I decided to use some scraps of linen fabric as it has a nice texture. I also pulled out some resin and clay pieces to decorate with.
Once I'd covered the linen in powertex and put it on the tins I added the embellishments.
I accidently picked up the bronze but I really wanted to use the black, so I have one of each.
Then I went back in with the powertex and painted over all of the embellishments and as you can see, they cover pretty well even though some are resin.
Then I dry brushed the fabric on the tins and it didn't matter if I got some on the embellishments as I'm going to paint them in different colours.
I used a combination of silver and peacock on the dark pot.
And purples, pinks and red on the brown pot with the flowers.
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.
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!
I took a cardboard tube, the core of a kitchen roll, drew around the clay skull and roughly cut it out without squashing the tube.
I checked that the skull fitted in the hole, but I didn't want it loose.
Using masking tape I created a shelf about an inch down from the tops of the tube.
I started covering them with black Powertex.
I covered the battery tea lights with cling film.
I covered both of the tubes in fabric and other embellishments. Once the fabric was on the taller tube, I pushed the skull into the hole.
Added more clay pieces, lace and wool.
Added the clay wings.
I painted everything in black Powertex and then set them outside to dry.
I brought them back inside and left them overnight to totally dry.
Once dry, I took out the tea lights which were still covered in cling film. The fabric where they'd been sat was still a bit wet, so I left them out to let the fabric fully dry.
Once totally dry, I dry brushed them with silver and turned on the tea lights.
And these are the opposite sides, ie the back.
Had loads of fun making these and love how they've come out.
This step by step is over on the Powertex Blog today too. Why not pop over and check out what else is on there.
