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!
Metallic Resin Charm Necklaces
Sometimes inspiration for my craft projects is right in front of me, and surely this was one of those cases. I collect all kinds of little stones, trinkets and pieces of glass and often put them on display around the house in eclectic little assortments. I noticed the larger decorative glass pebbles I have, that can be found at most craft stores, have wonderful little round shapes that make me think of shapes of charms and pendants. I knew Amazing Remelt would make not only quick but glass-smooth molds and Amazing Clear Cast would be perfect to pour into the molds to create the charms, so off I went looking for my supplies!Supplies:
Amazing Remelt
Amazing Clear Cast
Alumidust
Alumilite Metallic Powder
StazOn Ink
Stir Sticks
Mini Stamps
Decorative Glass Pieces
Small Hand Drill
Ribbons, Cording and Metal Wire
I started off with removing several blocks of Amazing Remelt from their containers. They are easy to remove by running a stir stick around the edges and gently lifting the Amazing Remelt from the container.
The Amazing Remelt containers acted as my mold boxes and I placed the glass pieces in the containers, making sure to leave some space between each piece so the mold will have separate spaces for each piece. You do not need to use an mold release on these pieces as they are smooth and non-porous.
I heated one half of a Amazing Remelt brick in the microwave until liquid, in one of the containers it came in. I poured the heated Remelt in the two containers holding the glass pieces, but only a thin enough layer to cover the bottom and a bit of the sides of the glass. This layer acts as an anchor for the pieces without having to glue the glass in place, I let this layer cool completely.
The second pour of Amazing Remelt I covered the glass pieces completely and let them cool to finish the molds.
Once the molds were cool and no longer tacky I carefully removed them from the containers and flexed the molds until the glass pieces popped out.
I mixed up a small batch of Amazing Clear Cast and filled each round in the mold halfway and let it cure to a hard yet somewhat tacky state.
I then carefully inked and stamped little stamps with StazOn Ink into the tacky resin. The tacky state of the resin prevents the stamp from sliding and “grabs” onto the stamp, making sure I got a good stamped image.
*Pick your favorite stamps! As long as the stamp can fit the mold opening you can use any number of stamp images.
I rubbed Alumidust, in several different colors on the first layer of resin that was now stamped. Just like with the stamps there is no rhyme or reason to the color choices, just have fun with all the Alumidust colors!
I mixed up two batches of Amazing Clear Cast mixed with Alumilite Metallic Powder, one silver and one bronze, and poured it in the molds as a second layer. I let it cure overnight.
* If you live in an high humidity area you might notice the when you pop out the resin pieces the next day they will be hard but slightly tacky. Just remove them from the molds and place them on parchment paper and wait for the resin to completely harden outside of the molds.
Once all of the pieces were fully cured, I carefully sanded any uneven edges and drilled holes with a hand drill. I scrubbed them clean and threaded jewelry wire and jump rings through the drilled holes. Now they are ready for ribbons, thread or chain!
Want to see more of Amazing Casting Products tutorials and inspiration? Hop on over to their Blog to see all kinds of Amazing Artists’ Designs!Until Next Time, Safe Travels!Faux Ancient Egyptian Pendants
One of my favorite pastimes is to go visit museums and flip through books with ancient jewelry collections. The ingenuity, craftsmanship and raw talent in ancient work is a true inspiration.
One of those ancient testaments to ingenuity is Ancient Egyptian Faience, known as the world’s oldest known form of glazed ceramic and a precursor to the earliest forms of glass making. While it shares the name faience with the tin-glazed pottery associated with Faenza in northern Italy, it is not true faience. Ancient Egyptian Faience is not made of clay at all but type of frit, a mixture of sand, quartz, silica, calcite lime and a mixture of alkalis. To the ancient Egyptians, it was known was known as “tjehnet” which means brilliant or dazzling. Often crafted into beads, pendants, figures, tiles and other small objects, using push molds or sculpted by hand, then heated to create lovely glazed pieces of art. It was used as a imitation of semi precious stones, such as lapis lazuli and turquoise, though many colors could be achieved by changing some of the ingredients of the frit mixture.
