Who Let The Powertex Out?

 Meet Englebert, the naughty Powertex Afghan Hound

I love dogs - so was delighted to open up my Powertex Design Team package this month and find this handsome chap waiting for me.  

Also included was a handy stand so that my finished sculpture can be displayed as a standing feature anywhere in the house.

I love using Powertex Powercotton in my sculptures, so decided to change him into an Afghan Hound, named Englebert (as you do).

After a quick google search I discovered that as well as having all that gorgeous hair, Afghan Hounds are quite different in their build.  They have completely different shaped back legs, and a different shaped nose and stomach as well.  Luckily this not a problem with powertex, I simply molded some good old tin foil over the parts I wanted to change, and then covered with masking tape. Once I had done this I painted the whole thing in Bronze Powertex universal medium.

As you can see, I also used masking tape to adhere my dog to the stand.

I love the effect of the crackles that form in Easy 3D Flex so decided to use this on the nose, mixing it with my bronze Powertex until it formed a clay and then shaping this around my template.   I used some wooden balls as eyes.  I was working in the garden on a hot sunny day, so I left it for the afternoon so that the heat would really start to bring out the textures and crackles in my clay.

I like the weight Powertex stone art can give to sculptures, so I then made up some stone art clay (by mixing powertex and stoneart to form a clay again), to cover the rest of my dog.  If you don't have any stone art clay no worries - the whole body gets covered anyway so you could just as easily cover it using material soaked in powertex.

Once this was dry enough, it was onto the part I had most been looking forward to - using the powercotton to create Englebert's coat.  I am a notoriously messy worker, so my one tip when using powercotton would be to cut it up into manageable segments and lay it out in small batches so that you can pick them up easily.  If I don't do this I end up with a whole bunch of powertexed powercotton from my messy hands before I am ready to use it.

I started off with smaller batches of powercotton by his feet, and then layered up with longer and longer batches.  Finishing off with really long sections for his gorgeous flowing ears.  I used a small strip of thin rope as his collar.

I think Englebert is beautiful, but also rather naughty. I like to imagine that he had jumped into a river to cool down, so is not quite up to Crufts standard of blow dry.  He also loves smelling flowers, so on the base I used an old tumble dry sheet soaked in Powertex (you can also obviously use a strip of material, but I am trying to recycle as much as possible), and some material flowers.

Once he was dry, it was time to pick out all the highlights using Powertex colours and dry brushing.

To dry brush you simply dip a flat brush into a small amount of Powertex Varnish, and then into the powder colour of your choice.  Wipe the brush off on a sheet of paper towel, and then, keeping the brush very flat, gently glide it over your sculpture, building up the colour as you go.

I used bronze colortrix for Engelbert's coat, and a small amount of black shaded in for his nose.  I wanted the collar to stand out so opted for one of the gorgeous new Secret Art Loft powders of Green Parrot.  I also used this colour for the leaves of the flowers.  For the grass I used Golden Olive, and     for the roses Berry Sour, before also giving these a very light covering of the bronze powder to tie the whole thing in.

Here is my finished Engelbert.  I hope you like him, and would love to see what you make with any of the wonderful templates available from Powertex UK

Don't forget you can post your makes at our facebook page Powertex Addicts United.  We love to see what you come up with.  If you're interested you can check out more of my makes on my website www.artandmurals.co.uk and my facebook page www.facebook.com/artmuralsbydonnamcghie 

Thanks for reading and see you next month :)

Products used are as follows:


Powertex Dog MDF Template
Powertex 2 Pin Base
Powertex Bronze Hardener
Powertex 3D Flex
Powertex Stone Art
Bronze Gold Colortrix
Secret Art Loft Pigment Powder Green Parrot
Secret Art Loft Pigment Powder Golden Olive 
Secret Art Loft Pigment Powder Berry Sour
Powertex Easy Varnish