Riveting Metal Book

Yeah --- I have internet access again LOL

I wanted to psot pics of all the completed books from a metal book swap I hosted with an amazing Guild of altered artists. I had a vision of a fun and very eclectic compilation of metal pages -- and they did the most amazing pages ever! It took me a while to think up covers that I felt would do the interior justice.

My front covers are altered copper mesh attached to old Bingo cards and I embellished them with copper pieces that were sooted, stamped, sealed, and embossed. I just love this technique and haven't done it for a long time. It has a lot of steps, but is fun if you assembly- line it and do a bunch at once. The images turn a rich brown after they have been sooted and sealed.

The back cover is torched copper that was embossed and wrapped over a chipboard cover.

Muerte de Medusa

Yeah!! Another project not destined for my UFO (UnFinished Object) pile LOL

I was a little nervous about the time on this. I signed up for Michael de Meng's Found Object Alchemy class. Half a day was spent hitting antique stores in search of objects to alter. I figured I'd be coming home with a half-finished projct ... but whew! I got about 95% done in class ... that' pretty good for me LOL

I had a bit of a headstart on mine. Part of my assemblage was fashioned from an old lamp I found in the rust pile at my Aunt's house posted a few weeks earlier. It was a major feat to get the roof and base removed, so it's good that I had this done ahead of time.

The base is made from an ornate metal jewelry box I gutted. I had it in my head to do something with a Greco-Roman feel, but it turned out quite differnt. Michael pointed out the colors has a Latin American feel and the vines and medallion on the front gave me a feeling of Medusa, so I am calling this Death of Medusa.

I'm also posting the back, which seemed to be Michael's favorite part LOL I just hate velvet. It was covered in black velvet and I knew I wouldn't have time to do anything elaborate to get rid of that look, so I just gessoed and painted it and I ended up with a faux rust look.

Broken Wing

My temporary purple/blue obssession continued with this page LOL
I had originally intended to do a whole piece of bubble wrap for the background -- in honor of Bubble Wrap Day LOL -- but my muse had other ideas.

The heart was textured with puff paint. There is also a piece of tulle netting, but it's not really visible in the scan.

Iron Heart

This is a bit ironic LOL -- but the challenge on Inspire Me Thursday this week is to push your boundaries and what timing. I push the boundaries with a lot of my art, but some pieces are harder than others. 3-D work has been a challenge, but also the most rewarding for me.

I couldn't find my large paper mache heart and the thought of trying to form my own heart shape seemed daunting, but I tried an experiment. This is actually the central piece for a window screen assemblage I am outting together and I plan on entering it in a juried show -- another scary thought LOL

I cut out a heart shape from brown paper bag, stitched, and stuffed before treating with texture mediums and iron paint.

Leonardo Goes Metallic

Here is a fresh look for Leonardo LOL I stamped some images on metal tape and adhered over a thin layer of light molding paste, so I'd get more dimension when I embossed the lines with a stylus.

Dark Souls

I've been working on this project on and off for a while. I altered a box to store loose pages in for a round robin with a dark theme. It took me a while to pinpoint amore specific theme, but I came up with Dark Souls -- I am hoping to do something with Phantom of the Opera -- and maybe one more page about another dark soul -- but we'll see LOL

I loaded a picture of the top of the box, but there are a lot more views in my webshots album. I put quite a bit of time into mixed media techniques on this.

Eagle Eye

This is a round robin spread for an animal totem book. There were a few different animals that came up for me, but this one hit home and I've been seeing eagles and hawks everywhere lately -- so perhaps this is a sign :)

I wish I could say I thought up the eagle drawing, but I'm not that good LOL I tried to draw my own based on another illustration -- but I did manage to think up the lines for the copper embossed feathers on my own LOL

I Love Fire!

For anyone who does not know ... I love fire LOL I got a whole hardware kit by Memory Keepers, but everything is silver ... not my cup of tea. I assumed they were painted silver, so I thought I would torch the paint off ... what a shock when they all tuned variegated, but how cool!

The one in the middle is to show you what I started with. Anyone know what kind of metal does this? I couldn't find any details on the package that told what type of metal it was.

Aging Experiments

My old liver of sulphur (LOS) went into the trash ... for whatever reason it lots potency. The new LOS more than makes up for it LOL I cut more copper mesh and wanted to go for a mottled effect for more copper mesh pockets for my Melange book for MHBA.

I took this first photo horizontally, but decided I needed to turn it upright, as I got this neat ink-blot effect and it looks like a cross-section of an insect LOL

Doesn't that second one look like a big pair of creepy eyes?

The bottom piece was crumpled up and dipped, but I didn't get my crevices pinched close tightly enough and didn't get as many bright spots. I splattered on some blue patina.