For the love of bugs....Riveting, Reconstructing, Animating

I had the opportunity to take a quick trip to Chicago to take a class with Gail Crosman Moore at CREATE. Her workshop left my head spinning with ideas. We deconstructed raw brass stampings and created pieces with movement and dimension. I thought I would share my creation.

Gail shared some of her favorite coloring techniques. They ranged from alcohol inks to fingernail polish to rub and buff and gilders paste.  I loved the idea of fingernail polish. I used this wonderful lime green on by bugs body, his head is actually orange in color and his wings are purple. His short wings are what give movement to my creation. I'm still working what I'm going to hang him from.

It's all in the numbers..

I recently hosted a swap with a yahoo group I belong to ArtCharms owned by Christine and Peg coauthors of Making Mixed Media Art Charms. I had a amazing response to this swap. I had hoped to get one group of 10 players and ended up with five groups of 10.  I played in four of the 5 groups and here are my charms. The theme I choose for the swap was altered numbers. Every charm needed to have a number or numbers on it.

My first charm is a altered casino dice. From a local casino here in Michigan. After so many rolls they are discarded. The nice part is they came with a hole already drilled through them.  Easy peasy...

My second charms I created from a engineers ruler. You know the ones that are triangle shaped. After cutting the ruler into pieces I then painted the cut edge to match the color of the ruler.. in this case raw sienna. I applied some silver and copper leafing to give it some bling and a little copper wire wrapping for a loop. The silver numbers are a scrapbooking embellishment.. a snap kinda thing. I attached it to the cut surface.

Basic expandable wooden ruler was used for this charm. Cut into segments on the chop saw and drilled to add a eyelet to hold a jump ring.

This charm is a mini domino from a local dollar store. I drilled a hole for a jump ring and also to hang a vintage number. The numbers were from a signage display I purchased from a local meat market. You remember those... the weekly specials spelled out in letters and price.

A vintage white button with another numbered button stacked and then wire wrapped.

Here are some of the other fantastic charms from the participants. This was such a fun swap. And it had such a great turnout of players.

Apothecary Challenge

When Laura Carson of Artfully Musing and team designer for Alphastamps posted her Apothecary Challenge I thought why not. Boy what a challenge it was. It just kept growing and growing. Here is what I started with, a grape crate.

And this what I ended up with. My darling husband got right into the challenge also. He added shelves and this trim I found laying around. He figured out how to add some doors. I just had to have doors. I covered the inside of the crate with some flocked scrapbook paper.

Here it is with the doors shut.

I'm going to start out with this is a long post with many photos. There was just no way I could share and not really share... so here it is. I would love to hear what you think.. please leave me a comment when your through. There are two separate challenges. Both using items made from images Laura designed for Alphastamps. The first challenge was to create at least 3 potion bottle from her images. The other a much grander challenge was a apothecary cabinet. I started right in creating my potions bottles. It took awhile longer to come up with a cabinet. In her video Laura uses paper mache boxes. This was not the direction I wanted plus I wanted something compact and that I could close up when done and store.

This is where I will make this a little like Where's Waldo and let you search for potion bottles. My apothecary bottles from Laura's apothecary sheet are, Frog Slime, Sleeping Death Powder, Bottled Ghost, Rotten Pumpkin and Poison. In there I also have some glow in the dark dragon eyeballs, zombie fingers, werewolf fur, bottle blondes and much, much more.

I do like the creep factor.. so along with your search you will find cockroaches, spiders and webbing, a rat or two and a plate of brain.

Here are a few up close and personal pics of bottles.

And some more.

More.

And one last one.. Here it is with the lights on. I can't finish this posting without stating after many failed attempts at photographing. I ended up taking most of these in night mode.

Please let me know what you think.

Junque Jewelry Charms

I recently participated in a Junque jewelry swap over at ArtCharms. I completed 2 sets. One was using a green beaded necklace.

You can see the bundle of beads from the necklace after I had disassembled it here.

The other set was created with some 1996 Atlanta Olympic Pins that I was lucky enough to run across a stash of them at a local recycle store I shop at called Learning from Scratch.

Here is a short pictorial overview of how they were created. Here are the components I started with.

Some of the steps I took in coloring and assembling. First time I used Ranger Vintaj dye patina. It has some interesting effects. To get the full color you really need to let it sit over night. It does change from the initial look of first application. Overall I am happy with the coloring.

This swap has gotten me interested in what else I can create from unwanted pieces of jewelry. Has me looking at sales for more.

i spy a charm

It's been a very unusual winter here in Michigan. With a total snow fall of what we can get in one day. The middle of March is here and we are having mid to high 70 degree weather. Then today I wake up to fog.. fog so thick its scarey. Ok enough of that...

I love charms.. I look at things thinking that would be a cool charm. I have acquired quite a large collection of Art Charms. My UFO (unfinished object) project this week is related to this collection of charms. I put together a necklace.

