• Make
  • Cook
  • Read
  • Think
  • My Story

created for joy

~ make today

created for joy

Tag Archives: collage

Build

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by createdforjoy in Make

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

art, balsa wood, blue, build, collage, copper, finish, gears, green, hope, make, metal, multimedia, past, patina, rust, treasure, vintage, wire

build01

I got the very best birthday present this year: a passel of rusty old metal, courtesy of some dear friends and their 140-year old farm. There are nails and screws, washers and springs, hinges and handles, locks and keys: all lovingly hand-picked, colored by history in shades of deep orange and warm red. Who wants a pristine, shiny package when you can have a gift pulled from the clutches of spiders in the back of the barn? To some, all that rust may just seem like tetanus waiting to happen, but to me it is the sweetest kind of treasure.

Maybe I appreciate it all the more because I’m feeling a little bit vintage myself these days. I’m certainly showing some wear (I like to call it “patina”), but I still work hard and have some pretty good stories to tell. If there is beauty in being authentic, then all my creases and chipped edges make me positively radiant. :)

build04

It was that theme — the value in building a life with layers of wear and age — that inspired my most recent collage. I used my favorite hinge from my collection of vintage bits (yes, I have a favorite hinge) because its dusky blue reminded me of the sky in an old oil painting. I also picked out a few gears and some rusted nails to bundle in twine, then set to work assembling a multimedia landscape.

The background is a 5″x7″ watercolor illustration board painted to look like a piece of worn metal. This was the perfect opportunity to use Sophisticated Finishes, a liquid copper finish that can be custom-antiqued with a selection of blue and green patina solutions. It is little more than chemistry in action, but it gives me a thrill every time I watch a metallic surface fade and oxidize before my eyes.

build02

The paper pieces are from a 1952 travel magazine highlighting the charms of the midwestern United States, a great fit considering most of the vintage pieces I used hail from Kansas. I snipped and sanded a little balsa wood house, wallpapered with a page from an old hymnal, and set it against a fence made of sculpture wire. The final addition was a grove of stamped, embossed trees.

build03

There is such an obsession in our culture today with looking younger than we really are, smoothing out our wrinkles and blemishes until our faces have all the interest of a buffed wax floor. I am not sure how having the forehead of a 16-year-old became so important, but I think a society that values appearance above character has just hammered the perfect, shiny nails into its own coffin.

I value wisdom and experience, and that stuff usually comes with the price of aging. I would rather show and feel those years and know I really learned from them, than stay the unwrinkled, unknowing me I was a decade ago. I suppose that line of thinking also makes me sound increasingly vintage, but I don’t mind, because I’ve figured out how much promise that holds.

Advertisement

Waxing poetic

15 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by createdforjoy in Make

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

art, cardstock, collage, daisies, encaustic, grow, make, paint, paper, resin, trees, watercolor, wax

encausticgrowing04

Okay, that’s the very last wax pun, I promise. :) I tried encaustics — the art of painting and collage with wax — for the first time a couple of months ago, and I was instantly hooked. I love the depth and texture added to paper and fabric by the waxy, slightly opaque layers of encaustic medium. As a collage enthusiast who owns at least two dozen types of adhesives ranging from hot glue to glaze, tacky tape to epoxy, I am also fascinated by the endless potential for embedding objects in and on beeswax.

March was a fruitful season of learning and growth for my family and I, but it wasn’t one that allowed for much time in the studio. I decided to celebrate my return with a second encaustic piece. As with my first, this one is on a 4″-square piece of watercolor paper mounted on masonite. I made the abstract pastoral background by applying wrinkled plastic wrap to still-wet watercolor washes to add texture and grain. I sketched and cut out a few small paper trees to give the scene a little more depth and detail, then added a bit of yellow patterned cardstock to the center of the sun.

encausticgrowing02

The final touch was tiny text that reads “keep growing,” snipped from the pages of a 1938 farming magazine. I painted on several coats of encaustic medium, warming the surface with a heat gun between each application to help fuse the layers. After applying the last, I floated a smattering of miniature resin daisies in the hot wax. I love how the liquid wax drifted up and around them, almost enveloping their delicate white petals.

I am already at work on a slightly larger scale encaustic piece, and this time I want to experiment more with achieving patterns in the wax. My studio smells musty and sweet, perfumed by watercolor and heated wax that seems faintly scented of honey. It is how I imagine the inside of a beehive must smell (don’t tell me otherwise — I like the romance), and it makes me feel inspired and busy. More to come!

encausticgrowing03

Follow created for joy on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Search

Recent Posts

  • Almond Butter and Jam Cookie Sandwiches
  • Bacon and Egg Breakfast Muffins
  • Loving the Kitchen
  • Creamy Chicken Noodles
  • Double Chip Molasses Oatmeal Cookies

Categories

  • Cook (48)
  • Easy-Peasy (3)
  • Make (37)
  • Read (24)
  • Think (20)

Archives

  • October 2013 (1)
  • March 2013 (1)
  • October 2012 (1)
  • August 2012 (6)
  • July 2012 (4)
  • June 2012 (7)
  • May 2012 (4)
  • April 2012 (6)
  • March 2012 (6)
  • February 2012 (9)
  • January 2012 (14)
  • December 2011 (15)
  • November 2011 (17)
  • October 2011 (6)

All original content © Spring Barnickle, Create Joy LLC, & createdforjoy.com, 2011-2014.

Feel free to link to createdforjoy.com or provide excerpts with clear credit and directions to original content; please ask before copying posts or pictures to your site or publication.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • created for joy
    • Join 96 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • created for joy
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar