Resurrection

I made this piece at Easter which is why I then titled it resurrection, that along with the fact that I recycle pieces in my art! I seem to be having a bit of a shrine obsession at the moment, so most of my recent pieces are in fact shrines. I thought I would photograph this one in some various stages for you, so you can get an idea of the processes involved.

The first thing I always do is have a good old rummage & gather most likely pieces together.

as I may have mentioned before I am always pretty flexible with what pieces I end up using , as I never really have set ideas of what I am trying to achieve! I just kinda go with the flow!

I started by completing some of the embellishments I would be using, this helps me to visualise what direction I am taking.

 

then it is time to build the pieces up & add the finishing touches, like crackle glazes & antiquing creams (both decoart)

I then play around with the positioning for a while, until finally everything is exactly as I want. I love the way this one came out!

 

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together forever!!

Heres a lamp I made last month, titled together forever!! made using a lovely old clock case & lots of bits & bobs I had in my stash.

I love the way it all came together & it looks especially fab lit up at night!

 

shrine a light on me!!

whilst I’m waiting for a piece to dry thought I would show you some shrines I have been making of late. wanted them to be various sizes & styles & to contain very different objects! pretty sure I achieved what I was hoping for. As usual I used lots of decoart products in these pieces, I especially love my metallic lustre waxes.

 

just a few canvases!!!!

been very busy of late making canvases, some as gifts, some for stock & a couple of commissions including the largest one of these mixed media canvases I have done to date! it measured 30″ x 20″ & was a mammoth task but the results were fab if I do say so myself . Anyway here they are!

“Shape of life”

Here is a lovely piece, that I did in fact photograph as I went along. This piece started off life as an old thimble shelf, which I picked up from a local Jumble.

the first thing I then did was remove some of the partitions so that I had larger spaces to display some objects.

I gave it a light sanding & then began the task of finding objects in my stash that I wanted to display! someone asked me recently, “do I draw out my ideas, before starting”, well the answer to that is no, I personally prefer to rummage & take it from there. obviously I have a rough idea of my plans, but that is in my head, I feel it helps not to have set ideas, as I am a perfectionist & would spend far too much time rummaging to get exactly what I want, this way I remain more flexible & it means I can get on with my piece quicker (as patience is not in my vocabulary, lol!!)

once I had chose some bits & bobs, which amongst other things included handmade polymer clay tiles, a polystyrene heart, mdf wings (which I had lined to give more dimension & painted), a lovely resin crown piece which I had from an old trinket box I dismantled, & many other bits.  I then started by painting the whole piece in black gesso & then moved on to embossing some more metal sheets & metal tape sheets with some of the lovely embossing images I have. I then aged the pieces & chose various ones for each section, which I glued in place.

Next I arranged & attached the polymer clay tiles.

once the cabinet was completed & dry, I started assembling all the pieces that I wanted to display in the individual sections. I had decided that the piece was going to be in a reliquary style, so lots of crosses & religious images were required. I found images amongst some of my vintage books & used small frames which I aged to display them, I altered the heart & embedded a cross in the centre & made some barbed wire to wrap around it. I made some mini candles from wax pellets. I knew I wanted to add a goblet to symbolise the blood of Christ , well that’s when the problems began , as I previously stated if I have set ideas I can’t stop until I find it!!! I searched online for hours to see if I could find a dolls house goblet, but to no avail, then as I was standing deep in thought looking out of my bedroom window, I spotted one of my old perfume decanters had a lid section that looked very much like a goblet, so that’s what it became tee hee. I really love the way this came out & so did Emma the customer who snapped this straight up.

return of the elusive artist!

or should I say the useless at keeping up with her blog artist!! off now to have a look through my images & see what I haven’t added yet!! I’ll be right back!! in the meantime here’s a picture of my little studio buddy I made a while ago, his name is “GLUB” and he wards off all the naughty elves who try to cause havoc in my studio!!!

“Many faces”

So Prior to having my operation I managed to get a couple of pieces done,  one of which I can’t disclose just yet as it is a piece for a magazine,  but here’s an interesting little assemblage frame that I managed.  I had actually had part of this lying around waiting to be completed for a while so I thought I’d get on with it, I knew I wanted to use one of my vintage photos that I had obtained a fair while ago, and I also had some demon heads and doll’s eyes which I thought would work well. The actual box section of this piece is made from a heavy duty cardboard jewellery choker box, which I have lots of from my jewellery making days. I completely decoupaged it using vintage pages from an old book & some vintage style scrapbook paper,  & made the ledge piece from a section of the lid, which I then cut 3 spy holes in, & covered in the same as box. I also covered a piece of timber beading to neaten the top of ledge, as I am a terrible perfectionist, although I’m sure the owners of any of my pieces do not mind this!!!

