Pinstriping by Julie Fournier

At the suggestion of someone I met at the Downriver Cruise I drove an hour out to Milford to try and find a bike show at someplace called "the Grind". I never did find it, but I did find a weekly bike show at 59 West off M-59 where I pinstriped a Harley Davidson- I did some lettering, Ivory with a red drop shadow that said, in a "back in the day kind of script", "Harley Davidson". The owner of the black motorcycle was very happy with my work, and I think some of the other guys there will be calling me soon. What a great bunch of guys, they were all very polite and kind. One of them is having a big biker party this Saturday and he invited me out to pinstripe at it, how cool is that! I'm very excited. This morning I'm going to the Park Collision shop here in Hazel Park, MI, to pinstripe a freshly painted car, I'm pretty eager to do it, even though it's a long line (which are really hard to do). Keeping my brush even with pressure and h...

Today I got to fondle a 1970 Mercedes Benz, ooohhhh. That is one beautiful car. I remember my dad had two 1976 Benz's; driving them is like cotton candy on a marshmallow road! I felt like I was going 10mph when I was really going 75! Wow! sigh. :) swoon. I did some basic script lettering on the back, in quotes it reads now "Klasse Ratte" I love the German feel of it, hahah Ivory letters, with a red drop shadow. The owner loved it, and the striping I did on his wood glove box. There was a channel, with black in it, so I used black, and for a second color went with a bronze to pick up the tan leather interior color. Just a nice small design in the lower right corner of the glove box door - less is MORE! It had a nice 70's feel to it, appropriate for the car. I felt like I was in a 1970's era conference room with wood paneling and a big maple conference table, heh. ok, time for me to rub my hand and relax for the rest of the day! Tomorrow I'm ...

It looked like rain this morning, but some cars were out anyway. I walked around, ooh-ing and ahh-ing at them, and passed out some cards. There's another show later today, but it poured on the way home, so I don't think there will be too many cars there, I'm going to try it again next Sunday, it's a weekly car show in Milford. I put some lines down on a Chevy, but the channel wasn't perfect to begin with (it's an old car, hello! LOL), and the guy wanted it to be perfect, so I wiped it off and walked away, making a note to never do any work for him in the future - there's no pleasing some people, and all they do is complain, it's not worth it. That, and he put his head literally right next to mine while I was working. It's a pet peeve of mine, I like my personal space, being crowded throws me off my game. That's just how I roll. I didn't do any other striping besides that today, but maybe I'll get some future call backs, some days t...

The cruise today was actually a cruise! Cars were moving! It was quite a change of pace from the slow moving traffic of the Woodward Dream Cruise! Many nice cars to look at, some parked, too. I pinstriped a friend's cooler, not much else, so around 6 I went to the Shell gas station on Woodward and picked up a small striping job, "Big Piston Racing" and a piston graphic, which made the truck owner happy! I may have lined up another job - hopefully the cadillac owner with the cool flames and unstriped scallops calls me, that will be a really fun job for me. That car is so long I'm only going to be able to put 2/3rds of it in my garage! wow! Very exciting day, I'm completely worn out, but I'll be ready for another show tomorrow, at 16 1/2 Mile Road and Van Dyke.

I did it! I colored in the pinstripe girl on the roof that I had started at Sins of Steel two weeks ago. She sure is pretty now! I'll post pictures as soon as I get them, I forgot my camera again, LOL. I did some fun lettering on a couple of friend's cars, too, on the dashboards. It was a fun day!

My good friend, Catfish, that I met last year at the Woodward Dream Cruise, just called me to schedule an appointment with me the Wednesday before the Cruise so I could add more stripes to his car. I striped it last year for him, we had even talked about me going to Texas to do another of his cars, but decided to wait as plane tickets were running high. I'm going to do some lettering on it for his company, and another catfish, this time just fish bones next to the skull I painted on it (from last year matching the ones on the upholstery). I can't wait! He's so considerate, not wanting to use up all my time the day of the cruise- I adore him! MWAH! This way I can stripe his car early, and do other cars on cruise day, he's taking such good care of me. I love striping so much!

Thinking I could get up early Saturday morning to leave for the show, and not have to much to do, I set my alarm for 5:30 am, packed up some tiki glasses that I'd hand painted, and some prints (of my paintings), mostly ones of cars & pinup girls, and then went to bed (around 12am on Friday night- technically Saturday, just barely, lol). In the morning the alarm went off, I got up, showered, ate and realized I still had a lot to do - put the tent, prints, glasses, and a lot of other stuff for the show in the car, wire a print I was trying to sell, pack a cooler, etc. I didn't leave until 7! I was hoping to be out of here by 6:30 so I could get there by 7:30 and unload but luckily it didn't take as long as I thought to get there, and I made it in plenty of time to unload and park nearby, which came in handy later in the day when some friends blew a tire in the blow out contest and needed a jack, which I just so happened to have in my car. That was one of the things I ...

Today I went to seven different collision shops trying to get steady work, I showed my book and left cards. Of course I love to stripe cars at my place the most, but winter work will be appreciated! Saturday is Sins of Steel in Davisburg, MI. I'm all excited to stripe with other stripers there and because I have an ad on their website. Come on out and see us and some of the coolest rides you'll ever see. There's stuff you can use in your projects, too. See my work on my website.