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Thursday, October 10, 2013

The Paintgirl Chronicles # 1: Creating bases

Hiya peepul! I'll make all my thoughts super direct in this post because I've attempted, unsuccessfully to write four different posts, all literary-thoughty-thoughty kind. I suppose I'm not in that frame of mind these days (months?), so I decided two minutes ago to just ditch it. So yeah, right. You know it's bad when it's already been like, four days into the autumn break and I did not even do a celebratory post about it. And it's bad because I love breaks and holidays, as the loyal gine chune readers might know, but I still didn't say 'yay'. Yes, I have this week off from college. And what did I do in the past four days? Lazed around. Totally. I did not read anything apart from some pending blogposts, a couple of pages from some book I took two days to decide to read, I wrote nothing, I haven't looked at the college notebooks (and I won't. I'll just see it once in the Metro on Monday morning). See? This is the level to which something sucky can affect you, that someone as strong as I was am would suffer. Anyway, I know I would grasp at anything if I have to, to be able to fully come out of this mental and whatever block it's given me, once I'm outta here. 

Till then, this is a new mini-series! And I swear it'll be a mini because it is on something I hope to be able to complete during the bache kuche dinn of my break. One fine day a few weeks ago while I sat staring at a wall with peeling paint in my room, dad came in to ask for something and I asked for his opinion on whether or not I could paste newspapers on the wall, not the boring kind, the funky kind, to make it more interesting and less of a sore. I suppose even he saw how mental his once-upon-a-time-awesome kid has become, and maybe he got into the generously senti parenty thingy and he asked if I would like to re-paint the wall. Myself. I mean! How cool is that? He could see I was incredulously happy and so yay! This is the thing that'd be making this short break worthwhile. Jeez. I was feeling so sucky since morning. I feel a million times better already! :D 

The Paintgirl avatar.
The real fotos looked too meh. -_-
Okay. Focus. This is part of the Paintgirl Chronicles. Obviously, I am the Paintgirl and no, you're not allowed to roll your eyes or laugh because I mentioned in the previous post how bad I am at naming. And Paintgirl is anyway better than the other names I've come up with. Anyway, *the awesomest drumroll ever*!

Making Decisions:
The 'supposedly' hardest part. I later on realized it's not as worth the hype as it is right now. Yes, decisions are important but if you're keenly interested and if it's close to your heart, those decisions are pretty easy and quick. Awesome, even. The harder part is later, while implementing. 

Anyway, gathering two of my closest friends (Hi dudezos!), we formed a brainstorming group to decide on the extremely crucial question: what color and design to settle on? Of course it had to be pink, so the pink-color-hater-friend decided not to think too much on the subject. The rest of us decided on a shade similar to the ceiling one, contrasting with the dark strawberry shade of the wall that's perfect. Designs were made on paper and whatsapped, colors of the designs decided. All went well, except for a minor katta because the pink-hater was supposed to come over for the painting, but then she had to leave for her hometown. Hello festivals! -_-

Pre-Implementation Preparations:
It wouldn't do well to suddenly stop the whole process just because you don't have an important material or something, right? Total mood dampener. So as a first step, you gotta do a short online research (where else?), googling stuff with the search-words, 'how to paint a room' and 'material required to paint a room'. I'd suggest you don't focus too much on the non-Indian search results. They'd mention 20 things you don't know the names of and we can anyway do a better job with the good Indian jugaad. Just be a smartass and take basic tips and leave the strict rules to them. 

Once you have a little knowledge, you'd feel like an awesome Paintgirl already (or Paintboy. Ugh, that sounds so.... :P ). This prior knowledge is important because you weren't born masons and painters and this would probably be the first time you'd be doing it yourself. I mean, I'm still not believing my parents actually don't mind my clumsy self doing a paint-on-the-wall-job. I haven't painted anything in my life, except maybe a house with a triangle top as a kid. And I'm free to even design it. *Dancing* Okay. Focus. 

1. Once you know how to go about it, make an Indianized version with your dad. If you go word for word by the angrezi version, the hardware store wale bhaiya would look at you pityingly, thinking you don't know anything. 

2. Make a list of things you'd need. 

3. See which of the listed things are already available in your home. Go to the store room. Full of junk. But that's useful junk! You'd most probably find half the things you need in there. 

4. Make one trip to a nice hardware store and get everything. Double check if you have everything because if you miss something, your dad's not going to go again and you'd have to paint pink with green. 

