Gone Down Under

Hello,
I had absolutely no plans on making a video this week but on Friday night I had a urge to make some aboriginal wall art and thought I may as well film it at the same time.
I decided to use chunky unglazed earthenware tiles as a substrate, these can double up as either a coaster or an earthenware canvas.

Click on Images for a Larger View


I have used Americana Acrylic paint and Adirondack Alcohol Inks for these pieces and finally sealed them with Americana Matte sealer for a durable waterproof finish.


Before the Video a quick catch up on the week, I have done a little more work on the altered guitar. I first sanded it, added a few rivets and applied a coat of Lamp Black Acrylic paint mixed with Decoart's  paint adhesion medium to make sure it sticks and will not in any way scratch off.



I have also been sent some Ranger goodies to use in an upcoming magazine article for Crafts Beautiful and a few other projects,  now at last I have more than 5 colours of Distress Ink..yippee!



And finally I spent the day yesterday running a workshop on Silver Clay Fingerprint Jewellery, here are some examples.



Right time for the video, have a great week.
Andy

Enjoy!

Catch up

Hi all,
Just thought I would catch up and share with you what I have been up to this week so far. On Monday I held a ceramic aboriginal decorating workshop at Country Love Crafts.
Now, I normally keep my glazed pottery pieces away from this blog and have them on my website, but i am thinking of doing something like this on cardstock or an altered box?

Click On Pictures For A Larger View


I also managed to finish the mixed media painting I started which I will now put up for sale on my Folksy shop, I am really happy with the way it turned out.



This afternoon I worked on a bisque bauble trying to come up with a simple design for children, using Americana acrylic paint, round sponge dabbers and a product from Decoart called Triple Thick brilliant gloss glaze, this stuff is amazing, one coat and your item will look as if it is kiln glazed. We are expecting a delivery of this acrylic spray from the states in three weeks, I will let you know which suppliers are stocking it then.



I have also taken the plunge with the guitar, (Sacrilege)…..I had a little play on it for 10 minutes and then gave it a hug before removing the scratch plate which amazingly came off without causing any damage, so its now ready to be completely steampunked! I will keep you all updated with its progress!


Finally I made a small video as a little surprise for Lindsay Mason as a way of thanking her for all her support over the past few months. Its only short but highlights some of her most recent and fabulous designs.

Bye for now,
Andy

Gesso and a Dry Brush Video

Hello!
Well I'm back from Edinburgh, had a day's rest and feeling very enthused again…so enthused that I have made another video tutorial!
More on the video in a moment but first I wanted to share with you this abstract painting I am working on using the string technique.
Click Pictures For a Larger View


I found this technique using gesso and string on a website called Loving Mixed Media, it's really worth checking out if you like experimenting with mediums, lots of inspiration and great tutorials.
Ok on to the video, I loved the colours I used in the abstract above so decided to use them on this project using gesso as a textured background and dry brushing acrylic paint on top.
I have decorated a tag and an old perfume box pictured below.


For the tag I stippled the gesso on with a sponge dabber and the box I applied the gesso with a fan brush to give a different texture as you can see in these close-ups.


The secret to achieving this effect is the lighter you go the dryer your brush needs to be, finishing off with hardly any paint in the brush whatsoever.
Note; You will need an acrylic paint with a good pigment like Americana for this to work and if using cardstock a good flexible smooth gesso.
Right I will stop babbling on….here's the video, be warned some of the longer text instructions disappear a bit too quick so have your pause button ready!…PS please give it the thumbs up if you find it of use, it helps with the ratings….thanks!

Open Day June 2011

Hi all,
it's been such a busy mad week since returning from the Craft Barn Extravaganza.  I have been preparing for the Country Love Crafts Sale & Unveil Open Day being held tomorrow. There has been so much I have wanted to do this week, videos to make,  blogs to visit and messages to write but it's been impossible, so apologies to anyone that is awaiting a reply, I have answered all the urgent ones and I will get around to the rest sometime this week, saying that I fly out to Scotland first thing Tuesday morning to run some bespoke workshops in Edinburgh for a couple of days but I am hoping the hotel will have an internet connection so I can get stuff done in the evenings..

I am going to be running two Ceramic workshops along with two demo's during tomorrows event, here is a sneak peak at a couple of them…Ohhh exciting!!



Not much else to report today except I gave Sally a new coat!   For those of you who have no idea who sally is, she is a mixed media Salamander, a project I took on to show at Stitches trade show this year.
I gave her a nice shiny coat with one of the new products being shown tomorrow. I will reveal all after Monday!
Here she is, I have placed a 10 pence piece next to her foot so you can get an idea of her size.



Right I better get back to it,

Take care,

Andy

Altered Secret Book & Faith!

Now,  this maybe me just showing off my beautiful Grand-daughter Faith but there is an artistic reason for me posting this picture!



While visiting my oldest daughter Jade last weekend I discovered she had photographs of some of my early work with pastels, when i say early, I was in my teens, all of my artwork   unfortunately got destroyed by a flood but these three were luckily photographed.
All i can remember about these paintings are that I worked from a book which gave step by step instructions but that's about it!….


So please photograph your work as soon as it's finished and don't make the same mistake as I did..there really  is no excuse today with digital photography.

Right,  on to the secret book, Country Love Crafts were sent this as a sample, I really like it and hope they will start stocking it.


Here is the finished piece using Americana Acrylic, Distress ink,  Tissue Tape, Tando Creative laser cut board to mention just a few!

Click on images for a larger view




Take care,

Andy

Craft Barn Extravaganza

Hi all,

What a great couple of days!…Hello to everyone who sat and watched my table get so messy,  it ended up as organised chaos! the perfect way to work :)
On a serious note I have met so many lovely people over the weekend,  everyone has been so kind, it has been such a pleasure and a very enjoyable experience so thank you all so much.
I arrived at the hotel on Friday and have to say it was lovely,  I just wish I had brought my golf clubs as I had views of the putting green and 1st tee from my window!

Click on pictures for a larger view


I also had a chance to walk around Lingfield in the afternoon and discovered the little duck pond which lindsay Mason informed me about, here are some pictures of it…..Love the distressed door of the little prison where they would lock up petty offenders!





It was lovely also to catch up with Lindsay and Paula Pascal and also meet some of the Craft Barn DT, unfortunately there was very little time to chat!…Thanks Neil for the Acrylic block ;) and a big hello to everyone from UK Stampers!

Just wanted to show you these pictures which were hung outside my hotel room door, some great steampunk inspiration!


It has been a nightmare journey traveling back to Oxford via the m25, lots of rain and broken down vehicle's so I will leave this post here and continue tomorrow.
Take care everyone,

Andy

What a week!

Hi all,

No posts this week as it's been mad busy for me preparing for a couple of big events coming up over the next week, in doing this I have discovered some very cool techniques which I will share…… I promise as soon as i get time to blog properly. The past couple of days I have been preparing for the Craft Barn Extravaganza being held this weekend…just look at the amount of goodies I need to pack in the car tomorrow!

I really look forward to meeting some of you there, please do come and say hello! I have a few techniques that I am going to demo, Steampunk, Image transfer,  acrylic distress and Modeling Paste plus a few surprises along the way!

A busy week next week but hope to post a new video up on here,  and of course I will be blogging all this weekend from the Craft Barn keeping those of you not attending updated!

Take care,

Andy