Next job was to start thinking about the contents of the box, I had 3 matching cogs with no centres which I used to frame the spy holes, & added a dolls eye to the middle one, as I liked the idea of something peeking out!! Once I had cut off the heads of the 2 gentlemen in the photo I then proceded to use them in the other 2 spaces, but not before sticking pins in their eyes first!!! Tee hee!! Just seemed the right thing to do!! I then used the beheaded image of the seated gentleman, as the main central piece, mounted within an ornate mdf frame, which I backed with some embossed & aged copper tape. I thought he would look rather fun with one of the demons heads I had obtained, in place of his own!

Next I found out a couple of my little frames, painted them & made some gargoyle style faces from air drying clay, for the centres, & placed one either side of the seated photo. A few strategically placed studs were the finishing touches for the contents of box.

Then  I moved on to the frame, which in all honesty I messed up at the first attempt, for some bizarre reason I tried to remove the glass from the original frame & it cracked! My other half actually then suggested just placing the painted lid of a glass topped jewellery box on top, which was an absolutely perfect fit & a tad irritating that I didn’t think of it myself (must of been having one of my blonde moments). I then added some lovely fleur-de-lis corners & attached a ribbon & hoop to the back to enable it to be hung! It came out very quirky, but I love it x

Surgery!!

Been out of action for a short while due to double carpal tunnel surgery,  trying to rest but going a bit stir crazy if the truth is told. so whilst I’m supposed to be resting thought I would catch up on my blog, fortunately I can speak and my phone types it for me sometimes I like technology!!!

at one with nature

I was asked to take part in a project for an online mixed media magazine called Mixed up (check it out its fab!!). But sadly the supplier who was sponsoring the project, closed down very suddenly & left poor Katy the editor with no choice other than to pull the project!! I had already finished my piece which was a nature theme, so I am now able to show you it.

I was sent a selection of nature themed mdf supplies, which to be quite honest stumped me at first as I’m a bit more weird & whacky in my designs!! but I’m never one to not try a challenge. So first of all after much thinking & playing I decided I wanted to make fragments of the pieces, & what better than in circles (love them if you hadn’t guessed!!!). I cut some of the pieces into section & began arranging them in the circles until I was happy with the layout! I did some lovely textures with various decoart pastes in the background & decorated the circles with various methods.  Some of the pieces seemed rather flat to me as I prefer a more defined dimension to work, so I applied some relief liner to the crow & other pieces. I totally transformed the toadstool by sculpting air dry clay on top to give it a more realistic effect!

Finally I mounted it within a very heavy old pine frame that I had repainted & distressed , & added some final touches, like the bee, strung twigs & some beads that resemble eggs. Rather happy with how it came out, especially as I thought I would really struggle with this project! x

playing with ideas

gesso  & textures applied

trying the unpainted frame

all finished

close up of toadstool

closer look

laid fllat so you can see how the circles have been mounted at different heights

I used pages from an old biology book, to cover some of the circles, I particularly think it worked well with the branches

close up of tree

 

Safe in my cocoon

I love this piece, mainly because it symbolises how I feel when I am beavering away in my home studio.

I had acquired a tall jewellery cabinet with a glass door a couple of weeks before from a jumble for £1,  & as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to remove the door & make it into some kind of shrine. I had just attempted sculpting some faces which I think had turned out well! one of which was a polystyrene heart that I had sculpted the face onto & I knew I wanted it to be housed in some kind of cocoon.  I popped into hobbycraft to see what they had & they had their easter products in, which is where I found a paper mache hollowed egg!! perfect!!! once I added to it!!

so first of all I removed the door & all the internals from the cabinet, filled in where the hinges had been & gave it a light sanding, which was actually a waste of times as I then covered it in plaster bandage!! but hey ho!! once everything was dry I applied all the paint effects until I was happy with the colours & added a little bit of gold leafing also to the cocoon & finished it off with some fake wire stitching. I wanted the cocoon to be hanging inside the shrine & I was thinking with a chain, but once again I changed the plans as I thought strong thread would be far more effective. I had just the thread so I attached it to the cocoon in various places & then aligned hooks inside the shrine to wrap the threads through. It was a really fiddly job & I must admit the air was a little bit blue at times, but perseverance prevailed & I think the effect was perfect!!

I thought I had finished , but I kept looking & thinking it needed more. Once I had rummaged through my drawers I found what was in my opinion the perfect thing, an ornate leaf candle holder & a large iridescent marble, a few old broken studs & some ring beads. worked my magic on them until they suited the piece & then I attached them & was finally happy, in fact extremely happy. hope you like it? I think it is quite magical x