Raidiant Rust Workshop

When I saw that Ink Pad NYC was offering a class called "Radiant Rust" with the super talented Seth Apter, I jumped at the chance to sign up. I love his work--the way he creates art that has a grungy look, but artfully so. And he had just debuted a line of new embossing powders--Baked Texture, produced by Emerald Creek--so I couldn't wait to learn from the master himself. The class was held in the small West Village shop, so it was cozy and intimate.

We all followed Seth's directions for layering on the paints (we used Seth's line of Fresco Finish chalk paint, which dries faster than regular acrylic) and distressing them to get the signature grunge look. But...we also added sprays of gold and a stamped, embossed texture with both the Patina Oxide and Chunky Rust, which added extra depth and texture to the grungy background.

Seth's Chalk Paints were used to create our Radiant Rust pieces.

A background of midnight chalk paint was covered with strokes of terracotta and smoked paprika.

Layers and layers of paint were added, in different colors, to achieve the grungy look.

On the left, textured paper was used to apply the paint; on the right is the finished background.

Step two was creating a stamped center piece to go on top of the rusted background. We started with a piece of watercolor paper, and painted it with Green Patina chalk paint, then added texture with Terracotta. I liked the painted aqua piece, which would then get stamped with one of Seth's designs, and placed on top of the larger, darker rusted background.

Top: painted green patina/terracotta piece. Bottom: textured paper that was used to apply the colors.

 The sample that Seth showed us looked fabulous. We all aimed to have a finished product that would look as good. Mine, however, did not. I went a little overboard with the stamping and basically made a mess.

Finished Radiant Rust piece by Seth Apter.

I added a few of Seth's stamps, but wasn't happy with the color choices.

I added more and more stamps in the hope that it would look better.

I wasn't happy with the designs I stamped, or the colors I chose, so I didn't finish my piece, but brought it home and worked on it the next day. I used  Gwen's Art Deco Sun Medallion stencil with with acrylic paint on some aqua painted deli paper and liked the effect. While it was wet, I sprinkled Patina Oxide powder on it, then blasted it with my heat gun. Later, I added more of the chalk paints over it and around the edges to create a distressed look and a rusted edge.

The deco stencil with Patina Oxide.

Various chalk paints were added to achieve a distressed, rusty look.

Below is the finished deco center section, with a black paper border, placed on top of the rusted background. It looked good so far, but kind of empty, and I knew it needed more.

I auditioned several items to possibly go in the center of the green deco design. While at the Ink Pad workshop, I purchased some Lynne Perrella stamps, so I printed two of them to see how they worked. I decided on a small face, printed it in black on deli paper, and once dry, also distressed it to create a rusty, aged look.

One of the arrangements I considered for the center included the word "seek."

She seemed to need a crown, so I chose one of the Dresden Trim Bourbon Crowns from Gwen's website. It was way too shiny to go with the rest of the elements, so I used a little of the chalk paint to distress it.

The piece seemed to need more, but I wasn't sure what, so I send a few "process photos" to my Artist Tribe sister Jackie Neal for her input. She suggested adding something organic. Since I live in midtown Manhattan, organic matter is in short supply, so Jackie, who lives upstate and has lots of woods and lakes near her, mailed me off a "care package." I received dried flowers from her garden, feathers, rocks, ferns, sticks, bark, dried berries and tree fungus.

Tree bark and fungus were auditioned for the center of the piece.

A feather might have worked, but this one was too large and too dark.

The final choice was a rusted crown, fungus and dried berries.

I settled on using the dried tree fungus and dried berries, and was really happy with the way they looked together. The tricky part was getting them to stay on the artwork. A strong glue worked for the fungus, but the berries and branch were too delicate and didn't sit flat, so I carefully poked a few strategic holes with my awl and stitched them to the piece.

A closeup of the organic matter in the piece. A few of the stitches are visible around the berries.

I love the combination of the faux rust with the forest elements...it might just be my favorite piece ever!

In February, many of the Gwen Lafluer Artist Tribe members are showcasing creations that honor Chinese New Year. You can check out their work here, and also save 15% on any of the items in the Exotic Orient section of the website with the coupon below.