I wondered, how I could make something that looked like Ancient Egyptian Faience but without the need of a kiln? Using real Egyptian Faience as my model, such as those in the above photo, gave me a good idea of what colors and textures I wanted to match. While it is very easy to create the shapes out of any number of air dry and oven bake clays, the glazed appearance of much of the Ancient Egyptian Faience was going to be tricky. I got to thinking how Amazing Casting Products’s Amazing Clear Cast Resin on top of polymer clay could appear like a glaze and more akin to the lovely ancient work.
I started with conditioned polymer clay, in the color tones of blues and greens, betting that a base color of those hues would give me the best results. I also conditioned a piece of white polymer clay as a color test. I then cut all pieces into sizes and shapes good for pendents.
I went through my collection of stamps and charms, picking ones that were Egyptian themed. I sprayed the object to be pressed in the clay with water to act as a stamp release from the clay and pressed firmly into the clay.
I trimmed the pieces of clay close to the stamped images, smoothing edges and defining details of the stamped images.
After curing the polymer clay by manufacturer’s instructions, and once the pieces were cool, I trimmed off any rough edges on the clay pieces with a craft knife.
I applied a thin layer of Liquitex Gloss Varnish to all of the pieces and before they dried rubbed on a light layer of Alumidust.
I mixed a very small amount of blue and green Alumilite Dyes with Amazing Clear Cast Resin, making sure to fully stir the dyes into the resin and let it sit for 10 minutes.
By letting the resin sit for 10 minutes, the resin will be thicker and stick more to the polymer clay pieces. I carefully applied the resin to the back and sides of the pendants with a toothpick first and let them cure completely, as per manufacture instructions, before moving onto the next step.
After the back of the polymer clay pieces were dry I applied resin to the front of the pieces with a toothpick, making sure to get all the groves and indents of the stamped images. I let this layer of resin cure completely.
Once all of the pieces were fully cured I carefully drilled holes to put beading wire and thread through each piece.
Here are the finished Faux pieces with the real Egyptian Faience, a pretty close match if I do say so!
The addition of wood, glass, semi precious stones and shell makes these pieces look straight out of ancient jeweler’s marketplace!Want to see more of Amazing Casting Products tutorials and inspiration? Hop on over to their Blog to see all kinds of Amazing Artists’ Designs!Until Next Time, Safe Travels!Craft & Hobby Association Mega Show 2015 part 2
Time for my Craft & Hobby Association Mega Show 2015 recap, part 2! My last Post about this year’s winter Craft and Hobby Association Mega Show was mostly about Amazing Casting Products/Alumilite Corp., my samples and demos at the CHA. This post will be about some of the new products, booth designs and awesome artists at CHA!
I made sure to drop by the Linpeng International Inc./Fiona Accessories booth to visit with Fiona and Jimmy and to see their new beads for 2015. They had a wonderful selection of new tear drop crystal beads in all kinds of wonderful colors I had to order.
Along with the new mixed color strands of hand painted beads Fiona and Jimmy were happy to show some of their new Bohemian pendants and beading accessories. They buy beads from manufacturers from around the world so you can find a wide variety of beads from China, Japan, India, Czech, countries in Africa and more in their booth.
Linpeng beading supplies can be found at many craft and hobby stores, Fiona Accessories finished jewelry can be found at chain gift shops in the US and you can order their beads online.
Cousin Corporation of America had a stunning Fairy Tale themed booth display, which had a very Once Upon a Time feel to it. Cousin is starting new environmentally friendly improvements through recycling, conservation and sustainability. Their booth decor had elements acquired from thrift stores and upcycled art turned totally glamorous.
This lovely chain dress overlay had a wonderful temple dancer feel to it and I think with a soft cut black dress underneath it would be perfect for a Renaissance Fair!
Cousin’s new mixed bead hanks next to another one of their lovely necklace and fabric displays.
This bib necklace on display had a wonderful Southwestern riverbed feel. I loved the use of warm color tones with the cool color of turquoise.
Spellbinders had a huge and rather multifaceted booth, with loads of displays and make n takes. The display that stopped me in my tracks was the opulent display in their booth by A Gilded Life.
Spellbinders and A Gilded Life now have a licensed line of dies, bezels, pendants, jewelry findings and trims sold online and at art and craft stores. Photos do not do their work justice!
Midwest Design Imports, a whole distributor of boas, artificial birds & butterflies, craft items, and more, had a wonderful selection of fairy, woodland characters and glass minis in their booth. However what caught my eye was their very humorous and full of character line of artificial owls of all sizes. I think those adorable owls will be perfect for Autumn-themed craft classes and displays! A rather cool aspect about Midwest Design Imports is all the feathers they sell are byproducts of other industries, and would have otherwise been discarded.
