There were 12 students in the class and they brought the most amazing array of junk to work with. Michael gave great information about how to put stuff together so that it is structurelly sound. Lots of info about various glues, clays and caulks that will hold everything together.

Michael paints all of his pieces and I really didn’t realize how important that was until seeing how much it changed some of the other students work. The color really unifies the piece. Michael gave lots of info about various washes and combinations of colors that will give you a specific look. It was fascinating, especially to someone like me who gets nervous whenever you put a paintbrush in my hand.

Here are some of the students work and you can really see the difference between the painted ones and the yet to be painted ones.

This is mine, which is not finished. I’ve still got to paint it, add some eyes, maybe some decoration around the outside of the box. I’m just going to let it speak to me and tell me what it needs.  A big thank you  to Jen and Shawn. I used several of the bits that you gave me and they were crucial to the piece. Can’t wait to try another one.

Today my friend Lynda took me over to her son Shawn’s house. He and his girlfriend Jen do welding with scrap metals and other salvaged stuff. Oh my, was it fun to poke around in their workshop. There was all sorts of interesting things there. And I got to try my hand at welding. Wow.

It’s really powerful equipment. Kind of scary but awesome. We won’t be welding in the Mad Masks class but I think I’m going to have to take Jen’s class called “Women Who Weld.” I just love the thought of taking bits and pieces of scrap and making something beautiful. Jen makes all sorts of art out of metal. She participated in the Cracked Pots show in Troutdale this past July. And she does commission work as well. Her website is fairyforge.com. Check it out.

When the gals in my knit group found out I was going to Paris, they all chipped in and gave me a card with some spending money. It was a really sweet thing to do and eased any worries I had about the extravagance of the trip. I wanted to do something to thank everyone but I couldn’t very well buy them anything as I was supposed to spend the money on food, and drink and fun stuff. So I came up with a plan.

I decided to make collaged pendants using the metro tickets and other ephemera I collected while on my trip. My friend Therese taught me how to do this a couple of years ago and it’s lots of fun. You assemble these little paper collages and then sandwich them between two glass slides, like microscope slides. Then comes the harder part. You have to tape them together with metal tape, apply a coat of flux and then solder them with a soldering iron. It takes some practice and I’m not super good at it yet but I really enjoy the process.

I had tons of fun making the little collages and even more fun assembling them one evening with Therese and Meara. We had a bottle (or was it two?!) of wine and started an assembly line with Meara taping and Therese and I doing the soldering. There was a lot of laughter that night and I got to have great fun with these friends while making gifts for some other friends. I am truly blessed.

Jasper didn’t come to craft day with me but he’s just so handsome I had to put his picture here. Like many other people, I take way too many pictures of my pet. How can I resist?

But I digress. Every so often I get together with my good friends Meara and Therese. They are super crafty and do completely different kinds of crafts than what I usually do. We get together at Meara’s house, throw a lot of stuff on the table and just have at it. There is also wine to help get one’s juices flowing. Here’s the table. It’s hard not to be inspired by all the antique papers, stamps, inks, transparencies, different size slides, it’s just amazing.

Yesterday, we made pendants using glass slides. We created a collage the size of the slide, put  a slide on the top and bottom, and then soldered around the edges. The little collages were fun to make, mine is three layers with paper, transparency and some stamping. We added a ring to the top to put the chain through. I really enjoyed the soldering and am ready to rush right out and buy all the tools. Somebody please restrain me!

You start with a photograph (or any image) that you have printed on a laser printer. I just scanned in this photo, resized it to the right size and printed it out. 

Here’s the contact paper cut to the right size to fit over my image.

You peel off the paper backing and stick the contact paper to your image. Then you burnish it really well with a bone folder or the back of a spoon. Whatever works. You want it to adhere really well because basically the ink from the image sticks to the contact paper. 

Then you let the image soak in some water for a while until the paper is soft. 

You take your image out of the water and gently rub off the paper. As you can see, the paper comes off and leaves the image behind. Awesome! Sometimes you have to do it twice to get all the paper fibers off. Just don’t rub too hard or the image comes off as well. 

Here is the image with all the paper off and ready to be used. 

My background has been painted with a buff colored acryic and then dabbed with crumpled up plastic wrap to give it some texture. Then I’ve covered the area where I want to put the image with gel medium. I use those cheap foam brushes. I use Regular Gel Medium Matte. This is the greatest stuff ever. It will hold down anything, dries clear, remains pliable when dry and is archival. 

When you put your image down onto the gel medium, you also have to paint some on top of the image as well. I’ve also glued the angel charm down using gel medium. It will hold anything. This picture is after everything has dried. 

You can layer several images done this way with great affect. I’m just in love with this process.