Bird floor cloth

Today, I finished making a vinyl floor cloth in the shape of a fat little bird. I'm passionate about interior design involving everything from construction to finishing touches so I'm constantly looking through catalogs from Pottery Barn, West Elm, Anthropologie and others. I'm often inspired by rug colors and patterns, bedding and found objects. My little bird was inspired by a felt shape I found on a tree skirt from a Pottery Barn catalog. And the project of making a vinyl floor cloth (made from scraps of vinyl flooring) was inspired by a trip to Seattle where my friend Kristin and I discovered a very cool pear-shaped mat on the floor of an antiques/home furnishings store. It was a hand-painted mat by a local artist. Then I remembered that my friend Judy Greenwood had also owned a vinyl floorcloth when she lived in Minot. I looked up the process and Kristin and I decided to make several. The bird is done now, and she and I are working on a pear. Kristin provides the vinyl and the base coat and I provide the painting. Once the creative process was done, I finished the mat with 3 coats of gloss medium and then a final coat of wax. The wax is a paste wax that is rubbed on and once dry, buffed to a shine. I'm not sure where I'll place my fat little bird mat, but due to the materials it's made from, it should be weather-proof and foot-traffice-proof.