Metallica Obsession Continued -

Another experiment with metal. It began as a sheet of copper colored tin that I sanded down to just a suggestion of copper. I spent way too much time time on this today. I made it once and I disliked the background I used and the spackle backing - that keeps the 'puff' effect puffed - started to fall out. I took it all apart and started all over again. I used beeswax as a filler which worked great and today a bottle of filler paste from MercArt arrived so that will be the next thing I try. It all beagan with a beginner;s set from Walnut Hollow and then I found Ten Second Studio and the most amazing place MercArt. The owner of MercArt, Magdalena Muldoon has written a terrific book that I am learning a lot from - called Metal Embossing Workshop. I am also learning a lot from two other books - "Pewter Plus" by Sandy Griffiths and " Metal Effects" by Cheryl Darrow of Ten Second Studio.

The background that I decided worked best of what I had on hand is from Deco Patch - a division of my favorite paper and journal company, Exaclair. I think the oranges complimented the coppery tone of the metal.  I am still working on the best way to make these cards. Backing the metal requires something that is stiff enough and strong enough to camouflage the inherent irregularities of the the back of the metal piece. There is a trick to make it all smooth I am sure - but I just don't know it yet !

This is the metal piece all on it's lone. I like it - but I have so much to learn and I think that I will keep playing with this stuff - not to the extent that i leave other things behind to do it - but I do really enjoy the effect. Odd - because I am not much of a 'bling' person - and what's more bling than metal?! There is so much to learn and so much to try - I want to perfect puffing and backgrounds .. and general design for that matter! Mostly I need to work on the best way to construct the card so that it is more simple and quicker to make - and have it look cleaner and crisper.

Here's the inside. Cream colored backing over the metal and a nice off white for the greeting that I will add for my friend's birthday. The little  metal patch on the top right is done on metal tape (what's NOT to love about metal tape I ask you?!) and the quote is part of a small poem by Eileen Elias Freeman that says , in part. "...life is a tapestry, we are the warp, angels the west, God the weaver. Only the weaver sees the whole design......

Metal Play Time

Somewhere around 10-12 years ago I purchases rolls of 38 ga. metal. I have no clue what I got them for although it may well have been what I am now doing. Playing with teaching myself embossing. This is a card for a friend. I have been trying to teach myself how to "puff" the metal, and then back it with Spackle so that it cannot be pushed in.  Some people seem to use beeswax for this, while others use special filling paste - I figured quick dry spackle would work too The card part was covered with this amazing red paper that looks and feels more like a heavy silk. I had a great time playing with this card and there is one more birthday card to make today and then back to my regularly scheduled life.

Metalizing!

I am not sure what bug has bitten me now - I sometimes feel like a bit of chaff floating on a breeze. his time the breeze seems to have dropped me in a field of 'metalize'. I am in two ATC groups. I have always had difficulties working with the concept of themes and being part of like minded groups has really been helping me get over that issue. In one group the topic this month was 'bugs' - or 'what bugs you' and in the other group is it 'Marie Antoinette'. I was really feeling like I could not make it! First of all I dislike bugs. Period. I know that they have a place in the universe and that they can be beneficial and all but I dislike them - always have and always, I suspect will!

I considered doing something that bugs me - but distilling those concepts into something that would take a reasonable amount of time was proving to be a sticking point. I decided that a scarab was perfect  since traditionally the use of a scarab can indicate creation or transformation.  I have had a yen to work in metal and it must have been a long standing yen since I have rolls of metal that I bought probably about 8-10 years ago. I am sure that I had the same intent - to teach myself the basics of foil metal work. I decided that this was the month to give it all a go and see if it is really something that will capture my continuing imagination. YES ! It does! I have also been experimenting metal tape . It's adhesive backed and readily available in any hardware store. I think it is used for  something automotive! For all of these cards however I dug out the rolls of metal that I had on hand and began to play. The small scarab squares are adhered with carpet tape - what a wonderful [product that I would never have thought to try using if I had not needed to fix a corner of a rug down! It's great stuff - really!

The other groups topic for the next round of ATC's is "Marie Antoinette". Uh Oh - thought I to myself. I have always appreciated the time in history in which Marie lived - it was truly an amazingly rich period of history and Marie herself lived an amazing, albeit short, life. Her style though is most assuredly not me! I do not do well with lace and flounces and flirty fabric things. I would probably have been more of a tomboy then too. As I thought about the theme I realized that the only thing I really like about Marie Antoinette are her portraits - but slapping a copy of a portrait on an ATC does not make for an interesting, creative or inviting piece of mini art. Ah ha! Metal again. Metal to the rescue. I used this as an exercise to enjoy learning some more about embossing. Embossing is really firing my imagination right now - bit for metal work as well as for paper - and I am planning to try it with fabrics stiffened with GAC (Golden Art Supplies) 400 fabric stiffener and see what happens. 

