Fiorella - Little Flower

Last weekend when I went to my mosiac workshop at Pramoda Gifts, Marina very kindly let me look through her Powertex books.

One of the books had a lovely figure in it and all I could really remember is that it was green. Phill very kindly described it to me so I thought I'd give it a go.

So first of all I made some air dry clay heads from moulds. On the bottom two heads I actually added clay to the back and rounded them off so they were 3d and not flat.

I set to making a couple of figures. The one on the left is made from a wire armature and then padded out with tin foil and covered in masking tape. The one on the left is primarily made from a piece of polystyrene and then some tinfoil at the bottom to create the lower body shape. I fixed the one on the left onto a wooden meat hammer, but I sawed the handle in half and stuck the other half onto a piece of wood to create the right hand base.

To create some texture, I mixed up some Powertex and Stone Art to make some clay. Then randomly spread it over the two figures and put it outside in the sunshine to dry.

Once dry I gave them both a coat of bronze Powertex, I applied it with a paintbrush as I didn't want to absolutely soak it. I set it aside for a few minutes and then sprinkled the Stone Art on the top and just kept turning it and sprinkling and let the excess drop off. Once I'd gone around the whole figure I lightly rubbed in the Stone Art, rubbed off the excess and left them to dry overnight.

This morning I took them outside and brushed off the excess with a paintbrush and you can see the lovely texture it has left.

They are now ready for the heads to be put on and the next stage.

Heads attached and Powercotton added for yet more textures.

Another layer of bronze Powertex and back in the airing cupboard to dry as it was way too windy today to put them outside.

Totally dried this morning, but I feared I'd made a grave mistake giving them a coat of Powertex, I wasn't really that happy with them at all.

Anyhow I persevered, I coloured the left hand one with the red power colour pigment. I didn't dry brush as I wanted to cover most of the figure. And the right one has a mix of power pigment green and moss green and from the primary elements pigment range, moss agate.

Next I dry brushed them with the rich gold and the bronze gold pigments.

Rich gold against the greens, however unfortunately you can't really see it.

And I used the bronze gold with the red, but again, you can't really see it.

So I brought them back inside in the hope that you can see the colours better.

And now I really love how they have both turned out, just wish I could get a better photo to reflect the colours.

And finally the reason for the post title, this is what the figure is titled in the book. The book is written in another language and apparetly 'Fiorella' is Italian and it's a girls name. When translated it means 'little flower', so I wanted to share with you my two little flowers.

Boy Armature

Another armature from wire, tinfoil and covered in masking tape, just the same process as the others I've previously made.

I wanted to try and 'dress' him as opposed to just draping and wrapping fabric over him. So here I've made him some trousers which have dried. After wrapping his top half and again dried, I wrapped him in cling film as I wanted to try and make a jumper for him.

Once the jumper was added and dried, I carefully pulled out the cling film. Next I gave him some shoes and added a scarf, which unfortunately you can't see that well on this photo, but I can't move him as he is drying. He will be moved to the airing cupboard later.

And here he is in the garden, fully dried out after a night in the airing cupboard.

Out came the gold to hi-light the textures.

And from another angle.

Next I had the issue of making him stand up. So an mdf atc, a wooden skewer and a piece of polystyrene later, here is the frame I made.

As you can see, from the front you can't see the rods behind his legs and up his back supporting him.

I decided to add some red to the scarf and as you can see, the base is now covered and he is stood up.

Again, for a first attempt, I'm really please with how he has turned out.

Powertex Play with Polystyrene

I wanted to have a play today with the transparent powertex. I decided to play with a couple of pieces of polystyrene.

I painted them with black gesso and used a PA mini script to stamp in white gesso. I stamped in black stazon onto the piece of mulberry bark.

I wanted to see if I could make some of the fabric pieces stand out on their own again, like I did last weekend with the lace in the hoop on the Stone Art workshop.

I then did the other side of the heart.

This is the base, it has the stamped mullery bark draped over it.

And this is how the tassels came out, very impressed they are all free standing.

I used a wooden BBQ skewer to join the two pieces together.

I added a couple of pieces of lace in heart shapes and placed a piece of fabric down the middle.

PaperArtsy have a theme of hearts this time around and there is a powertex challenge on for valentines so been as I have a heart and some French script what could be better!!