Card Craft
When I met… Ken Oliver

Posted on 26th May 2015 by Neil

This is a shockingly late, shameless promotion for all that is Ken Oliver. We’ve been Facebook buddies [like him here] for a little while (after all there aren’t that many gentleman crafters at shows and we need to stick together), and I have had the pleasure of saying hi a couple of times in person at trade shows. This February he was here in the UK promoting his new ‘own brand’ crafting goodies, and he was kind enough to do the whole selfie thing with me, demonstrate his new Color Burst watercolours and give me a promo pack of 12×12″ Studio series of papers and a 6×6″ sampler pack of his other papers.

I thought I’d use the 4×6″ journal cards sheet from his Studio collection to start off my new Project Life scrapbook, and they worked perfectly. The papers are printed on a satin finish light cardstock which feels smooth to the touch. There’s no bleed through from the Sharpies I used for some of the handwritten text, which is a bonus when working on double sided papers. As one might expect from an artist that’s been in the trade for years, the designs and colours used all work together beautifully. One slight hitch I noted when gluing things down – the satin finish does resist water-based liquids a little, as I found when I was using Zig Memory Systems two way acrylic glue. Something to be aware of, though that didn’t turn out to be too restrictive in practice – it might be more of an issue if spritzing with water/Color Burst (something I’ll test out).

Ken was also demonstrating his Color Burst watercolours. These are fine crystalline colours, conveniently dispensed from fine nozzle bottles. They appear to be similar to Brusho crystals (becoming very popular in the UK) in their reaction with water, both to make a watercolour paint, and in spritzing on the page to make vivid backgrounds. Where Color Burst beats Brusho, in my opinion, is the finer, more even crystal size and the fine nozzle capped bottle. I’ve knocked over a holed Brusho pot into my distress ink pad storage box, and the turquoise crystals continue to find their way into projects, much to the annoyance of my Tuesday night ladies… The reverse of my Project Life page shows a couple of samples from Ken’s beautiful Watercolored Memories 6×6″ papers (top left, bottom right), and the rest are Ken’s own demo sheets showing the vivid colours and dynamic reactions of the crystals with water on watercolour paper.

Thanks to Ken for having a chat, demoing his fabulous products, and especially for the goodie pack. Sorry it’s taken me so long to fulfil my promise to post about our chat!

Art Journal
Art Journal Page: Alphabets by Design

Posted on 25th May 2015 by Neil

I’ve just got back from a couple of days holidaying near Cromer, and true to form, the English weather was not favourable – it was a bank holiday after all. It did, however, mean that I had chance to use my art journal travel kit to finish off this page which has been a work in progress for a couple of years. Each time I found a new font suitable for hand drawing, I added it to the borders. This weekend, I added the zentangled letters and the rest of the centre text.

Background is distress inks on gesso, text combination of black pigment markers/Sharpies/Signo white gel pen. Colour added using Caran d’Ache Neocolor II crayons with a waterbrush.

Quilting
Quilt No 016: Scrappy Strip QAYG

Posted on 20th May 2015 by Neil

I’m leading another quilt workshop at Quorn Country Crafts in Loughborough next month, and I decided to set myself the challenge of making a second sample in as short a time as I could (the first being here), to see how far an experienced quilter might get during the session. From start to finish, this small sampler took me just over 6 hours, including the quilting and hand binding. It measures 13″x24″ and used up some scrap fabric kindly donated by Sue who runs the shop. I took the opportunity to try some quilting designs I’d not attempted before, and given a little more time, I’d have done them a little more carefully (and across the whole of the quilt)! It’s somewhat eclectic, but quick to make as a sampler, and a great way to use up bits and pieces of fabric that languish in every quilter’s stash.

3D Projects
Laser Cut Planter Kits now available

Posted on 19th May 2015 by Neil

Until I’ve got round to setting up a Kickstarter project and found funding for my own laser cutter, I’m having to outsource my laser cutting. For my first laser cut project since college, I thought I’d mass produce some ‘planters’, suitable for the topiary trees I make with polystyrene balls and Craftwork Cards Candi (examples here and here).

The planters are roughly 2 inches square and 2½” high and cut from white faced 2mm thick greyboard. I’ve made sure that they are simple to construct and stiff enough to hold up the tree (or whatever else you choose to put in them). I’m pleased to announce that the kits are now available to purchase for £3.25 (including p&p and an instruction sheet). All you need to add is decoration and a cube of polystyrene to poke your tree into.
Continue reading →

Art Journal
Art Journaling: Dylusions Paints

Posted on 13th May 2015 by Neil

It’s been a while since I managed to sit down and create – I’ve been supervising renovation work at home and making tea every 90 minutes to keep the builders suitably hydrated. Rather than using a half inch paintbrush last week, I was attacking walls with a roller and emulsion. That’s left the room nicely decorated, but my carpal tunnel playing up.