I should mention that I am also using a combination of hand tools (that I also had already had on hand) as well as a machine called a "Big Shot" to do all of this embossing. Surprisingly I prefer the hand done stuff - but trust me - the machine has it's place and offers a lot of amazing options. This is, perhaps one of those instances when one may feel guilty for buying things at one point but later, maybe years later, when your imagination lands you in a 'creative field' that will not require another new shopping spree because you already have some of the products you need - you will feel better about those long ago purchases!

These then, are the cards for Citizen Marie Antoinette that I am working on.I have been having such a great time with metalizing things - and the best thing is that new ideas keep popping into my head as I work. Once I am finished with these two series I am retreating back to my journaling and pan pastels and water colors that I have been missing greatly as I have worked my way through my metalizing exercises. Thankfully, the scarab cards are about to be sent out to their new homes. I ended up making extras and using a mixture of backgrounds: paper and fabrics- cotton and silks. I have three more Marie's to make (they are due in September) and then I will back to to journals - funny how that has become a part of my life that really has a lot of meaning.

PS: Would anyone be interested in a post about all of the tools that I have been playing with? Let me  know!

Have you found any new techniques that have especially inspired you? Have you found a technique (like art journaling for me) that has become a really ingrained part of your creative life? What new techniques are you considering trying?

Trying To Engage Again and My Continuing Fascination with an Pastels

Time marches on and I, inexorably, march along with it. I am feeling somewhat more near normal with the irritating exception that I have NO energy. I seem to do one thing and then want to rest or nap again. I am eager for this malaise to stop. I am still not sure how successful this adventure has been, although one thing is that my hands no longer tingle and go numb - so I know that there are some good results from it !

Anyway the journal page above is the first I have done since going to the ether, and although it is not up to par in my mind it was a fun experiment. Some of you may remember that I am all excited about PanPastels and this was the first time that I had been able  to try them - since they arrived, literally, the day before we left for the hospital. My plan for the remainder of today is to play some more. Yes, I did order a few more that I hope Duck Blick will mail post haste! For this page I just used some of PanPastels for a background.

Things that I have noticed thus far about these little gems: they are NOTHING like any other medium I know of. Yes, they are called Pan Pastels, pastels in pans. They are not like soft pastels that I used to love to play with at home years ago - although I hated the dust and hated always having to remember to use fixative right away to prevent the inevitable smearing (generally on myself!).  These do smear a bit too but nothing like the soft pastels of yesteryear.  I used a workable fixative on the page before I wrote on it and I had no problems with the pens clogging or the background smearing under the 'weight' of he writing. They are surely not like oil pastels either - gummy and not as easily spreadable. PanPastels are creamy, dreamy in texture, spread oh! so beautifully and, I think, have an awful lot of  possibility.  The pans are larger than I thought they were too. From the photographs I saw I was thinking that they resembled an eye shadow container but in reality they are large - 2 inch-ish - and filled to the tippy top with glorious, saturated colors. I balked at buying the foam tools - they have foam covers that remind me of the covers on eye shadow applicators. These covers though, are available in many shapes and sizes and I do have to admit that they work well. I am a big proponent of getting the best tools that you can possibly afford and so I did order some extra foam tools, The foam pads are, I really do think, much like the foam puffs that you would find in pressed face powder (If you used it I mean) and so I did buy a large stock of those in a drug store. PanPantels do offer these larger pads in a variety of shapes and sizes and so, yes, I did get a variety to try - as I can see how a rounded puff will not always produce the best results. I know I will be posting a lot of experiments with these luscious colors

The other thing that has been really fascinating to me is metal/paper embossing. I have not a totally suitable method for this but I keep trying. This is some of that super useful metal tape that you can get in hardware stores - so they use it for cars or something? Whatever. I enjoy playing with it. I embossed a fantasy of curlyques and rounds and they overlaid some color with my favorite Sharpie Poster Paint markers.

I have also been playing around with making more special occasion cards. I was not feeling up to going to a wedding for some friend's off-spring this past weekend but I did want to make a special card for the top of their package. This was about an 8 inch square and I had fun making it! I got to use watercolor, pan pastel, Sakura gelly roll markers and my favorites, Pitt Artist Pens by Faber Castell. So, while I have not been able to do anywhere near as much as I would like I have begun the road back to art enjoyment - which in my book equates with the road to 'recovered'. In the evenings I spend time working on my first lace shawl from the Cheryl Oberle book, "Folk Shawls". So I better get moving or I can see myself spending another day napping and surfing - not the worst thing in the world to "have" to do but I want to play some more and am getting tired of myself saying "tomorrow I am going to play" every evening and then not making the time to do so. Before long I will be back to work and playing will be less of an option so I want to jump on these ast few days whilst I can !