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I teach ART (Pottery and Jewelry) at Rockford High School in Rockford, Michigan, along with Kathy McDonald
(Painting and Drawing), Kari Neal (Design) and Barb Kent (A.P. Portfolio).   On Feb. 10 Barb's class held a fundraiser to
help
defray the cost of their overnight field trip to Chicago.  Each of them made a special chair
which was first displayed in the windows of the Downtown Rockford Merchants, then auctioned off
during halftime of the home basketball game at RHS.   Kathy, Kari and I were invited to
submit chairs.  HERE IS THE DIARY I KEPT OF MY EFFORT FOR "THE CAUSE".                   
Because of all of my recent exposure to the characters on PBS (thank you,
darling Gracie Mae!), I have decided to do a Sesame Street themed chair,
featuring her favorite friend ELMO!!
Here is my design
for the chair.
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Step One: start with a chair.  After a trip down Division Ave.,
and stops at Goodwill and St. Vinnie's I hit paydirt at the
Salvation Army.  $10 for a chair that is going to be a (nearly)
PERFECT CANVAS.
Step Two:  it's a children's chair, so
shorten the legs down 5 inches.  
Then prime it and get it ready to
paint.
This is the graphic that
is the basis
for my chair design.
Then it is time to make heads and bake them hard and dry in the oven.
 The feet are going to need to be dried too, but they can't go in the
oven.  Hmmm...... what to do, what to do . . . .
AHA!!
The hairdryer
chairdryer!!
If it works at all it
will do the trick!
Step Three:  Start the papier mache process - first by wrapping the arms and legs of the chair
with newpaper wads and masking tape, then by covering that with a fat layer of newpaper strips
and wallpaper paste.  messy!
Here I am wrapping Big Bird's legs with fat
soft cording to make his "socks".
THE ART CRITIC!!
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Each of the heads gets a covering of fur.  
Big Bird gets some feathers from a boa.
Grover and Elmo
get ping pong
ball eyes and
fleece noses.  
Big Bird's feet
get a coat of
paint.
After the hands are stuffed and attached to the
ams with hot glue the "upholstery" of the arms can
start.  After this I never again want to cover
ANYTHING round or stuffed with ANYTHING that
involves a hot glue gun.  I have hot glue blisters in
places I didn't even know I had!!
This is the chair before the final
paintings go on the front, back
and seat.  I promised I would
have it down to my merchant
tonight, so it is going just like it  
is.  On Friday night I will pick it
up, take it home and keep
painting until Saturday morning,
then repeat the process.  I am
sure I will not have it completely
done until Sunday night!  
Genna is bringing Gracie up on
Saturday to sit in it for a photo.
If it sells at the auction to
someone besides us I will at
least have that!
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Well, it appears that I may be finished.  However, I don't really know because I keep adding
things.  I guess it is as good as it is going to get for now.  Next stop, back to Momber's
Hallmark for display.  Then on to the game Friday night and the half-time auction.
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Tuesday afternoon I have TWO SURPRISE
VISITORS at school.  After we visit everyone
there we stop in to Momber's so I can take
photos of Gracie with "her" chair.  She loves it!
 And she looks SO CUTE IN IT!  Well, that
does it - nothing will do now except for us to
prevail in the bidding!  Well, unless it gets way
too expensive, then I will just have to settle
for these darling snapshots!  Next stop, the
auction Friday at the game.
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Long story short - the chair is now
where it always belonged - in
Gracie's living room, in her house in
East Lansing.  She loves it as much as
she loves her friends Elmo and
Grover.  In the end it has been SO
worth all the time, effort and money.
 And so
this is THE END of the STORY.