February 15th, 2009
I love working with beeswax but it’s a little time consuming, a little messy and a little unpredictable but it’s fun so it’s worth it:)
Here’s a little info on using beeswax. I use an old small crock pot for my beeswax, keep in mind you can’t ever use it for food (or anything else for that matter :)) ever again. Melting Pots work too but you’d have to clean it out I guess if you used it for anything else. I just leave the wax inside when I’m done, it cools and dries and I put it away and just plug it back in next time I’m ready to use it. Now here’s the time consuming part, it takes hours for the wax to melt again and I’m not a patient crafter so I hate waiting! I use a wooden spoon to help stir the wax (metal can get hot) and tweezers to dip with. I lay my items on wax paper to cool. So all you do is make your item (in this case I made a collage of a fairy in a jar and cut them out) pick it up with the tweezers and VERY quickly dip it in and out of the wax, letting any excess drip back into the pot. If you leave it too long the wax will be too thick to see your art work underneath. If that does happen you can try to melt some of it and blow it out of the way with your heat tool. You can also dip a paint brush in the melted beeswax and brush it over larger objects like canvases. Then just lay it flat to dry and cool, don’t touch it while it’s wet, it drys pretty quickly.
So, I got out my beeswax pot the other day and made some really fun ATC’s (artist trading cards). The jars are dipped, giving them the look of cloudy old glass, it’s hard to capture in a photo but they are very cool in person.
These will be listed for sale in my Etsy shop over the next few days.
Tags: ACEO, art, artist trading cards, ATC, beeswax, captured, collage, fairies, fairy, jar, mixed media
Posted in ATC | 6 Comments »
February 13th, 2009
I just finished a little fairy collage on a tiny 3″x3″ canvas. I love working small and these little stretched wooden canvases are so fun! I first covered the canvas in two inks, one a burnt orange color, the other a brown. Then I smeared Tim Holtz crackle paint (old paper color) in some areas and heat set it all with my heat tool. I then adhered a piece of vintage tape measure down one side and then using gel medium adhered the wings and girl image. I used black Staz-On ink and stamped “Found Object 10/27/” on a small brass plaque and adhered it to the canvas too. I then ran black grosgrain ribbon around the edges of the canvas to finish it off.
Posted in Collages on Canvas | 2 Comments »
February 9th, 2009
Woodland animals and themes are so hot right now and I love them! Lots of deer, mushrooms, squirrels, etc, so cute! So I’ve made some more pendants with some woodland critter illustrations cut from that same vintage 1929 children’s book I’ve been using alot lately (poor book looks like swiss cheese now:))
Cute little squirrel in a red jacket and black pants, the back says “Mr. Bushy Tail”:
A little fawn, this is one of my favorite!:
Sweet little grey bunny rabbit:
Cute brown sparrow:
I really want to find some vintage images of some mushrooms to make some pendants with, I love mushrooms, they always remind me of Alice in Wonderland:)
Tags: animals, art, bunny, collage, deer, fawn, jewelry, mixed media, pendant, rabbit, soldered, squirrel, woodland
Posted in Collage Jewelry | No Comments »
February 6th, 2009
I recently went through some stuff I had stored in my dad’s basement and found my old button jar. It’s a huge mason jar with tons of vintage buttons in it, I was so glad to find it:) I made a couple of soldered pendants with a couple of the more unusual ones.
This first one appears to be a shell button (maybe mother of pearl), the back side was pitted, dirty and had some cool green running through it. I cut the word “curiosity” from an old dictionary and added it to the button, glued it to a piece of vintage French book paper and sandwiched it between glass and using a wider tape than normal soldered around it. It makes for a very cool shadow box look I think.
The second one also looks to be shell, it’s white with a little sparkle to it and has a beautiful embossed design in it.
Tags: altered, art, book, button, collage, french, jewelry, mixed media, paper, pendant, shadow box, soldered, vintage
Posted in Collage Jewelry | 2 Comments »
February 4th, 2009
I’ve just added a slide show gallery to my blog. Click on “GALLERY” under “Pages” on the right side ———->
Now you can see a bunch of my work all in one easy spot:)
Posted in Announcements and Acknowledgments | 1 Comment »
January 27th, 2009
Last year I worked on one of the most ambitious collage pieces I’ve done. This time I took some pictures during my process, which I don’t normally do since I get so caught up in working on something I don’t stop to think about it:)
I had bought a large paper mache’ bust and I want to make it into more of an old style mannequin so I went to the craft store and got an unfinished round wooden base, finial and dowel along with some black matte spray paint.
