Stone Art - Layers and Layers

Roughed up a circular piece of polystyrene.

Started to build up the layers. After the initial layer of Stoneart I added yellow powertex and using used Stoneart added another layer.

Once I was happy with the Stoneart layers, I added sprays of bisters in yellow, brown and green.

From the front after the bisters had been sprayed.

Next I coloured the pieces of clay. The flowers were made with the new daisies Powertex mould and the cherub is also from the Powertex range. I picked them both up last weekend at Pramoda Gifts who are stockists of Powertex products.

And this is sort of where they are going to go.

From the above photo I thought the piece needed more yellow for a more rustic stone effect, so went back in and added some more before I fixed the clay pieces on also with Powertex.

Really love how it's turned out using a mix of the Powertex and bisters to build up the layers in-between the Stoneart.

So funny how it completely changes when in a different light.

Would love to take a photo outside but we've been spoilt the last couple of days and today it's raining and grey and Stoneart isn't waterproof!

**Edited**

Finally got to take a photo outside.

****Edited****

I entered a Powertex competition with this piece and won this below, which was made by Tracey Evans, from Powertex UK.

Fiorella - Little Flower

Last weekend when I went to my mosiac workshop at Pramoda Gifts, Marina very kindly let me look through her Powertex books.

One of the books had a lovely figure in it and all I could really remember is that it was green. Phill very kindly described it to me so I thought I'd give it a go.

So first of all I made some air dry clay heads from moulds. On the bottom two heads I actually added clay to the back and rounded them off so they were 3d and not flat.

I set to making a couple of figures. The one on the left is made from a wire armature and then padded out with tin foil and covered in masking tape. The one on the left is primarily made from a piece of polystyrene and then some tinfoil at the bottom to create the lower body shape. I fixed the one on the left onto a wooden meat hammer, but I sawed the handle in half and stuck the other half onto a piece of wood to create the right hand base.

To create some texture, I mixed up some Powertex and Stone Art to make some clay. Then randomly spread it over the two figures and put it outside in the sunshine to dry.

Once dry I gave them both a coat of bronze Powertex, I applied it with a paintbrush as I didn't want to absolutely soak it. I set it aside for a few minutes and then sprinkled the Stone Art on the top and just kept turning it and sprinkling and let the excess drop off. Once I'd gone around the whole figure I lightly rubbed in the Stone Art, rubbed off the excess and left them to dry overnight.

This morning I took them outside and brushed off the excess with a paintbrush and you can see the lovely texture it has left.

They are now ready for the heads to be put on and the next stage.

Heads attached and Powercotton added for yet more textures.

Another layer of bronze Powertex and back in the airing cupboard to dry as it was way too windy today to put them outside.

Totally dried this morning, but I feared I'd made a grave mistake giving them a coat of Powertex, I wasn't really that happy with them at all.

Anyhow I persevered, I coloured the left hand one with the red power colour pigment. I didn't dry brush as I wanted to cover most of the figure. And the right one has a mix of power pigment green and moss green and from the primary elements pigment range, moss agate.

Next I dry brushed them with the rich gold and the bronze gold pigments.

Rich gold against the greens, however unfortunately you can't really see it.

And I used the bronze gold with the red, but again, you can't really see it.

So I brought them back inside in the hope that you can see the colours better.

And now I really love how they have both turned out, just wish I could get a better photo to reflect the colours.

And finally the reason for the post title, this is what the figure is titled in the book. The book is written in another language and apparetly 'Fiorella' is Italian and it's a girls name. When translated it means 'little flower', so I wanted to share with you my two little flowers.

Mosaic Dragonfly

Something a little different for me, yesterday I went to a mosaic workshop at Pramoda Gifts, Long Sutton. The workshop was with a lovely lady called Karen Frosdick. I chose to decorate a dragonfly. This is the treated mdf shape and I was playing with some tiles for the body.

This is what we were aiming for by the end of the day. This is Karen's sample piece in shades of blue.

I glued the tiles on for the body and then made a start on the wings. Once I was happy with the layout they were glued down too.

Continued with the bottom half of each wing and again glued them in place.

As we had to wait for the glue to dry, it was shopping time!

Karen was just finishing off drying Marina's. A hairdryer is preferable as it doesn't get the tiles as hot as a heat gun.

After lunch, and once the piece was totally dry, we moved onto the grouting. I chose to do mine in black.

Marina and Phill having a conflab. They have taken over most of the centre now and I have to say, it looks absolutely fabulous. There are loads and loads of lovely crafty items on display and I bought my mum a decoupaged duck as she has a duck fettish at present!

And here it is.

This is the dragonfly after three lots of grouting and wiping back. I couldn't take any photos inbetween as it was a messy job.

And Marina chose to use the off white grouting on hers, again after three lots of grouting and wiping.

I was told yesterday to take it home and not touch it until this morning, where I could then buff and polish it. This was to ensure the grout was totally dry.

The sun was out this morning so you can see the lovely colours and shimmers from the various different tiles.

And again from the opposite wing.

Hearts and Cherub

Following on from my last post, this is how I've used the other half of the heart.

Chiselled out a resess to house the small cherub.

Covered everything in Powertex StoneArt.

Used brown and yellow bisters to colour.

Next I took a large elongated heart, painted it with rouge chalky finish paint and stencilled with lace. Made a wash to tone it down and then added more stencilling in a mix of lace and gold. Added yellow translucent and quin gold media paint, spritzed to drip down the tag.

Added lots of pigments and treasure gold to the polystyrene heart and wings until I was happy with the colour as when it dried it went really light.

Close up of the dripped quin gold and translucent yellow oxide.

 And as the sun was still out, a photo in the shrubbery in the garden and although it looks a bit pink, it is actually a really nice stone colour!

Another entry for the PaperArtsy challenge of assemblage.