A Play Inspired by Andy Skinner on Hochanda

After watching the rewind shows of Andy Skinner and DecoArt on Hochanda I was inspired to have a play yesterday. I didn't really have anything in mind, just got a few pieces of mdf out and tried out some techniques, most of which I've done before. Was slightly gutted when I emptied my whole mdf box to find I'd got no large tags left :o(

As I say, I had no real idea of what was going to go with what, so this morning once everything was completely dry, I started to assemble pieces and these are what I came up with.

The mini dream tag was originally meant for this background, but I love how the colours in the heart just co-ordinated perfectly.

I used prussian blue hue to enhance the cracks in the heart.

Lots of rust techniques going on in this one.

Close up of the rusty heart and cog.

I wanted to put this on a tag with a white background with a large crackle but instead I used a piece of embossed rust effect card and a piece of corrugated that I'd made at some other time.

Close up of the heart which was stamped and crackled on the 3 corners and then black antiquing cream used to enhance the cracks.

Close up of the rusted embossed card. You can see how I made this here.

This was one of Andy's new techniques, well the technique isn't new, it's the product you use that is different, luckily I had some triple thick glaze and the colours dispersed perfectly.

I stenciled the word onto a mini mdf tag and covered with clear media crackle and I got some wonderful cracks. I used white antiquing cream to enhance them.

And finally my large heart simply painted with relic and stamped with one of Andy's background stamps in everlasting chalky paint. 

Rainbow Goblin House Experiment

I made another house, this time from a jam jar.

I used up the remainder of my black Powertex so had to add some green to it.

I added some air dry clay and fimo clay faces.

Some lace and cotton scrim.

Flowers and powertex cotton threads.

T-shirt fabric used to cover the base of the jar.

Close up of the base of the jar.

And the same for the lid.

Now for the experiment. I want to put this piece outside for a few months to see what varnishes are totally weather proof. The soft and reg gel are by Golden and the soft touch, satin, gloss, ultra matte and matte med are by DecoArt, the rest you can see. I paired them up with either a primary element or a perfect pearl pigment.

So here we go, I've placed the lid on with the head towards where I started the cycle. I started with Golden soft gel with wild plum primary elements, the second was Golden matte medium with autumn skies primary elements.

Then I moved onto the Golden regular gel and deep coral primary elements. followed by Americana Decoupage matte with ginger peach primary elements.

Followed by Americana Decoupage matte with ginger peach primary elements.

The next one didn't work too well and when mixed became watery and frothy - Mod Podge Dimensional Magic mixed with kiwi perfect pearls. It didn't cover over the face either.

The next combination is DecoArt media soft touch varnish and royal orchid primary elements, followed by DecoArt media matte medium and yellow ochre Powertex pigment.

DecoArt media ultra matte varnish and true blue primary elements.

And the final strip, DecoArt media gloss varnish with spiced pumpkin primary elements.

And I completed the set by using the remaining two varnishes for the roof. On the left side we have Americana Triple Thick Gloss Glaze with green patina perfect pearls and on the right DecoArt Media Satin varnish with moss agate primary elements.

A close up of the base of the pigments over the fabric.

And another close up of the pigments over the flower embellishments.

I now have to wait 3 weeks before it can be placed outside and start the experiment. This is because the Powertex only becomes waterproof after 3 weeks of drying time.

Watch this space!!!

***Edited***

Three weeks have now passed since I blinged up my goblin house and so today I put it outside the garden in the boarder and my intention is to leave it out there for at least 3 months to get really weathered, then bring it back in, inspect it and report on which pigments and varnishes survived and which, if any, didn't!!

Powertex, Pigment and Varnish Experiment

I conducted an experiment to see if the primary elements pigments when mixed with various varnishes would stand up to outside weather, mainly rain on a piece of Powertex conditioned fabric which was more than 3 weeks old.

I put the piece of fabric in the border and waited for it to get rained on. After about two hours it was wet and the water just sat on top. I tried rubbing the pigment whilst it was still outside in the rain on all 3 strips and nothing happened, it just stayed where it was.

So I brought it in and absolutely soaked it under the tap and scrunched it to screw out the water. Again I tried rubbing and nothing happened. I dried it with a heat tool.

This is the same piece recycled and dried. On this photo the colours don't look as vibrant as they did before I started the process, but that is because it's still raining and it's got darker, I can confirm that IRL it is exactly the same as it was when it first went outside.

Result, Americana Triple Thick Glaze, Folkart Textile Medium and DecoArt Media Satin Varnish are all waterproof when mixed with primary elements pigments and adhered to Powertexed fabric. 

*** Edited***

This was taken just now (next day) in the sun and as you can see it's as good as new.

Playing with Primary Elements by Luminarte

Earlier this week my parcel of Luminarte powders arrived. Lin found a craft clearance website selling them off at a fab price, so we got some.

After watching a few Youtube videos I rummaged to see what I could find to mix them with, and the answer is basically anything that comes in liquid form!! So we have white gesso, absorbent ground, matte medium, mod podge, triple gloss glaze, textile medium, crackle accents, satin, gloss and crackle glaze, mod podge dimensional magic and gum arabic.

What's in the pot doesn't necessarily relate to the actual colour you get!! From left to right we have ginger peach mixed with textile medium, deep coral mixed with PA gloss glaze, spiced pumpkin & pearl mixed with textile medium and spiced pumpkin mixed with inkseentials crackle accents.

This is the shimmer I got by adding the pearl to the spiced pumpkin. Pearl is the only metallic colour I bought.

And this is the shimmer without adding any metallics, this is ginger peach.

The small tag in the middle is the one above which I placed between the 2 samples we did at the LB workshop using silk acrylic glazes, as a comparison as it is made from the same powders. The reason they look slightly different is because the 2 larger tags are manilla and one has been gesso'd and I used a white tag.

Chestnut brown mixed with triple thick gloss glaze (Americana) and water, chestnut brown mixed with triple thick gloss glaze (Americana), cinnamon brown mixed with gloss mod podge. I added water to the chestnut brown mix as it was quite sticky and started to dry out, adding the water made it much more workable.

This left one was the very first one I did, just using water, gum arabic and golden jade. You have to use some sort of binder if just using water, if you don't, once it dries the mica just rubs off. Moss agate mixed with mod podge dimensional magic, again this was quite sticky, dried quickly and didn't blend too well.

Left to right again, true blue mixed with PA satin glaze. Autumn skies & pearl mixed with PA satin glaze. Autumn skies mixed with Golden matte medium. This one didn't mix or spread very well at all.

The pearl looks more silver with the blue, whereas above with the red, it looks more gold???

Wild plum mixed with Golden absorbent ground (white), the bottom half is mixed with water as it was very thick and sticky again. The part without the water is dull and has lost the shimmer as it was mixed with a white not clear to start with, but by adding the water, the shimmer shows through. Royal orchid and PA crackle glaze, this one didn't work very well either as it was way too sticky and started to dry out.

And finally to the gesso and GP. These have changed the colour and lost the shimmer as they both started off white and not clear. They have both been mixed with china black.

So basically it depends on what look you want as to what to mix the colours with. If you want a matt finish you need to mix with a medium that stays white when dry, but this will also lighten the colour. If a translucent medium goes a bit gloopy or sticky you can just add a bit of water to it, but this may slightly dilute the colour. In my opinion and it's only my opinion, the two best products were, PA satin glaze and FolkArt textile medium. Was good fun playing though xx