Ray Ray’s Creative Circus Class of 2024 - Part 2 - Finnabair

 

After a mammoth task of trying to find a supermarket to buy some lunch and being run off the road by a fire chief in an unmarked car, we finally got back to the hotel in order to make a canvas like the one above with Anna (Finnabair).

So Anna's style of teaching is completely different and she has everyone come up to the top table so that she can demo what to do.  

So the plan was to gesso the wood, then use three different colours of acrylic, water them down and create a sort of wood effect on one half.  The more water, the more streaks.

Next we added tissue paper to the top half and dried it thoroughly because the next step was to add guilding flakes. I chose to use all 3 available colours (gold, silver and copper) and on the wings of the moth.

There were lots of different colour combos going on.

Everyone still having fun.

Next step was to create the composition and unfortunately I totally forgot to take any more photos, so here is what I ended up with.

 

I used the same 3 colours of acrylic (avocado, umber and ink black) that I used for the bottom half. We then used white gesso and gesso'd all of the elements.  I took the black acrylic and painted around the outside of all the elements and used lots and lots of water to get the drip lines on the bottom half and dried each time between the spritzing.  Now the next thing we did is totally new to me, I used a matt wax (sage leaves) but like paint and totally covered all the elements.  Next I used a green metallic paint and randomly painted over the waxed areas using lots and lots of water, sort of washing the paint away but leaving the mica behind.  This also created more drips for me. I kept drying between adding more water.  Once happy with this, I chose the silver metallic wax and used it to bring back the highlights on the elements for a contrast.  I still have to stick the moth and add some pebbles.

And a huge thank you to Anna for bringing my prize with her from the latest patreons party.  This is so generous because there is only half of it here, I shared the paper with Janet.

I absolutely love these sticker sheets.

I am happy to say that the drive home was much less eventful than the journey down there. In fact, nothing happened at all - lol.

Ray Ray’s Creative Circus Class of 2024 Retreat - Part One - Nuneka Box

 

Although this looks like a wonderful place to stay, it really was dire from every aspect.

Not only were the rooms tiny, and I mean tiny, not just small, tiny.  They were filthy with crumbs and grit all over the carpet.  It was clear that they'd not seen a hoover for some time, and this is probably because there is no room to get a hoover in.

The lounge area was okay and my food was fine, but the same couldn't be said for Janets. Hers finally arrived about an hour after everyone else had eaten even though it was ordered the same time as mine.  She didn't even get what she asked for!!

So this was the function room, hardly any natural light at all and green and blue strobe lighting, not exactly ideal.  No plug sockets for heat guns either, so the gang got together to get that sorted out whilst we found ourselves a seat and dived into our goodie bag.

They were all the same but slightly different, if that makes sense. So they all had the same contents ie a stamp plate, but it was a different set of stamps.

So here we are, getting acquainted with our neighbours.

This is Nuneka and this is our first project.

Started off using 3d gel through a stencil.

Tore a piece of cardboard and glued it down.

Our table, Nanette, Helen, Dawn and ........

and ................ Janet!!

Added random string and lightbulb casts.

Popped all the cogs out and painted everything with black gesso including the resin pieces.

Started to arrange a composition using the biggest elements first.

Dry brushed with white gesso.

Then I used the light green sparks (fairy wings) randomly over the project and flooded it with water spritzing everywhere, dried it and ditched the water.  This gave me a gold shimmery base colour.  Using 3 more colours of sparks paints (two blues (night shadow) and a brown along with the green) placing them where I wanted them to stay and lastly added a bit of carmine for the rust and spritzed.  I only concentrated the rust in the top right hand side but let it drip.

And this is what I ended up with.  I still need to add the focal point when I decide what I want.  The original was layered with papers, but I didn't want to do that.

This was taken at about 7.30pm as we were ready to leave for home, most people were still working on the afternoon project.

Up-cycled Skeleton Plaque

This is the front of a kitchen drawer that was being thrown out.

Painted it with black gesso then used grunge paste through a couple of stencils.

Once dried, I painted over it in black gesso.

I made a mould from a skeleton that I was given by a friend. Then I cast it in fast cast resin.

Got a few more bits and bobs out and started to build a composition.

Dry brushed the background with silver to bring out the texture from the stencils.

I used various purples and blues to paint the background pieces.

Close up of the top of the composition.

The skeleton clothing is coloured with pewter treasure gold and the bones of the skelly are coloured with old white matte wax by Finn.

I painted the cross gold as I wanted it to stand out.

Another close up of the various elements.

And finally, the finished piece.

I usually paint all the different embellishments / elements before I stick them down, but this time I glued them down, painted everything black and then added colour.

Journals / Notebooks

Three more decorated journal covers.

For sale - £6 plus p&p or can collect if local

 

Skull in a Jar

 

I cast a skull and coloured it up.  I needed it raised out of the lid so I used a cotton spool and some cardboard.

I glued a large spider on the top of the jar.

I added white shredded paper and some mini resin embellishments.

I used brushed iron alchemy wax on the embellishments.

And after I'd coloured them I decided that it needed a proper more stable base, so covered a coaster with black powertex and added in some small sand balls.

I used white powertex to dry brush over the coaster to show the sand balls and texture.

View from the left side.

View from the right.

And then finally a shot in the garden.

This is for sale in my online shop.