Pen Pot

I picked a kiddies pair of footy boots up for 50p from the car boot a few weeks ago.

With a view to making my sister something for Christmas.

I cut the tube with the intention of using the taller one, but in the end I used the shorter one.

Then I gathered everything I thought I might need.

I covered the boot in plain t-shirt fabric to start with just to get a base on to cover everything, including the inside. Next I placed the tube in the hole and covered it too.

I covered the polystyrene ball with a couple of coats of white powertex and cut some black pentagon shapes from black t-shirt fabric.

I covered the pentagons with transparent powertex and placed them on the ball to try and replicate a football. It looks cloudy as the transparent doesn't go on clear, but dries clear.

Once the first layer of the boot fabric was dry I added more fabrics and paper decoration and also some clay pieces. 

Once everything was dry I made sure the ball would sit on the boot. 

I started to add the colouring, I was going for a very red, red. So I started with a very light layer and just kept layering and layering a bit at a time until I got the depth I wanted. I also added a layer of the red metallic lustre which really brought it to life.

Just love how the colours bring out the fabulous textures.

I used festive red dazzling metallics on the flowers which has given them a hint of gold too.

And a view from the front.

I haven't actually glued the ball onto the front yet, but I'll use transparent powertex for that.

And a view of the other side of the boot.

And a view from the top. I kept checking that the ball sits okay on the boot.

And here it is finally with pens in it.

I've made this for my sister for Christmas. She loves football and is a teacher so is always using pens when marking her classes work, and it's totally unique and different. I know she will love it as she has already pinched on of my angels and another statue!

A Little Cherub

I covered a polystyrene ball with t-shirt fabric which had been laced with a mix of black and white Powertex to make a grey. Once I'd created some texture I added the clay cherub on the top and put a piece of cotton yarn around it and painted them with the Powertex mix. I mounted everything on a polystyrene base.

Now completely dried and ready to be aged.

I added white pigment to create a stone effect.

And finally some silver to the wings and the hair.

It looks much more stone like than I can capture in a photo.

Rusty Tag

This time last week I was on a 3 day workshop and one of the things we were asked to do was to take anything rusty we could find. Although I had a fabulous time, it wasn't what I expected and so I brought the bits back and a few more that Judith kindly let me use on the day, to do something like what I thought we'd be doing, but didn't!

I look a large mdf tag and laid bits and bobs out how I roughly wanted to place them.

To create some texture on the tag I used kitchen roll. Paint the mdf and then just lay a small piece of kitchen roll on and dab it with the end of the paintbrush until it's all covered. Then take another small piece and continue until you've covered the tag. You could also use fabric too, or a mix of both.

Whilst it was still tacky I started to place the pieces of rusty metal. 

Powertex also acts as a glue, so it's very easy to stick most things down.

Then I added all the washers, screws, nails and the clay skull.

I made sure everything had a good coat of the black Powertex. I also decided to add strands of Power Cotton to create even more texture and set it aside to dry.

This is how it looks this morning after spending a night in the airing cupboard.

Close up of the skull. All the metal is stuck on with Powertex.

Close up of the tag and now it's dried you can really see the Power cotton.

So onto the dry brushing. I used white to start with.

I got a bit brave and tried to record it. I have uploaded it, but please bear in mind, it's the first one I've done, and I had the camera in my left hand and was trying to dry brush one handed!!! 

Press the triangle in the photo above if you want a laugh. 

So this is what I ended up with after adding the white pigment.

Just in case the first one didn't work, I tried it again with another colour.

Again press the triangle for the video to play.

So this is where I kind of got to after I'd stopped videoing. If you didn't manage or want to watch it, I did another layer of dry brushing, but this time used the red pigment.

And to brighten it up a little, I used the bronze and rich gold pigments. You'll be pleased to know I didn't video this one!!

Close up - you can really see the single strands of Power Cotton now.

And here I Powertexed the tacks using the heads onto the forehead of the skull.

Another close up to show off the textures.

A closer close up of the tacks on the skull head.

And this is what it came out like, I'm rather pleased with it.

If you liked this step by step, why not leave me a comment and you can also let me know what you thought of my little videos. Be honest, I won't be offended, it was off the cuff and not planned at all. Next time I'll use a tripod so I have both hands free!

Couple of Cats

I cut a couple of pieces of wire, bent them into a flat U shape and taped the top. The right one I covered with a layer of bubble before I added tinfoil and the one on the left I covered just in tinfoil.

Once I'd built them up into the shape I wanted using tinfoil, I covered them in masking tape. I left the top exposed so I could use the wire to hold a polystyrene ball.

Next I mixed up some clay. I used black Powertex and kept feeding StoneArt powder into it. 

Until I got something like this, a clay.

I painted an area of the masking tape with Powertex.

I rolled out the clay using my hands and pushed it onto the masking tape. Putting the Powertex on beforehand helps it to stick.

I covered everything but the ball with clay and left it to dry.

I'd made extra clay to cover the head the following day. As long as you seal it tight, you can keep it up to a couple of weeks before you use it.

This is how it looked the next day after it had dried. All the way through the process I made sure it stood on its own.

The one on the right was the frame with the bubble wrap and tinfoil and the one on the left was just the tinfoil. I wanted to experiment to see if there was much difference in how the clay worked on each one.

They have both been in the airing cupboard for a few days and are now rock solid. The one on the right fell over and the ear bent and is set solid, happy accident. The white that you can see is where I didn't totally mix the Stoneart in 100%, but it doesn't bother me as it just adds to the look and I'm going to paint it anyway.

So here I have painted the one on the left in pewter and the one on the right is still the raw clay.

Right one is now painted too, I used bronze.

And from the side so you can see their tails and the right one I also angled the head.

And here they are from a slightly different angle. It's amazing how much texture you get from your hands when applying the clay and how this comes out in the dry brushing.

Close up of the textures.

The base of the pewter one.

And the base of the bronze one.

Hope you found this useful and if you want to, don't be shy, leave me a quick comment.