, the ink cartridges on my inkjet printer are dried up, and I hate buying new ones because I barely get any use out of them before they dry up!)

Back when I made the stained glass for the Victorianna, someone suggested trying a Sakura Glaze pen, which claims to have 3-dimensional ink. I bought one but hadn’t really used it, so I decided to give that a try.

I printed out a design I found online and traced over it with the pen. The ink does have dimension, and the pen is a lot easier to control than the bottle of Gallery Glass Liquid Lead (which I have tried before with bad results).

The ink beaded up on the acetate, so I had to keep going over and over the lines to end up with a solid line. This resulted in thicker lines than I wanted, and the circles were especially hard to do neatly.

Once the ink dried, I filled in the color by spreading dots of Gallery Glass with a toothpick.

Here’s how it looks when it’s wet.

And when it’s dry. The color is nice with the white background, but without the paper behind it, it’s too faint.

(Note: in case you’re noticing differences in the lead lines, the windows pictured above are not all the same window! I made several of these to try to get better at it.)

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Firescreen mystery solved!

I guess I didn’t do good job of sleuthing before my last post, because the firescreen mystery has already been solved thanks to a few reader tips and Google. Here’s one in the background of a photo of a Ginger Wyatt vase from eBay (from Pinterest):

Interesting coincidence, but it doesn’t prove that Ginger Wyatt made the firescreen, and the eBay auction this came from is long gone.

But guess what turns up with a search for “Kummerow fire screen”?

From the Pinterest description:

Lew and Barbara Kummerow – “stained glass” firescreen, prairie/craftsman style in colors of green, pink, yellow and white. metal frame. sold on ebay for $91.13.

This one isn’t mine — I can tell because it has a pink panel on the right, and on mine that panel was in the center (also it was orange, not pink). The legs are also a different style. It’s possible the one from the first photo is the one I ended up acquiring, but now that I know there were several of these floating around, I suspect not.

Still, I destroyed a Lew and Barbara Kummerow firescreen that could have sold for ninety-one dollars. (ARGGGHHH!!)

On the bright side, I’m confident I didn’t pay more than a few dollars for it. Whoever sold it to me must not have known its origins either. If I had known what it was, I would have kept it intact and used it in one of my 1:12 Guys from Texas roomboxes instead.

Now that I know it was an artisan piece (before I destroyed it), I want to figure out a better paint to use than the Gallery Glass, so I can try to touch up those bare spots. Even though the panels are glued in now, I think I could carefully reach into the house to do it.

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