Any hoo, last week a long awaited shipment arrived, including a set of Dylusions Paint by Ranger. Why on earth would I want yet more paints? They are billed as blendable acrylics, and they certainly do that. They come in wide jars, are quite fluid and smooth on beautifully with a foam blending sponge. The paint spreads thinly, but seems to be highly pigmented, so gives excellent coverage. It seems to have a little slow dry retarder in it, enabling the blendability which is excellent. That also makes the clean up easier as the paint was slower to dry on stencils and stamps. Thin layers on absorbent surfaces were very quick to dry. Subsequent layers took longer, even with a heat tool to speed up the process. Opacity in the main is good, with the white showing good coverage of the colours beneath. Also, a little paint goes a long way – each pot is likely to last a long time: all the stencilling on the image above was achieved with just the leftovers on the sponge. I’m certainly not disappointed with them, and will be introducing them to my art journal group sessions in due course.

Also never been used until this page: new letter stamps from Hero Arts – Kelly’s Shadow Letters and Kelly’s Bold Font, stamped in archival Jet Black and augmented with Signo white gel pen (thin and broad).

Art Journal
Art Journaling: using gesso and sprays

Posted on 30th April 2015 by Neil

For next Monday’s art journaling session at The Studio, we’ll be playing with gesso. This is one of my sample pages, using both ‘normal’ gesso and the Finnabair Art Basics heavy body gesso to get some texture, as well as faded colour onto my pages. There’s also some never-been-used action here, with the IndigoBlu ‘Beautiful Mind’ stamps and the Stampendous ‘Marks’ stamps by Nathalie Kalbach. The lettering is freehand, first painted with the gesso, tidied and augmented with broad Signo white pigment pen and then outlined in Sakura Jelly Roll Gloss Black.

If you’d like to join one of my Art Journaling Sessions at The Studio, details are here. You can also get details of the sessions using the link on the sidebar or under the Workshops tab at the top of the page.

Altered Art
Mixed media sketchbook cover

Posted on 28th April 2015 by Neil

This is another sample for my ‘Finnabair-inspired Sketchbook Cover’ workshop in July (booking details here). It features moulded polyurethane pieces (crafting chemistry at its best), lots of black gesso, Viva Decor Inka Gold, Silks acrylic glazes and an awful lot of dry brushing over Dreamweaver texture paste through a stencil. Microbeads by Finnabair/Prima Marketing, adhered with matt multi-medium. There are still places available on the workshop if you’d like to come and get guidance on making your own.

3D Projects
A totem for the modern day?

Posted on 26th April 2015 by Neil

After getting very frustrated trying to drive around a gridlocked Leicester over lunchtime today, I took out my angst on my bit of lumber! I’m delighted to have finished my modern day totem and now need to take my own advice. Charring the outside of the wood was a joy to do, and with a stiff brush the surface carbon comes off leaving a lovely dark woodgrain, which I have enhanced with some black shoe polish. Hopefully the wax will help resist the weather, and the exposed raw wood will gradually silver with age. The light was fading when I took the photo – I’ll try again when the sun isn’t setting!

3D Projects
A chip off the old block

Posted on 25th April 2015 by Neil

You know me… never one to do something on a sensible scale, especially something new. Well, as normal, I’ve thrown myself into a new project and may be it’s a little bigger than it should have been for the first time I’ve picked up a chisel and mallet since I was at school.

The outhouse is being rebuilt, and our main contractor decided that a cross beam (apparently called a purlin) wasn’t needed, and it was pointless to take the timber back to the yard as the restock fee would negate the refund. So what does a mixed media artist do with a spare piece of planed lumber 7½” high and almost 16 feet long? He decides to carve it and make it into a modern day totem.

Yesterday, I managed to get the beam cut in half to 2400mm long and scorch the surface using a blow torch. Above is day one of my chipping away, learning how to hold mallet and chisel, take away just enough wood to get a bas relief without massive gouges because the chisel was upside down. A quick application of black shoe polish has helped define the scorching a little better and a quick buzz with a flap wheel sander on my Dremel and well… I’m certainly no master carpenter. I wonder if by the end of the phrase there’ll be a discernible improvement?

Art Journal
So what did you do today?

Posted on 23rd April 2015 by Neil

It’s the perennial question – ‘what did you do today?’ And alongside that, ‘what’s a mixed media artist?’ Well, today, both can be answered with – I drew lots and lots of short lines. And when I say lots, I probably mean thousands. What possessed me to work at the scale I did, I don’t know, but I suspect the 12×12″ page size, the Crafter’s Workshop stencil and the Signo pens all came together. And I’m delighted with the results. And I have writer’s cramp!