Back in the Spring we were asked to create and share a project for the Folts Home in Herkimer as a presenter for the Herkimer Garden Club.
The design was to be a table center piece, made of wood, and made simple enough that older people could have fun painting. The final piece would then be displayed in Folts Home at either the front counter or in the Cafeteria. So we started our design plans, which always start with a sketch, in our case a computer layout.
Once the design is finished (top pic), a wireframe is printed (bottom pic) from which we use to cut our wood pieces from. This saves a lot of time and wasted wood, as we can move the pieces around and maximize wood use and in some cases safe a few cuts by butting pieces against each other and sharing that common cut line.
Next we are off to the actual cutting of the pieces and sanding. We like to create a folk art worn edge as we call it. It’s always hand sanded to a slight roundness and really makes the pieces look like they have been around for a few years instead of freshly cut.
Here you can see the freshly cut pieces, we had to test them out to make sure they would stand on their own. 
12 pieces in all were cut from 3/4” pine board. There were another 8 pieces that were laser cut from 1/4″ birch board for overlays and leaves.
Next we had to base coat all the items. This meant painting everything with what we thought would be considered the main color of the items. SInce we knew we only had an hour at most for the Folt’s Folks to finish them up. So we wanted to make sure the majority was already done.
Now that we had everything done it was off to the Folt’s Home for a night of painting.
TeriJo Mustard came along to help me illustrate a few simple brush stroke techniques to the people. It was a fun night with a lot of giggling and happy faces as people painted corn, pumpkins, leaves and other veggies.
Annndddd.. here is the final project.. I think everyone should be proud and happy and they ended up with a cute and colorful display for the holidays.
We would like to thank Maria and the Herkimer Garden Club for inviting us be a presenter, we look forward to doing it again. It was much fun for everyone.