5. Prepare yourself mentally. You can't get ill, you can't back out, you can't think of posing and clicking photos because you'd have to know you wouldn't be dressed your best when you get to work. You have deadlines and you have to work hard to complete the job. 

Materials needed:
1. Paint (obviously :P ): I can't say what kind, because I didn't understand it myself. They talked about it like it was the most obvious thing in the world and I didn't care too much as long as I got what I needed. The one I have is an emulsion, though. And since I'm not cementing and making a whole wall from scratch, just repainting with a little scraping off, I don't need a primer either. Y'know, the base paint thing.  

All STUFF! 
By the way, did you guys know how you get thousands of shades in paints? This was SO new to me that I can't help sharing, even if it might be obvious to you. While I looked up shades in the shade card, I looked around the store to see hundreds of buckets of paint. But the shade card held thousands and I asked dad if they'd have what I needed. 'Of course', he said. Tentatively, I picked out one shade and watched as the guy went to a computer on top of a semi-circular heavy table. He found the shade, quoted the price and when dad said 'yes, we'll have it', he simply took off the lid of a one liter box with white paint inside and placed it under the computer, inside the semi-circular thingy which I realized was a machine. o.O And then he retrieved the box, shook it up, opened it and revealed that same pink shade! :O How cool is that? And to think I thought all shades are stuffed inside boxes already. It feels so obvious now. -_-

Apart from the main paint, you'd also need other paints for those designs you think you would make. I got some white, black, brown and green paint too, the kind which you can mix in proportions to get different shades of these colors! Eeep!! :D

2. Brush : To paint with. You could use a wide one for the walls and a relatively narrower one for making designs. 

3. Roller : Because just brushes might be for those actual wall-painter-guys. And rollers seem fun.

4. Turpentine oil : To clean paint off stuff that weren't intended to be painted, like the bed or the study table or the floor or your hands. ;)

5. Wall putty or P.O.P. : To fill in gaps in the wall to make them smooth. The hardware bhaiya suggested us P.O.P. as it dries soon and works well. 

6. Scraper and sandpaper: To make the walls smooth before repainting them. Get rid of the flakes and then rub sandpaper.

7. Miscellaneous: Rough cloths for cleaning, a cloth for covering your mouth and hair, plastic vessels for mixing paints and other such things. Also, a camera for your mom to click your pictures, but don't expect them to come out any good. :/

Getting started:
Finally, after all this was done, I stood looking at my room, trying to etch in my memory the way it looked, because it wouldn't be the same anymore. I clicked a picture of the two walls that'd have a darker pink, and probably a subtle design. I do get sentimental about this as well. -_- 

View 1.

I can metaphorically compare the crumbling, peeling-paint wall with myself. If I think of it as me, it's something that has been suffering for too long. The actual problem was fixed a couple of years ago, it wasn't just re-painted since then. Though in my case I'm fine on the surface, just need to be fixed from the inside. But we can overlook this for now. This wall is like me. I need to re-do it and make it awesome. 

The wall holds one bookcase, which had to be removed. I shifted the books to G's room and removed the bookcase with dad's help (no, you can't do it on your own because one, it is heavy and two, it needs screwdrivers and pliers and a lot of physical strength, which even a motivated Paintgirl would find hard to do). Then the bed was covered along with other pieces of furniture that stay in the room for now. The ladder was brought in and we covered ourselves and set to work. Now, those small scraping cards are sharp and you can cut your hands if you're not careful. Dad did most of the upper portions while I did the lower half, the layers and layers of dried paint falling on us. I seriously didn't care, I was so engrossed in this simple activity. Feverishly scraping off layers. The nasty things had to be peeled off. It won't have to suffer anymore, just get rid of everything that's troubling you. 

It took a couple of hours for one wall, which isn't even one wall, it's just half! Those couple of hours involved putting in plaster wherever needed. Have you ever mixed plaster with your hands? The powdery stuff is quite hot if you keep your fingers in them for long. Put in water and mix. Sometimes it feels like your hand is in a marshy swamp (a daldal) and if you're too into it, you might feel that one second panic, feeling like you're about to drown and never get out. But you realize it's just your hand and you can take it out. You use the scraper to fill it in holes and make the walls smooth. 

