Pinstriping by Julie Fournier

We're all thrilled to get a new car, whether it's new from a dealer, or just new to us. Once we get our new ride home, we want to really make it our own. One of the easiest ways to do that is to have it customized with paint, namely, pinstripes. That's where I come in. I listen to what my clients want, what they like, and then I creatively come up with ideas uniquely suited to them as individuals. My job is to make people happy. When they drive away, or pick up their newly painted item, I want them to enjoy it for many, many years to come! I want them to look at the customized painted artwork I did especially for them, and SMILE. Some people have a "less is more" outlook, and I like to share my view that pinstripes are like diamond stud earrings with a little black dress. Others want something bold, and I say, go bold or go home. I like to give people what THEY want, to their taste and style. Check out the variety of my work on my website, juliefournier...

Today I spent most of the day fighting with wet paint not drying on the carousel cat I've been working on. I painted an area yesterday, and today it was still wet, in spite of being left in a 90 degree room for an hour last night. The ambient temperature is about 64 1/2 degrees, and One Shot Lettering Enamel doesn't like to dry if it's under 65. Which means...major frustration. I tried anyway today to get some work done, but when I put black next to pale blue they feathered together at the edge, no good. You just can't let wet paint touch a different wet color - they run almost every time. Nothing I can do but wait, only I need to get this job done because another is in queue, and I doubt they'll be ok with why I have to make them wait (it's a background wall for the Gene Winfield exhibit for Autorama, not a job that can be put on hold, really, since the shows are coming up soon). No pressure or anything, noooo. Gah! Both jobs were scheduled for me to do in...

I've sure been keeping busy, yay! Even before I finished the tender tank at The Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI, they asked if I'd be interested in restoring their carousel animals. They said that I'd be asked to restore about two per year, that it was an ongoing job. The first one I got to restore was a zebra. The museum dropped it off at B&B Collision in Royal Oak for me, where I could sand it and paint it and not have to worry about anything. How nice! I love B&B Collision, they are SO good to me! I spent a day sanding off the old chipped and cracked paint, then I started repainting the white stripes. I used a paintbrush to get the blending on the eyes, ears, nose, tail and hooves. Then on the fourth day I did the black stripes. For some reason the black didnt want to lay down cleanly next to the white, even though I'd wiped it with wax and grease remover. I spent a fifth day with a thin striping brush going over the black and white...

Where to start? Winters have usually been my rest period since I usually don't get a lot of work then. There aren't any art fairs, or car shows, not a lot of weddings, it's just basically an historically slow period for me. Not this winter! I was asked to do some restoration lettering and striping at The Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan on a tender tank that used to be owned by Henry Ford. What's a tender tank you ask? I didn't know what one was, either, until it was explained to me. It's the train car right behind the locomotive that holds water. In this case, 18,000 gallons of water. Apparently Henry Ford used to like to drive a real, full sized train around for fun. Now it's at the museum and after ten years of restoration work, it was ready to have the finishing touches put on it. I was lucky enough to have been in the right place at the right time, as well as having the necessary skills, to be asked to do this incredible job:...

Lots of shows this month: Billetproof, Sins of Steel, then Rumbleville in Flint. I'm good and warm for striping all summer now! The weather was perfect at all three shows, I saw lots of old friends, and of course, made new ones. I pinstriped this tiki on the hood of a Falcon, and then it won best in it's class at Billetproof, and two weeks later it won another award at Sins of Steel! Wow! It was a beautiful car, I'm just glad I could add a few lines to such a prize! The paint was such a pretty blue, and flawless, and when I was asked to pinstripe the back of a bike at Rumbleville that was the same color, my heart fluttered a little bit remembering how fun it was to do the Falcon two weeks before. Anyway, here's a few new pictures, enjoy!

Autorama Detroit 2011 went by too fast! I always have so much fun pinstriping and meeting new people as well as catching up with old friends! I did a panel beforehand for the charity auction that's held to raise funds for charity, but my friend bought it before it even got there! I donated half of the proceeds anyway, and then I painted a second version (pictured below), which they auctioned off for over $200! yay! Lots of pinstripers from all over the US and Canada contributed their time and talent and this year's auction raised over $36,000 for Leader Dogs for the Blind. I just love doing something good and having a great time; what more could anyone ask for? I think one of my most memorable moments of the whole weekend came when John Harrow and I had to make a mad dash from the basement all the way upstairs through the thick ocean of people just in time to literally *slide* into the group picture right as it was being shot! A moment later and we would have missed it! We we...

Pinstriping and Kustom Graphics is a wonderful magazine, and they are going to do an article on me and my work. I'm really excited! I've been gathering images to send them, which hasn't been as easy as you'd think! They want pictures of the whole car, which makes sense, but I usually forget to bring my camera, and when I do, I just take pictures of my work, not the whole vehicle! One job I did was some of my best work, so I decided to drive an hour to the guy's house to take a picture of the car, since I only had a picture of the c-pillar and my work on it! He was very accomodating; I told him it was for a magazine article and he was more than happy to oblige! I've finally got enough pictures to send, now all I have to do is write a 200-300 word "bioblog" on myself and then send it. Another magazine, Throttle Gals, is supposed to be doing an article on me, too. I didn't have to do anything for that one other that paint! Lots less work for ...