Altered Time

WOW what a cold and long winter we've had here in the UK and it's something we don't get very often - Time just seemed to drag on and on ... which brings me timely to my latest blog (Corny I know hahaha)!

Using the fabulous March  Project Pack  I had oodles of fun creating this Pocket Watch taking the Mad Watch scene from Alice in Wonderland as my inspiration.  I didn't add butter or mustard! but I did use some of them to pull together my colour pallet.

So first I unpacked and laid out the ingredients from the project pack, picked out some PowerColors and mixed up the black bister from the kit.

I always like to get a rough layout even though I know it will change once I get started. 

With this one I wanted a slighty deeper clock face so I used some MDF dropouts to raise the rim above the clock face.

First I used some Easy Structure and a cogs stencil (from my own stash)  to create some background texure that fitted with the theme.

Easy Structure dries really quickly and I prefer to let it dry naturally but if you are in a hurry you can blast it with some heat from a hair dryer or heat gun.            

Once the easy structure was dry I coated the whole layer  of Ivory Powertex from the kit (with a generous amount where there was no stencilling). 

I then placed some of the drop outs around the perimeter of the base, added the heart in the centre and the largest cog on top.   


I added some Ivory Powertex under the outer rim of the top layer of the watch and placed on top taking care to line it up accurately.  I applied more Powertex  over the top layer and then sprayed generously with black bister.

I used a hairdryer to dry and create some areas with a  bister split creating more texture and interest.

This part was all done in around 10-15 minutes.

While this finished drying I coated the numbers, clock hands and a few circle mdf dropouts with ivory. I then did the same to the remaining cogs which I placed into position while they were still wet.

The image tp the left shows where I thought I would place them, but I did move them around a few times before I put the Powertex on.  


Once the cogs, numbers, hands etc were dry I used Rich Gold Colorticx and Easy Varnish to richly coat the numbers and clock hands.  

I applied Yellow Ochre, Red Ochre and Dark Green pigments randomly over the cogs and circles and applied with Powertex pressing firmly on each piece until they had started to stick.


I used bronze gold colortricx to dry brush the background of the clock face.  

I then added washes of turquoise pigment as well as the yellow, red and dark green pigments to build up a rusty look.

I built this up over several thin layers.

I added a few flat back crystals to highlight where there were missing numbers and also popped some rusty circles to finish off the smaller cogs.

I did a similar finish to the stand using Ivory Powertex, Black Bister as well rich and bronze gold to give a cohesive look to the finished piece.

Below are some other close ups so you can see how it was all finished.

And here is the finished altered timepiece...

Have fun and don't forget to share your makes with us over on Powertex Addicts or why not join our fab new group The Powertex Studio where Certfied Powertex Tutors as well as YOU can share your creations and we can inspire each other.

Bye for now

Fi xx

This is what I had left!!!!!

These are the pigments I used and below are some close ups...

The White rabbit's watch

                    If you see the White Rabbit please tell him I've found his pocket watch! 

 I've used the ivory Powertex to stick and paint my March project pack together and sprinkled on sand and balls to give some amazing texture. 

Then I sprinkled some of the black bister crystals onto my work where I wanted some real depth.  I diluted my blue and green bisters and put them into spray bottles I gave everything a really good spray, this diluted the black crystals and it seeped around the textured areas just as I had hoped.

When everything was dry I mixed some rusty powder with some vinegar, sand and ivory Powertex and used an old brush to apply this where I wanted my rust. Over the next 24 hours I resprayed the watch with a vinegar and water mix to reactivate the rusting effect. When I was happy with the rust I left everything to dry and brushed on Powercolor and Colortrix pigments mixed with Easy Varnish to accentuate a few areas and add some metallic elements.

I hope you like the results! 

Thanks for looking, Traceyx

Barny the Owl

I went for a bit of a different look for my owl!

Firstly I used Easy Coat Mat to apply some music paper onto the chest.

I then used bronze Powertex and Stone Art to give it a downy look and then applied 

Easy 3D Flex onto the wings to get that lovely 3 dimensional crackle effect.

I didn't use much from my project pack apart from the owl template and the bronze Powertex 

so keep your eyes peeled for some of the other elements being used on other projects!

Tracey x

Some of you will remember that for our Hochanda show in August we had some incredible rice papers available, well it has taken a while but we are now the proud UK stockists of the full range of By Creative rice papers! We have been very excited here at HQ and I've been itching to get creating with some of the papers but........ there are so many to choose from!

I started by painting my canvas with Ivory Powertex and then used this enchanting Victorian photograph which I laid over the new Powertex handwriting silk paper, I love how the writing came through the image. I applied the papers and sealed each layer with Easycoat mat, there is a tutorial showing you how I apply rice paper on YouTube.

 

I then painted around my image with Black Powertex, I applied some scraps of music paper at this stage but you will see by the end that I ended up covering them up.

Once everything was dry I added StoneArt, 3D Sand and Powertex mixture and Easy 3D Flex in a fairly random way. I also added some fabric and MDF inclusions for detail. Once I was happy with this layer I sprayed with red and yellow bister

Once the bister was dry I began to wipe it away from the areas I wanted to lighten.

I used 3D sand mixed with pigments and Powertex to add some stencilled words. I then used PowerWax mixed with pigments to add soft colour to the texture. There is a quick tutorial showing the basics of using the Powerwax on Youtube

I also added a subtle hint of extra colour to the image using my PowerWax and pigments

I then left the piece overnight, as much as I liked the softer pretty shades when I was touching up the edges of the canvas with my black Powertex just I knew that I needed to darken the bottom of my piece so I got out my black bister and hey presto!

I will need to do a little more blending but I feel much happier with the overall look however we all know that our work is never truly complete and the beauty of Powertex is that we can totally transform our work by adding different pigments, wax or maybe even using some of our new acrylic inks... inks..... now there's a thought... I will keep you posted! Tracey XX