A #Cre8time voyage to find Pirate Treasure!
With Fall fast approaching, I am once again looking at new ways to jump start my creativity. I finally decided to order pieces from Relics & Artifacts® by Sandra Evertson to try out. The line has been catching my interest for a few years every time I see them at craft and hobby trade shows and on social media. Locally no stores currently carry their product line however it is rather easy to order the Matte Resin Craft Blanks from their website (they ship VERY quickly and package the art supplies wonderfully!). The resin blanks were larger than I expected, had a nice weight, tooth to the surface (great for paint application) and fine detail.
I bought 4 sets but the pieces in the Ancient Soul and Regalis sets got my mind whirling immediately. The skull focal in the Ancient Soul set had me thinking of a Jolly Roger and a sunken treasure chest. I collected some vintage jewelry supplies and started my craft voyage into uncharted seas….
Supplies:
Unfinished Wood Trinket Box (I found one at Jo-Ann)
Relics & Artifacts® Ancient Soul and Regalis Matte Resin Craft Blanks
Alumilite Metallic Powder Gold
Liquitex Gloss Varnish
Beacon Gem-Tac Adhesive
Stampendous Crystal Snow White Glitter, Ultra Fine
Paint Brushes
Acrylic Paint in Metallic Light Gold, Black, Burnt Umber, Terra Cotta, White and Yellow Ocher
Baking Parchment Paper (as a work surface)
2 Flat head jewelry pliers
1 Broken bracelet, chain necklace, shell beads and flat backed rhinestones 4mm, jumprings
4 used and dried tea bags
Dried Green Moss
I started by painting the inside and outside of the unfinished wood box. I diluted the paint with water to create a color wash that would stain the wood but still leave the wood grain visible. First coat of diluted paints was the Terra Cotta, then the Burnt Umber and finally the Black in the nooks and crannies.
While I let the wooden box dry I removed the eye pins carefully with pliers that are put into Relics & Artifacts® pieces by the manufacturer, since I wasn’t going to make them into jewelry. I painted the pieces and the trim on the box with Metallic Light Gold paint. They needed two coats because most metallic paints need several coats for full coverage. The resin pieces were easy to paint and I didn’t have a single issues with the paint beading up or sliding off like with other resin blanks on the market!
Once all the pieces were dry I applied them to the wood box with Beacon Gem-Tac Adhesive. A broken bracelet with beautiful metal spacers I took apart and glued the spacers to the box to give the illusion of metal brackets bolted to the box. Once the glue was dry I did another color wash of the Burnt Umber and Black acrylic paints all over the box and glued on embellishments to give them an aged appearance. I attached broken chain from an old necklace to the bracelet spacers, glued onto the box, with jumprings.
In a small cup I mixed up some White and Yellow Ocher acrylic paint with dried tea leaves and a little Beacon Gem-Tac Adhesive. I applied it around the bottom and sides of the box in small clumps to give the illusion that barnacles had started to grow around this long forgotten treasure. Once the faux barnacles were dry I did a Black acrylic paint wash to give them detail. I added some Liquitex Gloss Varnish over and around the edges of the barnacles and sprinkled on Stampendous Crystal Snow White Glitter. Once dry it looked like salt deposits from sea water.
I randomly applied more spots of varnish and glitter to give a grungy, salty appearance to the treasure chest. I glued on tiny bits of moss on the box along the edges and embellishments.
When applying the faux barnacle mixture to the box I was sure to press it against the resin pieces and edges of the box for a good bond. To make it look like the barnacles had grown haphazardly I pushed the back end of a paint brush here and there into the tea leaves and paint mixture.
Not forgetting the back of the treasure chest, I had glued on more bracelet pieces, metal embellishments and tiny vintage glass rhinestones. With the chain linked into the bracelet spacers, draped back to front on the chest, my Pirate Treasure Chest was complete!
I really love how this piece came out and can’t wait to try out more of the Relics & Artifacts® line with future art projects.
What lovely mixed media treasures will you create?
Until Next Time, Safe Travels!
Trade Bead #Cre8time and Destash!
Lately I have been in a craft and art supply de-stash mode. Sorting, organizing, giving away and even having art supply swaps with friends and family. Getting all of my supplies in order and finding long forgotten items always gets me in a creative mode.
In the process of cleaning my jewelry supplies I found collections of wire snippets. Whenever working with jewelry wire I always end up with snips of random length, size and style. I collect these pieces in hopes that I can do something creative with these scraps, however they just generally end up in little bags and boxes and forgotten about. This time I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Along with all the wire scraps I started to unearth glass trade beads I had collected over the years. This is just one of many of the storage containers of trade bead I found, mostly containing beads from Africa, Asia and Europe. Using an oh so expensive egg carton I started to sort the beads by shape and color hue.
Using the scraps of wire, needle nose pliers and wire snips I looped the pieces of wire to create eyepin wires for all of the sorted trade beads. I created as many as I could using up all the wire, taking a little bit of time every night for a week to create these beaded links.
In the end I had piles of different colored beads on gold and silver wire, perfect to make beaded link necklaces. So many, in fact, I was able to create 5 necklaces, 18 inch long, perfect to give as gifts to friends and family!
By doing a little bit of crafting de-stash what wonderful crafts will you create?
