Necklace

I've been playing around with casting plaster the last week or so. I wanted a large face to put on an assemblage I'm working on and thought plaster would be ideal. But in the meantime, I made a mold out of a doll hand and cast it to use on this necklace:
Once the plaster was dry (thanks in part to the magic of the microwave!) I painted it with a couple of acrylic washes, added the next and then glued it to the washer. The spikes coming out of the back are actually straight pins that I colorized using alcohol inks. The metal case for the necklace is made out of metal repair tape on top of heavy cardstock. I inked it with alcohol inks and then embossed it using some distress powder. It doesn't show very well in the photo because of the glare, but you can see a little bit of the embossing in the corner. I cut the pages and made the book, ran the ribbon (hand dyed using a combination of walnut ink and perfect pearls heat-set with an iron) through a hole that I pierced at the top and put the whole thing together.
Viola--a lovely grungy necklace. :)

How to drill a hole in a fragment

I am absolutely in love with all the wonderful Plexiglases crafting products that are out there. And a good many of them don't come with holes drilled in them. So I thought I'd post a little how-to for drilling. It's not as scary as you might think.
Here's what you'll need: a drill with a small drill bit--I'm using 1/16th bit that is made to cut through metal. Safety goggles, a drilling block (this needs to be big enough to be sturdy and level so that it doesn't wobble. I use an old wood cigar box.) Wall putty/sticky tack (this is the stuff that you use to stick stuff to the walls without leaving a mark.) And whatever it is you're going to be drilling. (I'm using a prong frame from retro cafe art gallery, but the process is the same for fragments.)
Here is a photo of my stuff (drill not included.)

Take a small piece of the sticky tack and place it in the middle of the object and then stick it to the surface, this will hold the piece in place and keep it from moving around while you drill. Since I'm drilling through both a prong frame and Plexiglases, I put a second piece of putty between the the Plexiglases and the metal so that I can drill through both simultaneously. Here's a photo of it all ready to go:
I like to pre-mark my holes so that they are even, using a light colored sharpie. They need to be far enough in so that the drill bit won't break through the outer edge. Then, with a steady hand, drill through. Go slowly and try to put even pressure on the top of the drill.


Here is a picture of the charm with the holes drilled through:


Now you're ready to turn this into something! Here's what I made with mine:

Some New Work

The last couple of days I've been working on some new jewelry pieces. I wanted to make a necklace for my friend Sarah who is spending th summer doing research in NY. I made this for her:

The bottom charm is actually a shrink-plastic charm made out of a ticket stamp. I glued the word onto it once it was cool and then embossed clear embossing powder on top to seal it in.

Here is a picture of the package all wrapped up and ready to go to her:
This next piece I did as part of my design team work for Retro Cafe Art Gallery. The girl is from her "Lucy" set and the mini-shrine is something she carries in her altered art supplies. I filled it with UTEE and heated it to seal in the tiny-heart. I then inked it with alcohol inks in purple and silver.
For both of the necklaces, the acrylic squares are fragments by Tim Holtz. I drilled holes in them to turn them into charms.

A necklace for my Grandmother

I finished this necklace yesterday for my Grandmother. It's a belated mother's day present. originally, I tried making her a pin, because she is the kind of person who wears pins, but I had nothing but trouble with it. Finally, I gave-up. Which is rare for me. Normally, I stick it out. Oh well.
But I came up with this instead:
The acrylic shrine tag is from Retro Cafe Art Gallery. The man in the photo is my grandfather, who passed away a few years ago. (I don't know why there are those weird spots on the charm in this picture, because in real life there aren't any.) The heart charm is shrink plastic that I embossed with pearl-ex and them stamped onto when cool.

Wednesday Stamper

The theme this week over on the Wednesday Stamper is the Gothic arch. As soon as I saw the challenge I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I used the template design provided on the site to make a necklace out of shrink plastic. Here it is all closed up. I used perfect pearls on the front before I heated it to give it that nice sparkle.

Then here is the inside with the doors open. The stamp is by Lost Coast Designs. I colored her in using chalks and perfect pearls and then shrunk. For some reason the scan came out a little blurry, in reality her colors really pop.

And just to give you an idea of scale, here it is in my hand.
Hope everyone had a good Monday. I will be back tomorrow with photos from my mini-book.