October Full Moon #9

This little altar piece goes to Peg, who loves Halloween just like I do! I wanted to include as many things as possible that would say "Spooky". I've been gathering Halloween papers, stickers and trinkets for the last year to make an altered book, so I had lots to chose from! I just wish the space was bigger so I could use more stuff...have a Spooktacular Halloween!!  Beth

October Full Moon #7

My inspiration is for my favorite event Halloween! It's not just Halloween that I love...it's everything about Fall. The past few years we've been seeing relatively dry crisp days and nights. When the wind blows and the leaves fall it's magical. The dry leaves make a wonderful crackling sound when they fall en mass and when walked on. Cars send dry leaves spinning up and around only to settle back down onto the road again. It's a sight to behold.

 The jack-o-lantern is traditionally a major icon for All Hallows Eve so I decided to make one from wool felt with a cotton fabric background. I wanted to make the pumpkin look as if it were glowing in the night with the cotton fabric. I hope it worked!

Just another word about Halloween which you probably already know is that October 31, and the days before that date, is when the veil between parallel realities/other dimensions is the thinnest so don't be surprised if you see things you may have never seen before or hear things you've never heard before happen! This whole month is awesome, and filled with possibilities!

Lou's camera pasted away this month

may it RIP. Photos of her work coming soon..Peg

October Full Moon #5

October is my favorite month of the year. I love the fiery colors of the changing leaves and Halloween is my all time favorite holiday of the year.

Several years ago I spend many months exploring mold making and made mold of anything I could lay my hands on that would hold still for at least 5 minutes. I happened upon some old party picks that were used for the cupcakes of my childhood. A cat arched in perfect Halloween pose  against the full moon.

 I created 2 fine silver pieces and used different methods of attachments one adding a tab with a hole and the other embedding wire. I also added tiny ruby eyes to one. These pieces were used to demo different patina effects including nail polish. They were survivors of many different techniques in my many classes.

 As I was searching for inspiration for the October Full Moon I ran across them. My goal was to create a piece that could pose in its space in the printer’s drawer but then be unhooked and be worn.

I tried many, many, many different ideas to no avail until I decided I had to make 2 separate things.

 In all of the travels the cats had survived the wire embedded had snapped off at the point of insertion and I had tossed it into the scrap pile. The other began its journey as a spooky/sparkly Halloween necklace. I completed the necklace and discovered it would not behave and fit into the spot.

 I had created a background of ink washes on a silver metallic paper to resemble a moonlit night sky.

Then I wove a wee bare tree with 34 gauge wire and copper limbs. That was like weaving with hair strands(whew). I die cut a wrought iron fence and attached everything with gel medium. I rescued the second cat from the scrap pile and added the patina for the moon from my crazy color collection of nail varnishes, doing both cat pieces at once so they resembled each other.( Interesting to note there is a layer of bright poison green enhancing the golden moon)

All was attached with the gel medium and I added tiny stars of glitter to the sky. The necklace was created on two silk cords navy and deep green , one which I added 4 beads, 2 black and white and 2 green rhinestone with large holes. And of course you need to know why the cat was howling at the moon it was the singing caballeros with tiny bats circling above.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Peg

October Full Moon #3

Hello Ladies,

This month has been CRAZY BUSY!  I took a few hours for myself and visited Peg at the Best Of The Northwest show and what a treat that was!!!  Relaxing and fun.  Her work, as always was beautiful and her booth warm and inviting.  It wasn’t difficult for me to find something beautiful for my mom’s birthday in March!

This month my spot is for Lou, who, if I remember correctly not only LOVES HALLOWEEN but has a birthday on October 13!!!!

Early in this art exchange several of you used Shrink Film aka Shrinky Dink so for many months I have been committed to trying it!!!!  THIS IS THE MONTH!  I also wanted to introduce some of you to Pebeo Vitrea 160 paints (since you are all so creative some of you may have used them in the past).  For those of you have not heard of them or had a chance to try these amazing paints I will provide a brief overview of the process.  These paints are meant for hand painting glass and dishes.  You paint it on.  Let it dry for 24 hours.  After it has dried completely you place it in the oven, turn it on to 300 degrees for 40 minutes.  When it’s done you turn off the oven, open the door, and let the piece air cool because it is glass and will crack if you cool it too quickly.  TADA!!!!

I decided to cut out a cute and adorable pumpkin in Brass.  I used the process of chasing and repousse to give it texture and volume.  I then hand mixed the colors that I wanted and created a deep pumpkin orange color with a touch of pearlescence.  You have probably figured out  like that little bit of pop in my pieces that it gives.  I wanted FLAMES for the background so you could see it through the HAPPY PUMPKIN’S eyes which would give it just a little bit of menace but not too much.  Last, but certainly not least,  I needed an adorable Halloween Witch flying past the moon on her broom!!!  This is where the Shrinky Dink came in.  I found my witch, printed her out, cut her out, then put her in the oven to shrink to size.  I hope the pictures help capture as much of the process as possible.  The pumpkin color was a little darker after it went in the oven but it is still a pumpkin!

It will be front heavy so I would suggest hot glue to hold it in if you like it and want to keep it.  It is glued to the background.

I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Halloween this year!             

Many blessings to everyone,

Lynn Vernon