Up-cycled Angels

 

Apart from the head, these are totally up-cycled.  Piece of wood from the old gate, tubes from catering rolls of tinfoil, used tin foil, old wire coat hanger for the wings, old dishcloth, old t-shirt and scarf.

Covered the body with off cuts of an old t-shirt and painted the wings, all in bronze powertex.

Next I draped off cut of fabrics, lace and old scarves over each of the figures just to see how they would lay.

I then covered all the pieces in powertex and arranged them on the figures.

Coloured with silver and blue pigments.

And the back.

And on this one I just used the silver.

And again from the back.  

I just need to get a couple of pieces of slate now to mount them on.

#rusteffects #powertex #upcyclingchallenge

Circles of Life

 

Using my polystyrene cutter I cut these circles out.

Set up the dining room table.

Added stone art to all the pieces, rubbed in, applied a second and third layer in various places, then sprayed with black bister.

Then I put all the layers together and secured them with wooden sticks. I made a little man to sit inside the smallest one.

Close up of the layers of stoneart and the bister.

And a close up of the middle ring and the bister.

Powertex Figures

 

I just wanted to show how you can make a powertex figure on a shoestring.  This is a dolls head from Poundland, it was £1.  I cut off all the hair.  The base is a wooden meat hammer from Wilko - £1.50.  The body is crushed tinfoil to shape, covered in masking tape (both can be bought for £1 from Poundland).

Then some bits of cotton fabrics, a dishcloth, an old woolen scarf and some odd pieces of t-shirt wrap.  But you can use whatever you have. You might have an old shirt or t-shirt, anything will work as long as it's 80% ish or more cotton.  The most expensive thing you will need is the Powertex, but it does come in various sizes so you can get a small bottle if you aren't sure about it. 

(100g - £7, 250g - £10 or 1kg - £17)

I made another one, but this time instead of a meat hammer I used a cardboard tube and a piece of wood that used to be a panel in our old gate.  As the heads are plastic, I painted everything in a coat of black gesso.

And as I fancied something totally different, I used red powertex with the dishcloth and the t-shirt wrap and transparent with the pieces of scarf.

And here they are finished.

The Thinking Man

I made an armature, bulked it out with tinfoil and then covered the foil with masking tape.

I mixed up some 3d flex, white powertex and some power sand.  I obviously didn't put enough sand in though as it cracked and I didn't really want it to, but never mind.

I painted a block of wood in white powertex too.

I stuck the hands together and his right elbow is also stuck to his knee.

Sumo Geisha Figure

 

Martin made me a two pronged wooden base and I started to create my figure with a polystyrene ball for the body, tinfoil, bubble wrap and masking tape.

The head and hands are Powertex plaster pieces.  I then created the legs and roughly decided where I wanted the top and bottom colour to meet.

I mixed yellow powertex with 3d flex to make a clay and then covered the bottom part of the figure.  I didn't make enough to do the legs as well, so I left them for now.

I also stamped into the clay and left it outside in the sun to dry and crack.

I made up some more yellow and covered the legs, then made some red.  This time I made far too much red, so ended up giving her a red hat too.  But I cling filmed the neck to keep it clean.

Close up of the red crackle and the stamping.

Drying and cracking out in the sun again.  Martin came home and told me it looked like Ronald McDonald!!!

So using pigments and powerwax I changed the colours.

I also painted her nails.

And her face, and gave her some hair.

Close up of the back with the blue over the red.

And the bottom is more of a blend as I added orange to the yellow.

Nefertiti Figure

It's been ages and ages since I made a powertex figure, so I decided to have a go to see if I could still do it.  Something a little bit different though. 

I did this one slightly different, as I added pigment to the powertex just after I'd added the fabrics, so it was still very wet when I applied it. Used a very small brush to paint the details in rich gold pigment and varnish.

Slightly turned to the right.

Slightly turned to the left.

And finally from the front.

Sausage Dog

I mixed white powertex with bronze to create a lighter brown. I used small pieces of hessian to cover the body and make the ears.

A Little Ram

Had a little play and came up with this little chap. I used white powertex and an old scarf.

March Secret Art Loft Powertex Box

"The March hares danced and leapt around as the moonlight shone golden on the lush Spring ground" by Claire Ivins

I started off with the two solid wooden hare shapes from out the box.

Next I took some household items, garden wire, masking, tape, a small glass coke bottle (other brands are also available), wire cutters and strong catering foil.

Using the tinfoil and the wire I created a pair of arms and legs. I also covered the bottle in tinfoil and padded it out at the front.

I created a head and some ears, also using tinfoil. I covered everything in masking tape and taped the arms and legs onto the bottle. The head and ears are not yet attached to the body.

So here are my trio of hares ready to be Powertexed.

Firstly I painted the two wooden shapes with bronze Powertex, cut manageable lengths of yarn, covered them in Powertex and wrapped them around starting from the base. I left the heads plain. On the right, taller one I wrapped around t-shirt yarn on the ears, but on the left one I covered them in Stone Art.

Close up of how I've wrapped and covered the wooden hares. The right one looks white as I blew off the excess Stone Art from the ears!

Once dried, I coloured the left one with rich gold pigment and the right one with white. I gave the ears on the right on a coat of varnish, over the Stone Art.

Next I covered my bigger hare completely with bronze Powertex and pressed on the Stone Art powder. I kept pressing it on until all of the Powertex was covered. The head/ears and body are still not attached yet as it was easier to do this process in two halves. After a few minutes I took a clean paint brush and lightly brushed off all the excess Stone Art powder. I repeated the process until I liked the look of what I had. Once I was happy I attached the head just by painting powertex on the top of the bottle neck and base of the head, it can be used as a glue too.

I sprayed it with brown Bister to blend colour of the Stone Art into the bronze.

The Stone Art has absorbed it, it's still made it slightly darker. However, it's hard to tell from the photo.

So here are my family of hares all finished.