From Special to Steampunk Extra Special by Abigail Lagden

From Special to Steampunk Extra Special by Abigail Lagden

One of the many things I love about Powertex is how easy it is to take old and unwanted items and turn them into something spectacular. But it doesn't have to be unwanted items, you can also take cherished, sentimental items and preserve them by incorporating them into a piece of art . We all have pieces of clothing or jewellery, even toys or other keepsakes that are safely hidden away in boxes, cupboards and drawers. With Powertex you can find a way to display them.

In this blog I will show you how I transformed an old hat into a fabulous piece of wearable art, incorporating all kinds of special trinkets and fabrics into the design.

The idea grew from a few events that I had planned over June and July this year. At the end of July I will be selling my creations at the Whitby Steampunk Weekend and anyone who has been will know how spectacular some of the outfits and costumes are. So, I wanted to create something a bit special to wear myself, that would also demonstrate how Powertex can be used.

In June, I also participated in a couple of events where I was demonstrating Powertex and allowing visitors to have a go. So, I decided to create a piece of art that visitors could add to throughout the two events. What better than a hat, which once complete, could double up as something I could wear at the Steampunk Weekend!

Original hat

Converted hat

The old hat I started with was a fedora style hat, so first I needed to make this a bit more Victorian and convert it into a top hat. I did this by just using cardboard to make the desired shape. (The lace band and flower on the original hat was removed and is waiting in my stash for another project)

The whole base hat and cardboard was then painted with bronze Powertex and the cardboard secured onto the hat using a strip of fabric coated in Powertex. It was now ready to be transformed. Over the two events, a variety of embellishments and trinkets that I had stashed away were added to the hat, sitting in scrunched up pieces of different textured fabrics all coated with bronze Powertex. 

After the first event, Make in Durham

After the second event - Clervaux Fair

By the end of the second event the hat was approximately two thirds covered, so I didn't have too much left to do myself other than add the unzipped cogs and cover the top and brim. 

Back of hat

For the final colour I wanted it to have a Victorian feel so I opted for burgundy powercolor pigment over the fabric elements and copper, bronze and gold colortricx over the embellishments. I couldn't resist a rainbow in there somewhere though, so the unzipped cogs got that honour!

Front of hat

I can't wait to proudly wear my hat in Whitby at the end of July - watch out on my Curiously Contrary facebook page for photos from the weekend.

Until next time, Abs xx

Venetian mask Powertex style

Good morning all, I can honestly say I enjoy Powertex, no that is an understatement I LOVE POWERTEX but this piece I really, really enjoyed designing.

The first photo is all the pieces with this project pack, sadly I forgot to photograph the beautiful rice papers too but you will see one of them shortly.

I had a play with placing the pieces, to see what grabbed me and I liked this idea and my mojo was really going at this stage.

I painted the mask with  BRONZE POWERTEX but wanted to give the actual mask a floating feel.

As you can see from photo underneath I stacked up some MDF discs I had to give it some height.

I wanted to incorporate some of the yummy papers and decided to add to the mask itself, which I did using the EASY COAT MATT

I found some silver tone plastic bling to add to the edges and give it a bit of pizazz

I then added some Paper  DECORATION to give the face some texture plus it seems to be one of my fave texture choices at the moment.

Now to think about adding some colour!! Hmmm 

I first started with dry brushing white and then decided I did not like that, so I  went with the Turquoise pigment.

 I then decided to add the BRONZE PIGMENT and I found some wooden butterfly embellishments, which I painted gold and I also found a lovely plastic dove which I glued to the headpiece and did a bit of gold dry brushing to tie in the colours.

 I added some coloured gems and two metal butterflies to complete the look of my mask

I think some feathers would look really nice with this piece too, will have to get some to add.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my process of how I came up with this design piece.

If you have not yet tried Powertex, you won't be sorry if you do.