For information on Ink Pad NYC, click here.
For Seth Apter's website, click here.
For Lynne Perrella's stamps, click here.

Love is in the Air

Valentine's Day brings out the little kid in me, with memories of small, inexpensive valentines exchanged between elementary classmates, eating teeny heart-shaped candy stamped with romantic words, and making elaborate heart shaped valentines trimmed with paper lace for my parents.

Seeing the new rag paper hearts on Gwen Lafluer's website brought out my inner artsy-crafty kid. They were in several shades of pink, and pretty all by themselves, but I knew I wanted to embellish them. After all, Valentines are meant to be over-the-top and schmaltzy, aren't they?

Lots of new supplies recently arrived. I used the new stencil, pink hearts and scrap cherubs
and flowers for this year's valentines.

I got to work mixing up shades of pink, and sponged various stencils onto the paper hearts. I found that some of the designs that I didn't expect to work, such as the deco series, looked wonderful on the paper hearts. I started out carefully, but as I got into the creative groove, I began mixing and matching stencils and colors and working on several hearts at the same time. And I got a little sloppy, but I covered any blobs and misprints with other stencils. I also knew that I would be adding cherubs, lace and words and some of the mistakes wouldn't show.

White acrylic was sponged through the Ornamental Petals Mask stencil onto a pink heart.

A Deco Border looked surprisingly good on the hearts, and covered up some blobs of paint that
leaked out when I printed the Ornamental Petals.

On a mauve heart, a pink Decorative Folk Flower looked just right.

The Ornamental Petals Screen looked good with shades of pink on a mauve heart.

The Ornamental Petals Screen was carefully lined up with the point of the heart before printing.

The Deco Border has a 1960s look when used with pink paint on a peach heart.

Here the Decorative Medallion stencil was applied in light pink on a mauve heart.

This valentine has a peach paper base, with the Deco Border and Decorative Medallion stencils. The white blobby misprint didn't matter once the center hearts and wings were added.

The stenciled paper hearts could have been left un-embellished, but what's a Valentine
without words, or cherubs or flowers or lace?

When I finished, they looked good. However, my inner child cried, "More, more, more!" So, the next step was adding some scrap cherubs and flowers. And some lace. And yarn. And decorative brads. And little hearts.

So I pulled out my boxes and bins and rifled through my stash of ribbon, trim, brads, buttons and lace looking for things that said "valentine." I "auditioned" different arrangements to find the right harmony of color and design.

My work table...creative chaos!

"Auditioning" various elements to see which to place where.

One thing I particularly wanted to use was some handspun yarn created by Artist Tribe member Lynda Shoup. I found a valentine in just the right shade of pink to harmonize with her yarn, and decided to stitch it along the edge.

The beautiful, hand-spun pink yarn matched the paint nicely.

An awl was used to punch holes, then the yarn was carefully threaded through.

After the yarn had been threaded through, I added white Nuvo Drops between each stitch.

I had carefully trimmed the excess paper away from my scrap cherub and floral bouquets. I also decided it was the perfect time to use some pink and white covered brads that I had been hoarding for about 10 years.

Fabric covered brads were placed along the edges of one valentine. The placement was planned on the back of the valentine, and an awl was used to poke the holes.

I had a rusted folk-art heart that went on one valentine, but I traced around it and cut several paper hearts from scraps of pink painted cardstock.

An elongated metal folk-art heart was the template for some pink paper hearts.

They still needed words, so I stamped "be mine" and "love" on some pink paper. I also used pink Nuvo Drops for dimensional interest and hand-wrote the word "love" on one piece with the pink Nuvo Drop dispenser tip. On another, I used a small floral punch to create peach daisies, and used pink mini brads as the center, then decorated the edges of a pinkish heart. They circled around the rusted heart, to which I added some whimsical mini wings.

This valentine had a border made of punched paper flowers with a mini brad center.

Here are the final valentines...now I just need to decide who to send them to!

In February, many of the Gwen Lafluer Artist Tribe are showcasing creations that honor Chinese New Year. You can check out their work here, and also save 15% on any of the items in the Exotic Orient section of the website with the coupon below.