First, I want to apologize to the vegetarians out there. This is a gift I made for my brother who is a fan of meat, to say the least.
It began with this 12″x12″ wooden pig wall plaque at T.J. Maxx in the as-is section for $3. A little beat up and there was a crack down the middle, but I knew it would be an easy fix, especially since I planned to paint it.
I filled the crack with wood filler and sanded it smooth.
I also put a stripe of plain Elmer’s glue down the crack on the back of the plaque for reinforcement and let it dry. Then I did it again.
See $3!
Then I gave the whole thing a coat of black paint, and filled in the pig shape with white.
And there it sat for a long time while I thought of an acceptable way to proceed. I wanted to transform it from country/folksy into something masculine my brother would like. And I definitely had to figure out a way to downplay the polkadots. Those cutey cutey polkadots were throwing me for a loop.
What I eventually came up with is a sort of silly diagram labeling the parts of the pig. I think my brother is going to love it!
I used a gel pen for the lettering. I wasn’t sure if it would go over glossy acrylic paint, but it worked great. I sprayed the whole thing with a clear sealer because I wasn’t sure about the permanence of the gel pen.
Somehow the polkadots don’t look like polkadots to me anymore. I almost didn’t think that was possible! Mission accomplished!
Very nice!
That turned out great, I never would have thought of that.