Until the next time

Happy creating

Jinny 

Sweet Beautiful Music

Hi there, as I write this blog we are having the most glorious weather for the first May Bank holiday in the UK and it is fabulous!  I'm listening to the Peaceful Guitar play list on Spotify and there's a lovely breeze wafting through the house....mmmmm... to top it all I love this guitar project pack! 

Powertex has taken this one right back to basics to show how you can create some really super projects by using just the magic of Powertex, a nicely constructed kit and the basic pigment kit.

So first I joined the 2 main pieces together with Bronze Powertex and added the hanging bracket as show in the two images below.



One the back was dry I used the textured paper to cover the front of the guitar, again using Bronze Powertex - there's no need to use any other mediums as the magic of Powertex covers so many uses.


You can see how I made two pieces to cover the body if the Guitar.  I also laid out the main design of my piece.  The only parts of the kit I didn't use were the two paper flowers. I used more of the Bronze Powertex to stick the embellishments in place, the only thing I added was some jute string. Once everything was in place I left it to dry overnight.

Next I used PowerColor Pigments and Easy Varnish  to build an Ombre shading moving through from Yellow Ochre to Red Ochre.  I repeated this shading several times until I got the effect I was after.

To build the colour and shading I also added in some Titanium white in the latter layers.

I coloured the embellishments as well.

Once I was happy with the main colour I mixed up some silver Colortrix and cloured the strings.

I then added Burgundy PowerColor to the heart/flower embelishment and finally added some Rich Gold Colortrix to the centre of the two main embellishments and a faint brushing over the textured paper.

Below are some close ups to help you see the effects.

Hope you enjoy the Powertex Design Teams take on this project and we inspire you to have a go yourself.  Don't forget to share your makes in the Powertex Studio on Facebook.

Happy Crafting 

Fi

Just Powertex, No Strings Attached!

Just Powertex, No Strings Attached (Just a little lace) - by Abigail Lagden

Hello and welcome to May!! I can't believe how fast the year is passing, but it means it is time for another blog - Yay!

As always, the team at Powertex UK have put together another fantastic set of project packs, with a fabulous mdf base shape to work on and some really gorgeous embellishments. Here is the Guitar project pack that I used for this project - I just love the heart starbursts and the paper flowers give so much dimension to the project. 

First, I played with a rough layout for my project. This helps me gain an overall picture of how I'm going to construct my project, even if it changes as I start working. I decided to keep this project quite simple so the only extra thing I added were some pieces of cotton lace I had in my stash.

I wanted to use the hatched pattern embossed paper as an overall base texture for the body of the guitar, so I used the mdf shape as a template to draw around before carefully cutting the shape out.

I then attached the two pieces of mdf together using the rectangular piece of mdf on the back. The back of all three pieces were painted with bronze Powertex and then fixed together whilst wet. The whole of the back of the project was also painted over to produce a neat finish. This only takes a few minutes to dry to the point where you can turn it back over and start creating (a hairdryer can help speed up the process if you are impatient like me!).

Now for the fun part...

The wallpaper I cut out earlier was added first using bronze Powertex as a glue on the back. Then the front was also painted over.

The small mdf plaques were attached to the neck of the guitar to provide some extra depth before I added some lace over the top of them along the neck.

Two pieces of different cotton lace were added across the body of the guitar. When adding lace that I want to meet the edges of a project I always use a piece that is a little bit longer than needed and trim is once it is on the project. This is because a lot of cotton lace tends to shrink a little when you coat it with Powertex, so if you cut it to the exact size first then it often ends up too short.

The embellishments were then all added by coating with Powertex and pressing into position. Once done, the project was left to dry overnight.

Once dry, I used different blends of ultramarine blue, turquoise, green, lilac and white powercolor pigments using a dry brushing technique. And finally a quick brush using rich gold colortricx to give it a lift and a shimmer.

Hope you like it...

You can follow more of what I get up to with my Powertex creations and workshops on my facebook page.

Until next time, Abs x