A Good Vintage

This weeks theme for Tag Tuesday was vintage, not something I really do, so I took a different approach and made a little mixed media tag of a Green Man who ensures a good crop of grapes to produce "A Good Vintage"

So I sculpted a little face, about 1 1/2" long for my green man and coloured him up a bit with pastel pencils and acrylic paint for the eyes, which are terrible by the way, my eyes just don't cope with tiny detail anymore, should have gone out into the bight daylight and I may have done a better job, sorry no pics, forgot to take any.

 I made the grape vine leaves from some hand dyed scrim and Aleene's fabric stiffener. I treated myself to a Joggles order the other week and thought I would try this fabric stiffener as it was also used in an online workshop that I haven't done yet. To be honest I prefer the Powertex I already have, it soaks into the fabric much better and doesn't leave a shiny finish like the Aleenes does, but thats what the tags are all about, trying new techniques and products. I also coiled some strips of fabric around a wooden skewer cover in cling film to make the tendrils.

 Then came a frustrating hunt for the purple and red beads I knew I had somewhere! Threaded these onto some fine green wire then just twisted them around till they look a bit like bunches of grapes.

  I had a box board (chip board) tag already cut and tested out my new craft mat and blending tool from my Joggles order along with the distress inks and a bit of moon shadow spray to colour up the tag.
Finally I made up the label using inkscape and printed out on the computer, used some rusty hinge and frayed burlap and a gold pen to finish it off.

So there he is. There are some amazing tags over on Tag Tuesday so pop over and have a look at all the lovely tags there .

Clay Beginnings

After attending a demonstration at my doll club on Polymer clay, I have become fascinated with this product, and bought myself some clay and books in my xmas goodie package. I then got myself a copy of Mareen Carlsons book Fairies, Gnomes & Trolls: Create a Fantasy World in Polymer Clay and just had to try a troll.  This was a huge learning experience for me and like most things, I couldn't stick to the directions in the book and he took off in a slightly different direction.  We were having lots of very wet weather at the time and I think this influenced me greatly in the end result.  He went through a hard time, getting a burnt belly and breaking his legs off more times than I like to remember, but I'm very happy with the way he turned out. The finishing touch will be some lovely fat raindrops sliding down his umbrella.  I was extremely proud and honoured when he was featured on the home page of my favourite yahoo group Beginners Polymer Clay Art Group