I spray painted all the wood and drilled the dowel to the base.
Then using gel medium I completely covered the bust in torn pieces of paper, scrapbook pattern paper and pages from old books. Once it was covered and dried I used gesso to white wash all the papers.
I wanted the piece to open up in the chest so I cut out a door with an exacto knife and added a metal hinge and a glass bead thumb tack for the door handle. I added vintage trim inside the door to cover were the hardware was attached. I also took a scrabble tile with a tiny collage of a girl on it and tied it with a ribbon around the neck along with some more of the trim.
I also added a vintage tape measure around the waist and big vintage button and more vintage buttons around the neck.
I then cut holes in the top and bottom of the bust and slid it over the dowel and attached the finial at the top.
Then came the hardest part. I wanted something inside of door but the inside of the bust was hollow so I made a little cardboard shelf and attached it to the inside and placed a little blue mushroom bird on the shelf. I also wanted him behind a screen so I took some tiny gold screening and glued it inside the door. I added a quote on a strip of paper and attached it to the screen with a safety pin. The quote is from singer song writer Tori Amos and it says “You’re just an empty cage girl if you kill the bird”. That quote was the whole inspiration for the piece and I think I achieved what I was going for with it.
Tags: 3D, altered art, art, bust, collage, mannequin, mixed media, paper mache'
Posted in Large Collage Projects | 5 Comments »
January 25th, 2009
I’ve been bugging my hubby for a long time to help me change the “layout” of this blog and this morning we finally did. Thanks sweetie! I like the new look alot better:) If any of you have trouble viewing anything or find any broken links or anything please let me know at: pisforpaper@gmail.com
Thanks!
Heather
Posted in Announcements and Acknowledgments | 1 Comment »
January 23rd, 2009
I recently found a wonderful children’s story book from 1929 that has some beautiful illustrations in it and decided to use them for some soldered pendants, on the backs I added words I cut out from the stories.
This first one was about the story of a little bunny who wanted red wings, on the back it says “I wish I had a pair of little red wings”
This next one is a pretty red fox who was down and thinking, the back says “the fox thought and thought”
This one is a cute little grey squirrel and the back says “Mr. Bushy Tail”
These unique pendants are currently on sale in my Etsy shop:
http://www.PisforPaper.etsy.com
Tags: animals, art, bunny, collage, fox, jewelry, mixed media, pendant, rabbit, soldered, squirrel, wings, woodland
Posted in Collage Jewelry | No Comments »
January 19th, 2009
Here’s some more soldered collage jewelry for Valentine’s Day.
I love old movies and I really LOVE Cary Grant, he’s one of my all time favorite actors so I thought he’d make a great pendant. I used scrapbook paper for the background it has hearts and word all over, added a wonderful pic of Cary and I also cut out the words “Heart Throb” from an old dictionary.
This next one features an image of a sweet couple that I punched out in a heart shape over old book paper and I stamped the words “Key to My Heart”. The edged are done with scalloped soldering and a tiny key dangles from the bottom.
Tags: altered, art, cary grant, collage, heart, jewlery, love, mixed media, pendant, soldered, valetines
Posted in Collage Jewelry | 1 Comment »
January 16th, 2009
I started stamping and doing papercrafts over 10 years ago now and when I first started I found a magazine called Somerset Studio and remember telling my then sister in law “That’s the kind of art I want to make some day”. I was so impressed and inspired with the art in that magazine and started learning and teaching myself about collage art after seeing that first issue of Somerset Studio. I’ve always wanted to be published there, it’s been a dream for a long time, I’ve submitted a few things over the years and even made it in a Gallery Issue once but still wanted to be in a regular issues and now I’m so excited because it finally happened! My husband come in last night from work with the mail and had a huge grin on his face and handed me a postcard, it said I’d been published in Somerset Studio! I freaked out!:) We rushed over to Barnes and Noble and I picked up a copy and started flipping through to find out which of my pieces they had picked (I’d sent in two for their “Black and White” challenge) and when I found the page I was on I really flipped because they had published both pieces! I’m on page 115 of the Jan./Feb. 2009 issue, it’s a dream come true!
Here’s a picture of the page:
Posted in Announcements and Acknowledgments | 2 Comments »
