I have a penchant for sugar-free mints, especially when they are on show at the till in an Aldi. Their ‘complimints’ come in a small lidded tin, and I have often thought how suited to altered art it would be. So, this weekend I got on with altering one, upcycling it to enclose two mini-albums.
A little while ago, I managed to get hold of some empty cigar boxes. One caught my eye, a wooden one, and a quick spray of white paint later, it was ready for a makeover. All I need to do now is find a place to put it (or a buyer!).
It’s a while since I have done any Bible journaling, but for this month’s session, I did an off-the-page piece. I wanted to encourage my class to work outside their Bible and show off their skills. This is designed to fit into a Ribba frame from Ikea and is approx. 8″ square. It is available to purchase here.
July’s theme for my art journaling session (spaces are available) is ‘black and white’. This is my example art journal page… I photocopied a magazine page and used it for an image transfer on the left side with an inked vignette effect using blended archival ink. The text is stamped in white picket fence distress ink using with the ‘colour’ cut from the original magazine page. There’s not much contrast between the coloured word and the black – I’m still not sure what to do about that as I’m not keen on outlining it and distracting from the colour itself.
It seems that for the last few days my corner of blog land has been out of service due to a duff plugin. Apologies! Here’s another art journal spread to make up for the absence (not that anyone noticed and let me know!). I experimented with collaging papers for the background and unifying the whole layout with a blanket stencil design. Masking off the area intended for the stamp and covering with gesso helped take the busyness away behind the ‘mum. It’s the first outing for my new Dusty Concord Distress Oxide ink pad. I’m not sure if it’s all a bit much, but experimentation is the name of the game in my journal.
Continue reading I made this chap a while back, and he’s been crooning away on the desk ever since waiting for the flashbulbs to go off. His five minutes of fame have arrived, his gigs in the pubs and clubs paid off. May I present my karaoke cuboidroid?
I’ve had fun creating my cuboidroids, and as my confidence has grown so have my modelling skills. The third cuboidroid in my series is perhaps the most whimsical to date… ‘will you be mine?’
The arms took a fair number of prototypes to get right, as did the ‘hands’. I eventually settled on the hexagonal shape and added the internal thread. This will give me the opportunity to add props using bolts that screw in. I’ve also added extra elements to reinforce the droid bits:
Now I’ve done the prototypes, I need to perfect the smoothing of the various components, perfect the paint jobs and come up with more characterisations. Not much then…
Another in my series of mini-characters is this unsure cuboidroid with a faux brushed steel finish. By combining various paints and varnishes, the dulled patina plays against the satin clean metal. I am amazed at how small an expression is required to anthropomorphise an otherwise inanimate/non-human object.
This little chap/ess is available to purchase – do contact me if you’re interested. Previous characters are here.
I’ve had a little bit more ‘me time’ in the studio and decided out of the blue to create something from scratch using my 3D printer. The second time I created this little chap was a lot quicker than the first. I had learnt how to do it in the preceding four hours and then neglected to save the file before it crashed… I’m in the process of kitting out another two of these mini sculptures and will be making a series, I think. I’m dubbing them ‘cuboidroids’ – cuboid droids. Two reasons: I had to call them something and ‘blockheads’ was already taken; a quick Google search showed no one had concatenated the two words together, ever. If only I had the cash to trademark the name.
This down-in-the-dumps rust bucket stands 9cm/3½” high and is for sale if anyone wants to make me an offer. Or commission a custom cuboidroid…
I don’t know how much of this art shrine sample was shown on TV last week… I certainly didn’t have enough time to demonstrate how I put it together, so here comes a tutorial to follow if you want to make your own 🙂
