Caution using melted plastic

All plastic melting should be done in a well ventilated room. If you work in a smaller area, you should use a gas mask. Check at your hardware store for such a mask. I also find that you need good ventilation when using spray paint. Wear a paper mask if spraying a lot or use the gas mask for spraying a lot in close quarters.

Top part is a thick piece of styrene foam sprayed heavily with clear acrylic medium to cause melting and distortion. The styrene was painted with black and gold paint and over painted with a clear medium and green/blue interference pearlex powder. It is mounted to a piece of tin can that has been rusted and painted with gold and clear medium.

Susan Lenart Kazmer bead style. Cut small piece of metal and roll into bead shape treat with domed resin or paint and spray with lacquer. Insert paper treated with resin, or gel medium, insert yarn. Drill through the metal with dremel insert wire and wrap closed with a loop.

white plastic yogurt carton lid, ironed and painted with acrylic paint and sprayed with clear lacquer

1 tyvek envelope melted with heat gun and iron painted with radiant rain and clear acrylic spray and wrapped with wire

2. metal piece burned with torch, clear UTEE and some RR mist

3 clear plastic drinking cup ironed, then glued on a small piece of old sheet music sprayed with radiant rain using mod podge, and then sprayed on Ace instant dry clear lacquer.

4. melted plastic bag and clear UTEEwith RR mist

5. melted plastic bag attached to metal piece with utee …sprayed with RR mist and then lots of clear UTEE

6. tinfoil sponged with pigment ink, clear UTEE and radiant rain mixed

7. several layers of plastic rain coat folded and ironed, painted with RR mist and clear lacquer

Metal pieces with radiant rain mist, clear lacquer spray and clear UTEE

File the edges until they are not rough, then heat the metal with a small propane torch until it changes colors. You can easily do this without the torch, it just happens to be something I like to do. Then spray RR mist and over that spray clear lacquer.

Mixed Media art technique for April

Charms etc from recycled metal and plastic

My goal this year is to use as many recycled items in my art as possible. I have been experimenting with painting metal and plastic items. I do not have it all perfected, but I will share my experiments. Feel free to use these ideas and do some experimenting yourself. For the metal pieces I used International coffee tins cut to small pieces with tin snips.

For melted plastic bags, I found an old clear plastic rain coat worked well. I also use clear grocery bags and any clear plastic bags that come with new products. i.e. bags holding cords when I got my new computer. Dry cleaning bags work well too. You have to experiment to see which kind you like. I also like to melt clear plastic drink glasses and dessert plates.

I use a variety of spray paint that I get at ACE Hardware store. I use an instant dry clear lacquer, clear acrylic medium either gloss or matte. I also use their Fusion paint that sticks to plastic. It is opaque so you loose any sight of the original material. I use golden acrylic paint, heavy bodied and fluid. I also use golden mediums and mod podge to make paper sturdier and sometimes translucent.

Plastic bag: I use a firm table that I put an old sheet on, then lay the plastic bags several layers thick and cover with a piece of canvas and iron over it with a hot iron. You can experiment with putting acrylic paint on before ironing. I have used paint both before and after ironing. You can also use a piece of paper over or under the plastic when you iron. I have tried using old magazine pages and tried to get the plastic to adhere to the paper. Then you can wash off the paper and the print will transfer to the plastic. I have had this work a couple of times, but it is far from perfect.

For clear plastic drink cups or clear plastic desert plates I cut and place under the canvas cloth, then I melt with the iron. It turns opaque when you melt it. These melted plastic pieces are flexible enough not to break but sturdy enough to be a backing for UTEE application. Acrylic paint will stick if you layer it with a clear acrylic spray or lacquer. I use white plastic carton lids in a similar fashion.

My first entry for Inspire Me Thursday

The theme for Inspire me Thursday this week is Birds. Here is my page.
IMT website: http://www.inspiremethursday.com/category/create/

Renewal, reconstructed, and refound

I am going to try to revive this blog so I will have a place to post some items. This is a collage I made for a swap-bot swap.

Self Portrait, a handcarved stamp. This is a page from my 8 x 10 altered book journal.  

Live Life! Pages from the Reconstuction Era journal

Will you be my friend? From the Reconstuctions Era journal 

In the Reconstruction Era workshop we were to work really quickly. Juliana timed us and kept us moving. This was a window/door page.  

Mandala pages from Reconstruction Era workshop 

Your Dreams, pages from the Reconsturction Era journal 

A page from the journal that I created in Juliana Cole's Reconstruction Era Workshop last July 

I Hate to Sew, a collage made with actual sewing machine parts. It won honorable mention in our local Faces of Women show.  

heritage collage 

Family history collage 

From poem to painting

The mind journey from the quotation to the painting?
Well, I went from "she put it on like a costume" to thinking "she put it on like a mask". From there I just started painting masked faces.

Here is the excerpt:

My mother was not impressed with her beauty,
Every year she put it on like a costume,

Sitting on a stool in front of a mirror.....

From: Christmas Eve My Mother Dressing by Toi Derricotte