This Boot Was Made With Memories

How Powertex Can Be Used To Create A Beautiful Memorial Boot

One of the things I love most about being a Powertex Tutor are the wonderful stories that unfold as people get totally absorbed in creating something beautiful and meaningful.

I have been priviliged to hear many really moving accounts of why people are making their sculptures, and who they are making them for, or, as is often the case, who they are making them  in memory of.

Obviously these are very personal stories, and I think the very fact that people feel comfortable to open up and talk, either within a group, or on a one to one basis speaks volumes about the therapeutic nature of creating with Powertex.

I have been given permission by one lady to share her story here.

S's dad had passed away recently.  He was a keen gardener, and she contacted me to ask if I would be able to do a Powertex Workshop using an old boot, which she could use to keep his ashes in.

Of course I said yes. It would be an absolute honour.

I love doing boot workshops anyway, but knew that this one was going to be something rather special.

We wanted to be sure that there was a suitable place within the boot for S's father's ashes, and we did this by covering a small plastic seedling pot with masking tape, before lodging it into the opening of the boot, and then putting a covering of powertex soaked material over this.  Ensuring that there was a good sized place for the ashes to sit in, but also ensuring it would be weatherproof as S thought she might want the boot to sit outside in the garden.  One of her father's favourite places.

Once we had done this, under my guidance, S covered the whole boot with powertex soaked fabric, scrunching it up to give lots of interesting texture and character.  S added a few appropriate bits and pieces from my ever ready stash of goodies I collect from charity shops etc, such as little material roses, and a heart taken from a piece of jewellery.

Then she added the piece, that I think makes the boot really stunning.  A small ornamental bird that she had brought along, to symbolise her father's love of birds.

We left the boot overnight to dry completely, before dry brushing, which really makes it pop as a work of art.

Although I had been keen to help S make her memorial boot, if I'm honest a part of me was also really nervous, about whether it would be a sad experience for her.  As it turned out the opposite was true.  It was a joyous workshop, with lots of laughter and memories recounted about a man who was obviously someone who lived life to the full.  And I although I didn't know him, I do think I got a feel for the man's character from S's fond and happy recollections over the weekend.

I think, I hope, that his boot is a fitting memorial of a man with a real  joie de vivre.

S tells me it caputres him perfectly, and that she smiles every time she looks at her boot.  Which in turn makes me smile as well.

If you would like to contact a tutor to help with making your own memorial for someone special get in touch with the guys at Powertex UK, or head over to our facebook pages powertex addicts united and the powertex studio

You can find out more about my Powertex workshops on my facebook page   or my website www.artandmurals.co.uk

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 

Simple but effective

Hello, one and all. Me again, this time sharing with you a couple of easy, fun and elegant projects.

The first piece I want to share with you is the seahorse project pack.

Please excuse my  Powertex covered workspace.

( I really need to clean this )

I opened the pack and looked at all the yummy stash in the pack.

Keeping this project simple was the key and I only used some cardboard and a piece of lace, which was from an old top from my Daughter.

I firstly glued to the two pieces of seahorse together with ivory Powertex both sides and dried it using my faithful old hairdryer.

I then soaked a piece of lace in the ivory Powertex and laid it down on my seahorse and again dried it with my hairdryer, to speed up the process, as I was eager to move on.

I found some different lace and thought it would make a good fin shape. I also added the same lace to the top part of the seahorse, after adding some cardboard, as this was my original thought process but decided that the lace effect looked way better.

Now for the best part, the colour transformation. I chose my  POWERCOLOUR and my general idea was to try an do an "ombre" effect but as you will see, sometimes the Powertex has other ideas!

BUT that is the beauty of this product, you can paint it whatever colour you like and if you get bored of it or it does not go with your colour scheme, then you can just change it! 

(I really, really, must clean my workspace) 

I added the yummy bits from the project pack and again glued with Powertex and decided to highlight in the RICH GOLD pigment and also WHITE the two colours of which I do love to highlight.

I titivated a bit more with pigments and varnish until I was happy with how she looked.

So here she is, all done and using just the project pack and a little bit of lace.

I think she turned out rather well myself.

Oh, and I added a small black bead on the eye area. A brilliant project if you are new to Powertex and not much other materials used to create this (I think ) beautiful Seahorse.

Thank you for reading and I hope I have inspired you to get some Powertex and give it a whirl, you won't be disappointed.

Till next time 

Jinny 

POWERTEX.CO.UK

Powertex Monthly Challenge - February - Heartfelt gift

We had an amazing amount of entries for our heart felt gift challenge. Thank you so much to everyone who entered. To see all the entries for this please visit our Instagram page Powertex addicts united.

Here are a few I have picked out to share and the winner of course. Can you spot yours?

And the winner is Helen Hudson. Congratulations you win last months stunning fairy house project pack! 

Helen's winning entry.

Want to be in with a chance of winning this months project pack? Join in on Instagram using the hashtag #12monthsofpowertex this months theme is Alice in Wonderland. Are you ready to follow us down the rabbit hole? Toodles Anna xXx 

Easter time and I think of eggs

But not the chocolate kind but the Powertex kind, plus Powertex eggs have no calories!

I had some medium sized Polystyrene egg shapes and was thinking about what I could do with them.

I love fantasy and whimsy stuff and decided to make a dragon egg.

To create the texture I used Ivory Powertex and started by adding Powertex PAPER DECORATION This makes a perfect texture for the egg of a dragon.

I also mixed up some Powertex with some STONE ART to make a clay, to add extra texture and give a little more height my egg.

Some texture using the Powertex clay technique, when it was almost dry I sculpted it with a pokey tool.

This is a side view of my Dragon egg

Aha, it would not be a dragon's egg without a newborn baby dragon. 

I made the baby dragon out of Polymer clay, my other passion and scraped out some of the centre of the egg and glued in my baby dragon using the TRANSPARENT powertex.

Front view, I added some real crystal chips and some glass glitter to make it sparkle.

So Dragon eggs really do exist, well they do in my shed.

I enjoyed making this one so much I made a couple more

I now have a lovely selection of Baby Dragon eggs on my mantlepiece.

Shining star for January

Into the new year and a fresh start to the awards for our tutor . At Powertex UK we recognise the tutor who has stood out for the month with a star and prize. This months shining star went to Jak Heath.

A little about Jak:

Jak worked as a freelance Designer in the craft industry as a Guest/Presenter on Create and Craft TV.

I live in the North East of England and I'm married to a wonderful Husband, Chris, together we have two beautiful Daughters and a cheeky faced Grandson who make us so very proud in so many ways.

Jak has been sharing her passion, love and enthusiam for Powertex in many workshops with her students. She has some fantastic ideas and inspires where she goes. 

Jak holds her workshops in the Seaham, Peterlee and South Durham areas. You can find her here at facebook page.