I had to meet up with the talented Suzann Sladcik Wilson, book author and CEO of Beadphoria, Inc.. Cheerful and happy to talk about jewelry projects and ideas, Suzann was looking great in the The CHA Designers in Action Showcase event. Tiffany Windsor of Cool2Craft, on her way to the Showcase, decided to photobomb us, making it all the more fun!
Suzann had a lovely display of her soldering book, jewelry and upcycled necklace folding cards.
On the other side of her jewelry display Suzann’s first book and other beautiful beaded creations.
A new booth this year that I found the last day of CHA was Bead Fairy TV, owned and operated by Jolene Star (AKA the Bead Fairy). Specializing in bead tutorials, online classes, beading kits and more.
I just had to walk into her booth; the colors, beads and just positive feeling was addicting. Do check out her beading 101 videos on YouTube; they are fun, funky and bound to get you beading. You might also know Jolene her from her store Bazaar Star Beadery in New Jersey.
Spinrite Yarns otherwise known as Yarnspirations made a huge booth display showcasing yarn and amazing artistic talent. “Yarnia” as they called it was inspired by the theatrical versions of the The Chronicles of Narnia. The first yarn creation to greet you was Jadis, the White Witch in her battle gown.
Next was the Pevensie boys in their armor.
The White Witch in her snow gown with wolf companions.
Last but not least Mr. Tumnus, the faun and Lucy Pevensie at the lamp post.
There was so much more that I didn’t photograph but in the next few months I will be receiving my orders and trying out new crafting goodness with all the new products!
Until Next Time, Safe Travels!
Got a Monster Eye on You! Halloween Jewelry DIY
Oh my goodness, it is already October! Things are flying by so quick with all of the work we are doing on our house! With most of the house packed up it was hard to do any arts and crafts. I was going stir crazy with everything I needed being packed up. Finally with more rooms being finished I could start unpacking and I was able to sneak out some beads and supplies to make a few Halloween inspired projects.My first one is a simple and ghoulish Halloween jewelry project using a bracelet and earrings set from Fiona Accessories. I rather love their line of Halloween Jewelry Fiona Accessories carries, full of the classic colors and themes, with hand painted elements.
One of the pieces they carry is BR-2027 Painted Halloween Bracelet, with fun little green monster eye beads that got me thinking of turning it into a new jewelry set. Now not only does it have the awesome eyeball beads it also has very delicate hand painted beads of a pumpkin, witch’s hat and a ghost. I cut apart the bracelet and was careful to keep those beads for another project, they are just too cute.
Supplies:
Fiona Accessories BR-2027 Painted Halloween Bracelet
Needle and Flat head Nose Pliers
Silver tone jewelry eyepins and nailpins(21 gauge), chain, jewelry clasp and jumprings
Orange crystal beads
Black Seed Beads
Spreading out my supplies on the table I separated the beads by shape and color. Using six eye pins I threaded on black seed beads, six nail pins I threaded on orange crystal beads and on two eyepins the eyeball beads.
Carefully I snipped off the excess wire, and using round nose pliers I rolled the end of the wire into a loop. I repeated this with all of the jewelry wire with crystal, seed and eyeball beads on them. I opened up a jumpring with the flat nose pliers and put the jumpring through one of the crystal beads, now on a wire and the seed beads, on a wire. When I closed the jumpring with the pliers the bead became a beautiful dangle on the black seed bead length of wire. I repeated this for two more and attached them to one of the eyeball beads, creating little black “tentacles” growing out of the eyeball bead. I repeated this for the second earring.
Once I assembled both earrings I slightly bent the jewelry wire the seed beads were on to give them to look of moving tentacles. As cute as they were I wanted to make a matching necklace.
I placed the rest of the eyeball, black glass, seed, crystal and silver beads down to get an idea for the necklace layout. Using more silver eye pins I threaded on the beads, snipped off the excess wire, and using round nose pliers I rolled the end of the wire into a loop. I connected each piece to the next with more jumprings, linking all of the pieces together and added a jewelry clasp at the end to finish off the necklace.
Now I have a fun and freaky monster jewelry set! What might you make with your favorite Halloween themed beads? 🙂
Until next time, safe travels!
Ancient and Contemporary Inspired Artistry