New Stash, and Gold Seahorse Masterboard

Today I did some art in my studio for the first time for ages! I have several occasions coming up which require cards, and I need to make some fairly quick ones without too much work involved, because energy is in short supply, and I shall be having my third chemo treatment on Friday and who knows how I’m going to feel after that!!

So I thought I would make a masterboard and cut it up and make several cards from it.

I got some very exciting new stash today! First of all, I’d ordered some thin metal angels’ wings from Etsy, along with some vintage mini-bouquets, and they arrived this morning.

I am intending to make moulds from some of these wings, so that I can replicate them in different materials (polymer clay, Friendly Plastic, etc.) depending on how well the moulds go – the metal is very thin and it might be hard to press it down evenly into the moulding putty. Notice the attached haloes on the larger wings! You can bend the halo forwards so that it hovers above the angel’s head! The mini-bouquets are very pretty and I thought I could split these apart and use them for angel embellishments.

Later in the day, the most exciting parcel arrived. I decided not long ago to get the complete set of Dylusions paints. I am so fed up with ruining decent pens by writing with them over acrylic paint – there’s something that reacts and causes the ink in the pen to stop working, and once that happens there’s nothing to be done – the pen is ruined and just has to be thrown away. I read a review of these new paints and was pleased to learn that they are designed specifically for art journaling and of course writing is an essential part of that discipline, and the paints do not cause the pens to clog. I have watched a number of Youtube videos over the past few days and can see how versatile these paints are, and how you can blend them, and create great backgrounds with them. The colours are identical to the Dylusions sprays but their usage is different, and you an get quite a bit more control with them.

I began my masterboard by creating a background from several of these paints. These are some of the materials I used for this masterboard.

I applied the paints using a baby wipe, picking up the smallest amount of paint each time, from inside the lid of the jar. The card I have used for the masterboard isn’t very good quality – it’s A3 office grade card, so I would probably have got better results with the blending if I’d used better quality card. Layer 1 was done with London Blue.

Layer 2 was created with Vibrant Turquoise. With the blending not going quite as well as I’d hoped, I decided to go for a swirling pattern.

Layer 3: Cut Grass.

Layer 4: Squeezed Orange – just a little, between the swirls where there wasn’t so much colour.

Layer 5: Lemon Zest – a very small amount, just to highlight the Squeezed Orange.

For layer 6, I mixed together some Vibrant Turquoise and some White Linen to produce a paler shade.

Creating Layer 6:

Time for some stamping. I used the water droplets stamp from Designs by Ryn, with Ranger Cobalt Archival Ink.

At this point I felt that the whole thing was much too bright and the water droplets were too dark, so I decided to apply a wash with some White Linen paint mixed with some water.

I applied this with a foam brush over the entire surface of the masterboard, but it left quite a lot of streaks, so I took a fan brush and made swirling brush strokes through the wash, which gave a better effect.

The wash completed. I am much happier with this result. The colour is much more subtle and the water droplets not so obvious.

Time to stamp the shells. I used Distress Inks for this, but they didn’t go down onto the acrylic surface very well, and took quite a bit of drying with my heat gun, but in the end I was quite pleased with the result.

I began with the little starfish from the Seven Gypsies set, using Tea Dye Distress Ink, but this came out quite pale with a slightly greenish cast over the turquoise background.

For the scallop shell I used Gathered Twigs Distress Ink:

and for the other shell, Rusty Hinge.

The shell stamping completed.

Time to add the heat-embossed seahorses. The seahorse stamp came from the same Seven Gypsies set as the shells.

The gold embossed seahorses complete. I completed four at a time.

I think you can see how nice and shiny they are in the photograph. I wanted to add a bit more sparkle, so I applied some variegated copper gilding flakes in small patches, using a glue pen, and stippling them on with a brush, and then brushing off the excess.

Here is the completed masterboard, showing the shiny seahorses and gilding flakes.

I am very pleased with the new paints. If the quality of the card had been better I think the blending might have gone better, but I like the way the colours go together, and how you can control them, and lighten or darken the effect with the addition of white or black, and other colour mixing, giving you the full range of colours. In their raw state the colours are very vibrant and not a bit subtle, and I think for most of the time I shall be mixing them for a gentler, more subtle effect. The addition of a white colour wash certainly improved this piece, I think.

Shoshi’s Blog Shop is Now Open for Business!

You will see that I now have pages on my blog, with tabs running along under the banner heading. I have started a Blog Shop by popular request for my zentangle art to start with, and I shall be adding further items as time goes on.
A few months ago I opened an Etsy store but nothing sold – I did an experiment and searched for “mixed media mirrors” and mine came up on about the 20th page of the search, which proved that the whole thing is just too big for people to find you unless you are already known. Although I still have an account, and officially, an Etsy shop, there is now nothing in it. Since then I have been wondering about the best way forward, and wanted to keep it all on my blog if possible, and having established via the Blogger forum that it is permitted, this is what I have now set up.
If you are interested in purchasing anything, please email me with the details, and give me your snail mail address so that we can arrange the purchase. After this, click on the “donate” button at the top of my left side bar to pay – this will take you to Paypal (never mind if you don’t have a Paypal account, because they accept credit card payments as well). Once the payment has been cleared into my bank account, I will get the item to you.
To avoid a large financial outlay and storage problems, I do not want to create a large stock at home. Cards and prints are no problem as they can be relatively quickly made up (although the mounts for the prints have to be ordered) but I need to get the cork-backed coasters made up especially, and may need to order more plastic mounts, so please bear with me and don’t expect a by-return-post delivery! I shall do my best to be as quick as I can.
I hope you will enjoy this new venture of mine.

Shoshi’s Artpourings–My New Etsy Store!

After not selling much at the recent exhibition, for which I’d worked really hard to produce quite a few items, I decided I’d select a few items for Christmas presents and then upload the rest to a shop on Etsy.

I’ve often been envious of people who were able to produce enough to sell! This year has been so productive for me, and since the middle of the year I’ve been able to do more stuff for my own satisfaction, after a lot of special birthdays etc. etc. in the earlier part of the year.

When the time drew near to open the shop, I got increasingly nervous – what if I wasn’t able to do it properly and got myself into trouble? Then I reassured myself that loads of people do it every day, and I’m sure they’re not all expert business people, but primarily creative artists who just want a bit more exposure for their work, and the opportunity to sell to a world-wide audience. So – I took the plunge, and “Click!” my first item was on view!! Phew!

Now I’m really excited, and hoping lots of people will visit my shop and hopefully buy my work.

I spent a long time mulling over a suitable name. I wanted my name in it, but wasn’t sure I wanted to call it “Shoshi’s ARTHaven” because that’s my studio where I create the stuff, not the gallery where I want to sell it. I wanted a name that somehow conjured up an image of how my creativity works. It begins in my heart and bubbles up to my brain where the ideas start to gel, and then pours out through my hands, as if I am a vessel pouring water which I hope will bless and refresh people, and give them joy and delight – an outpouring of something unique and personal, from within – an Artpouring!

I have put a slideshow in my sidebar of the items I’ve put in my Etsy store, with a link to take you there (or you can click on the picture at the top of this post). I do hope you’ll pop over and have a look, and let me know what you think!