I participate in several swaps a year. It's fun to see what others come up with for the theme or how they use a object.

Lets play a game of I SPY... see if you can find a charm you may have created for me.

I had received a cloth necklace in a swap. I wanted to use that as my base. I wove it through a length of oxidized silver link.

I mixed my metals. Using mostly silver, copper and black. But as you can see there are a couple of golds in there too.

I attached the chain to the cloth by sewing it and then tied knots. This served two purposes. One to hide the stitching and the other to adjust the overall length.

I'm not sure each charm has found its exact placement yet. I'm sure I will fuss budget around and move one or two.

I wore it to town yesterday and received great revues. I'm sure it will become one of my go to pieces.

Ancient Egypt

Here is a swap I jumped in last minute.. These charms are made from roof flashing, alcohol ink several layers of sealer with stampings in between.

Oddities and Lovelies.........

I participated in a Oddities & Lovelies cReAtIvE ChAlLeNgEs swap over at Mixed Media Art . I have been on pins and needle waiting for my creation to arrive at its new home. It finally arrived today and I can share with you.

I had so much fun creating my piece. The requirements were a heart and face in any medium you wish. I created the wire cage body with dangling heart out of copper wire. I applied a verdigris patina on the copper. The head is a vintage frozen charlotte doll. That took several attempts to drill a hole through. That was a lesson learned. My design went together with great success from beginning to end. I almost hated to send her on her way.

What I have been up to.....

It's been a busy month.. and with the holidays coming the pressure is on... lol. Well not really, my shopping is done and it's pretty much going to be me and play time. I hauled the torch out again and worked on making some ball ended wires. With some inspiration from the latest issue of Wire Jewelry and Kim St. Jean's book Mixed Metal Mania, this is what I came up with.. Enjoy...

Steampunk and charms.. what more could there be..

I love the whole process of working with metal. The hammering, layering and connections. This charm went through several upgrades til I came to a combination I really liked. Hammered copper hearts layered with several types of gears

Owl charm goes steampunk

I have been working on this charm for a steampunk swap. I'm addicted to metal and the torch.

Metal Deck.... final project from CREATE

Be prepared this is a long one. I just couldn't decide what to share. I feel that you need to see the whole thing to get the real feel of the deck. The Vintage Metal deck was a awesome class taught by Leighanna Light. This class was from 9 am to 9 pm and chucked full of information. We worked on 10 blackplate cards. We each worked in our own theme. I chose a theme familiar to me. I enjoyed watching others eyeballing my deck throughout the day..

This is my cover. It started out as a simple robin. I collaged images added a nest and eggs.. it was sealed with Bullseye Amber Shellac. I added the Porkchop Show doll eyes to put some creep on.

On this set of pages... I used my creepy dolls from Alphastamps. On the back I painted some blue metallic paint them covered it in a light coating of Ultrecht gesso, then stamped with a number rubber stamp.

I started this page with a gesso back ground that I used a circle stamp to remove some of the gesso. Collage and added a doo dad or two. The back is blue metallic under coat with the same gesso stamp removal.

My he/she image was given a eyelet for a eye piece. Collage, blending of paints, some cheese cloth... ring of keys for the keyhole. A vintage rook card is the focal point for the back. I tried a patina effect and it came out with a rusted look. Which I am very happy with.

Some more collage work with another one of my skellie guys, old playing card. The background is a page from a book. The back is gesso applied through a stencil. At some point I probably will paint it and see what I get.

Another patina that turned out looking like rust. It looks great with my calavera, some grungeboard heart with some wings finishes out this Day of the Dead theme. The back some of the blue patina took. I like just looking at it so I probably will leave it.

My ghost guys. The were created doing a image transfer with Ultrecht gesso. This technique is awesome. I love transfers and do several. And I can't wait to play with this one some more. I colored in my guys inked the edges. Added a TH doo dad. The star charm hanging on the side was created by my friend Rhea for a charm swap we participated in while at CREATE. It just fit in with my guys. The back more collage and continuation of my ladies, gesso stamping and a piece leave piece that I did some patina on.

This page was a gesso stamp them punched bubble with a doming tool.. It was created purely because I was playing with all the option Leighanna showed us. The back is another attempt to patina.. good thing I like the look of rust.. lol

Another gesso image transfer. I love image transfers. I then tried to patina it and got.. well you got it.. I then rubberstamped wordage around the image. Added a skull with glasses.. Inked it up.. The back is the start of collaged images.. my lady again.. I will add more at a later time

I love this owl image.. he is both cool looking and creepy. Basic page.. image, inked up page, rubber stamped with gesso. The back and the back cover of my deck is image, inked.. cheese cloth for texture, some more gesso stamping and a flip off button.

I will add more I'm sure. At the moment its more charms and texture. As you flip through it you will get a hint at my inner personality. Enjoy.. this was a blast to do.