Until Next Time, Safe Travels!
A December Crafting Recap!
December has come and gone so quickly! The holidays have been a whirlwind of making gifts, food, festive events and cold windy weather. With many shows and special events not only in December, but upcoming in 2016 it has been an ongoing artistic adventure. While some of the art projects I have been working on have yet to be displayed, I wanted to share some of my projects already showcased before the New Year started.
As I have noted in the past I have a serious love for Fiona Accessories beads. Along with their jewelry supplies they also make hand painted beaded bracelets for many holidays and seasons. I had gotten a few of their cute Winter holiday themed bracelets just for fun. While the bracelets are beautiful as is, I got the idea to turn them into earrings.
With the addition of silver spacer beads, earring wires and decorative head pins I was able to create festive earring sets and still have many beads left over for other projects.
With the help of using Amazing Casting Products Clear Cast Resin, Fiona Accessories beads and papercrafting supplies I created a series of handmade jewelry. You can check out the tutorial to make your own HERE.
A local SoCal High Desert historic site, The Antelope Valley Indian Museum, held a Holidays on the Homestead event in December. The historic grounds were decorated in vintage holiday style with live acoustic music around a campfire, a chili cook-off, tours of the grounds, and a handcrafted country craft boutique! With all the jewelry I had been making it made perfect sense to get a booth in the craft boutique. Even though it was a chilly night, I sold many pieces of jewelry and loved being in a hall surrounded by art.
Hope you take Amber’s suggestion of staying warm and happy this Winter. Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Until Next Time, Safe Travels!
A Fall Cozy Crafting Recap
November has come and gone so quickly it is startling! Things have been so busy and I of course have to share some of my art and crafting goodness.
With an early cold snap hitting our area early, forcing a harvest all of my pepper crop, I was left scrambling to try to find ways to use them up! I dried some, saved seeds for next year, cooked all kinds of spicy foods but I was still left with buckets of peppers. Then I thought of of making pepper relish!
Using a simple but great Hot Pepper Relish Recipe from Serious Eats I was able to use up all the peppers. I made a few changes to the recipe using heirloom Jalapeno, Sapporo, Pepperoncini, Serrano, and Anaheim peppers and I didn’t have cider vinegar so I used white vinegar with a bit of fresh apple cider. The jars of relish were eaten so quickly, I already have requests to make more next season.
Another “harvest” I decided to share was making my own Bead Soup bags from all the extra beads I have in my beading supplies. Each bag I filled to the brim with a wonderful assortment of glass, metal, acrylic, stone, clay and wood beads to help start a day with creative goodness! These fun and creative mixes are great gifts to give and perfect for crafty nights.
To relax at night I picked up knitting again this time trying out chunky weight yarn from the Bernat Viva line in Burgundy using Clover Bamboo knitting needles, size 15. With two skeins I was able to make my mother a wide scarf and a thin accent scarf for myself. They worked up so quickly I know I will have to make more projects with chunky yarn.
Speaking of crafting addictions, resin jewelry is still a ongoing addiction for me. I love using Amazing Clear Cast Resin for creating my one of kind molding pieces. Lately however I decided to hark to one of the traditional styles of resin jewelry of filling bezels and frames to encapsulate drawings, paper and stickers. My favorite piece out of my most recent crafting whirlwind is the one above using beads and jewelry findings from Fiona Accessories
With the weather rapidly turning cold, I hope you stay warm and cozy as my dear 18 year old kitty Vladimir is with his new winter sweater!
Until Next Time, Safe Travels!
- Amazing Casting Products, Beads, Fiona Accessories, Halloween, Home Decor, Jewelry, Mixed Media, Paint, Recycling, Resin
An Artistic Halloween Haunting Recap!
Welcome to my Artistic Halloween Haunting Recap! The month of October and all of the Halloween goodness flew by so fast, but I wanted to share some of my ghoulish crafting fun before Halloween is just a faint promise of next year.
Using some wonderful chains, crystals and beads from Fiona Accessories I created this jewelry assemble for my spellbinding costume of a Gothic witch. The sterling silver snake pendant was hand crafted in Nepal and really played well with the raven skull I had bought recently.
I transformed this plastic Italian Carnival mask into a Plague Doctor mask using paper mache, paint and Liquitex Matte Varnish. However I wasn’t finished there and created the rest of the look:
With the addition of a black heavy weight line robe, hood, gloves, hat and walking stick it made a perfectly frightening Plague Doctor costume for my husband.
I created a replica mummy head using a plastic Halloween skull and the help of Amazing Casting Products. Clicj HERE for this Upcycled Mummy’s Curse!
Taking inspiration from one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays, Macbeth, I created a Eye of Newt Apothecary Jar, spooky enough to keep any monster happy!
Last but not least my husband and I finally took the time to refinish a old cabinet that had been in the family longer than me. After patching, sanding, staining and varnish it was ready to become a Halloween curio cabinet!
Not bad for our first attempt at giving new life to an old piece. Once filled with fun holiday decor it made a perfectly frightening Halloween decoration. With Halloween gone and past now I can fill it with with antiques and little curios befitting of Fall.Now to start on art projects for Fall and the coming Winter!
Until Next Time, Safe Travels!
Ancient and Contemporary Inspired Artistry