Altered Art: Transparent ATC [Pick A Stick Challenge]

Posted on 26th July 2016 by perfectly4med

A recent craft magazine article showed some Artist Trading Cards (ATCs, 2½” x 3½”) made of clear acrylic sheet. By decorating the front and back, there was depth added to the whole image. I loved the idea, so got hold of some pre-cut acrylic ATCs from That’s Crafty. All being well, I’ll be cutting my own soon enough on one of my aforementioned machines.

Anyhoo, the makers of the Pick A Stick Challenge FB group (for art journalers) have come up with a new challenge – the Pick A Stick ATC Challenge. Instead of ten prompts, ATC Challenge has just three, but they still have to be done in order. This month, the steps are:

Use ink
Add tissue tape or masking tape
Use something transparent

What a chance to use a transparent ATC! But that was the last step… what to do? Work out a new technique of course! Continue reading →

Altered Art: Wooden box to Riveted Rusting Receptacle

Posted on 21st July 2016 by perfectly4med

I have two new ~~toys~~ essential machines arriving at some point before the end of the year – and I need to make room for them. This means clearing out some of the ‘might be useful for something’ items, and some of the many samples I’ve made that are lying around from my time on various design teams. Consequently, two things are now happening: visitors to the studio are getting to take away freebies, and I have started to do the ‘something useful’ to other items.

This is a makeover of a wooden trinket box to make it look more like a rusty riveted trunk. Couple of nifty techniques I developed for this altered art – for the ‘sheet’ edges, I hammered the edge of an acrylic sheet at an angle to dent the wood and then shaded with paint. The rivets are Mark Richards Metal Stickers – the silver nailheads – which I have dented in the middle with an embossing tool before painting and gluing in place. The stickers are available from Woodware stockists.

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Altered Art: Tealight holders

Posted on 14th July 2016 by perfectly4med

I’m prepping samples for workshops leading up to Christmas at The Studio to include on my Workshops page and in a future newsletter. First up, in October, we will be altering MDF tealight holders using mixed media techniques – basically anything sticky, inky or painty is a go!

The purpose of this post however, is to demonstrate a bit of behind the scenes work that goes into preparing a workshop. I’m not really an artist that meticulously plans what I am going to do on paper… I’m much more a wade in and see what happens (admittedly having thought about it for a while in between other things). Most times, the work turns out as I’d like. Other times, there’s something that niggles.

This is the starting point – a MDF block with holes drilled in ready for the tealights. Quick gesso undercoat to seal, and then I layered up paint and varnishes to create faux-granite.

So – above is version one. Ornamented with frosted glass stars the granite finish looks fairly convincing (the metallic flecks show up better in real life). But the frosted glass flame shields just didn’t seem to work. Too informal? Too tall? After a little more pondering I decided to create a new flame shield design, with simple lines to give a more formal look. The result below shows a much more cohesive end result, with a 1920s feel, and one which I’d be happy to allow to leave The Studio for pastures new.

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Altered Art: Peace

Posted on 11th July 2016 by perfectly4med

This is another art piece I made for the DecoArt shows last month. It didn’t get much screen time though, so I thought I would share it here. I think I made full use of the media and particularly the stencils. I wanted to do something a little different to the serenity type of peace, so I went for the hippy-free-love-peace-man vibe!
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Altered Art: Frosted Glass Vase

Posted on 7th July 2016 by perfectly4med

I’m exploring different mediums available to me via the DecoArt Helping Artist Program – and yesterday had time to experiment with their Americana Frost Gloss Enamels. These are paints that create a translucent etched glass appearance, and stick to most smooth surfaces. Application is fast and easy, dabbing on with a fine sponge, and relatively quick touch dry time allows layers to be added without too much waiting. After curing for four days, the items can be baked in the oven to make the frosting dishwasher safe. Just one note: the finish is not food safe. Wash up is easy – just rinse with water. And if you go horribly wrong, I’ve found recently applied enamel can be wiped off with rubbing alcohol.

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Altered Art: Dream

Posted on 5th July 2016 by perfectly4med

I chose to keep this little piece of altered art under wraps until I’d featured it on my DecoArt TV shows on Hochanda early last month. I’d also left the originals with John the floor manager/set designer to use, and had to make a second set with what was left of my prepped demos. Building on the 6½” high paper-mâché letter forms, I’ve used a lot of mixed media tricks to make this home decor piece. Continue reading →

TV Debut: BTS [Behind The Scenes]

Posted on 30th May 2016 by perfectly4med

It’s getting closer! My television debut is on Friday 3rd June, with live shows at 11am, 1pm and 5pm. I’m delighted to be showcasing DecoArt Media fluid acrylics and various mediums. Sneaky peaks will be up on the Hochanda Facebook page sometime in the next couple of days. It’s been a busy weekend for me as the products for the shows only arrived at The Studio on Friday morning, and promo pictures were requested about an hour later (to which I politely replied along the lines of ‘you must be joking’!). Want to know what The Studio looks like at the moment, with several concurrent projects on the go so that one is drying as I am working on the next?

That’s the sample boards done; two 12×12″ panels; ten different 3D papier mâché letters; at least ten different paint and decoupage techniques; at least ten different mediums and a heck of a lot of demo planning, cups of tea and drying time. Oh by the way, the art journal is for the next shows on Thursday 16th June…

I hope you can join me online, on Sky 663, Freeview 39 or FreeSat 817 or even catch-up up to a week after: Friday 3rd June: 11am, 1pm, 5pm.

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Art Journal: Modelling Paste Cover [Wanderlust Wk18]

Posted on 2nd May 2016 by perfectly4med

I’ve jumped a few weeks in my Wanderlust 2016 course – I do aim to go back and catch up, but Andy Skinner was the tutor for this week’s activity, and I just had to get grungy! I transformed the front cover of my latest (A5) journal using his techniques and I’m delighted with the results. I think it looks like embossed leather, and with the soft touch varnish from DecoArt, it even feels like leather. The trickiest thing I found was getting a uniform thickness of modelling paste, so I’ll be working on that the next time I try it.

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A Graffiti Journal

Posted on 5th April 2016 by perfectly4med

I’ve been fascinated with ‘proper’ graffiti since a child – I love the colour, the vibrancy, the illegality of the hobby and the absolute control of the medium and the application. I’ve also owned a ‘how-to’ book for a number of years, well-thumbed but never used. That all changed when I made a journal from corrugated cardboard and once I’d started tearing off the surface layer, the idea developed to make faux rusty corrugated iron complete with requisite graffiti. I’ve tried different styles and colouring methods, starting with Sharpie pens, trying an image transfer, then Pitt Artist Pens. Then I had a sudden thought of how to replicate the aerosol can at this small scale – I got out my LetraJet air brush attachment for my Promarkers and thus smooth blends appeared. Lots of Posca pen use as well to finish things off.

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Altered Art: The Key to Creativity

Posted on 29th March 2016 by perfectly4med

One of my Tuesday night regulars, Hilary, brought amongst a whole stash of other things two sets of greyboard keys and fobs. ‘Can you think of anything you can do with these?’, she asked. This is what I came up and finished this morning.

The key is textured with sand texture paste, and then layered with fluid acrylics following Andy Skinner’s industrial paint recipe I learnt last year. The tag was sealed with black gesso. I cut a smaller oval and painted that gold, and two layers of black card were cut on the Silhouette Cameo and layered together before the top layer was dampened and hammered loudly and long to create the texture. Once everything was dry, it was all glued together and two coats of thick gloss spray varnish completed the look. I’m impressed with the triple thick glaze spray – it really helps the hammered card look more like a hammered metal enamel finish.

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