The base is ready now. You just have to let the plaster dry, and maybe you can make tiny sculpture flowers out of the plaster that's still left. I tried. It was a mess. I now have what resembles an uneven snake with a bloated stomach. -_- 

***
This has been the progress so far. I now look forward to tomorrow, when we'd be starting the actual paint! Yay pink! :D I've decided to make a plain tree on one side, and the three Divergent ravens coming out of the branches. I'll paint a quote too. And small white butterflies. All this is on one side and it would look cool and fun. I'm hoping to update on the progress day-by-day, just like it happens! :D If you've got any awesome design ideas, please share. There's still time to consider! ;)

PS- This work is much harder than I imagined. But I like it nevertheless. I love the doing-the-digging-and-dirty-work and then seeing the beautiful result. It feels awesome when you know everything about how it came into being. Just like the wall, I'm ready to be repainted. Myself. By my family members. With love. :)



8 comments:

  1. I'm crying with sadness and excitement :P I SO-SO-SO-SO want to fly and come over to your house right now and paint with you like we'd planned :'( :'( All this is soooo exciting!!!! And basically because I wasn't gonna be there to paint with you, my brain absolutely refused to brainstorm -_- Which sucks!!! But I'm soooooo excited and happy looking at all this!!! And the design is excellent!!! Especially the Divergent ravens :')

    I'm so excited to see the wall redone!!!!!
    You go girl!!!! Have fun and imagine me next to you painting your wall... or maybe entertaining you with my awesome blabbering while you work like a "majdoor" :P

    See ya!!!! All the best Paintgirl :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks dudeni! :D
      Yeah I so wish you could be here! And tell you what, maybe I'd keep the designing ravens part for the next weekend, when you can join in too! I mean, if it doesn't get completed. Though I'll try to complete it :P

      And hey, it's cool with the brainstorming thing. I actually considered ravens while thinking how much you'd love them. Otherwise I was just going with butterflies :P

      And yeah, I do feel like a majdoor :P But it's fun! <3 :D

      Thanks so much! See you soon! ^_^

      Delete
  2. Wahh...!! Ek damm Awesome..!! You're a great painter, i must say.. ;)
    Well, as for the post, you have named all the ingredients & the ways to paint & yess, we know, to see you without books is like, once in a lifetime opputunity..!! :D ;)

    You're Awesome..!! This Post is "AWESOME".. :) :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha! I'm using G's room till then, which also house my books ;) :P

      Thanks so much for reading this experience and the awesomeee comment. Glad you like it.! :)

      Delete
  3. Oh girl, I loved loved this post. Made me so excited and restless and happy and proud. You made it so irresistible you know, making me want to just come there and start doing all that stuff with, preparing and painting and marvelling afterwards at the art that would come out in the end ;-) it would be such an amazing feeling :D

    Seriously, it's just one day and I have already made up my mind to paint my room myself the next time around :D

    I also liked it how you mentioned every thing that you need to do and get. So now when i have to do something/anything like this, i'd be first coming over to your blog to this series. Definitely.

    Oh, one more thing. I have the same kind of attachment with the stuff i consider mine. You won't believe, i took screenshots of my phone before updating the OS as i was so used to/attached to it that i wanted to come back and see that interface later kabhi. Imagine how many photos I would take of my room before painting :P

    This is Awesomesauce :D
    Waiting for part 2 ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heyo! I'm happy you found this inspiring :D Yeah, if dudeni would have been here maybe we could have kept a painting day for ourselves :') It's okay, though. There are more rooms :P Sometime, sometime.

      AND YOU DID WHAT? :O Oh man! I did not take any :X Send 'em to me, okay? :P But no, this is the kind of thing I get. Totally. ;) You're so like me! :D

      Your comment is awesomesauce-r :P
      Part 2 coming soon! :D
      Thanks <3

      Delete
  4. Nice post. I too feel like painting my room. Even my mom got excited when I told her about you painting the room yourself, so may be I can convince her for my room as well.
    Lat year, when my room got repainted according to my wish..I just stopped myself from taking any pic as I just did not want any memory...I was like- I just don't want to be tied up with anything I don't like...and would accept the change gladly...Yes, I actually thought this philosophically :P
    Well, this time when I paint, I'll surely take pic..as I like the present one too..It's so mine..

    Will surely write about my painting experience if I get to paint..
    Loved the post!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey if you get to paint it too, it'd be exciting! :D Be sure to have help, though. It's tough work. :| But yes, a lot of fun too! :D

      I can't ever accept change as gladly :P I'm kind of always wanting to stick to how it's always been. But this one needed paint and yeah, this was one change "I" initiated. It's hard but fun. And refreshing :D

      Sure! Do write it! :D
      Thanks for your comment! :))

      Delete

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