Have you visited the Steampunk Challenge blog yet? If your not aware of it already, it’s a new challenge blog on the block & covers all things Steampunk, Grunge & Industrial, It has been put together by Cathy Frailey the same talented lady that runs the Bleeding Art Challenge so if you love mixed media, steampunk & grunge, be sure to head over & check the blogs out, because they are choca block full of inspiration, not just by the Design Teams, but the talented people that enter the challenges.
Today, it's time for my take on this months theme, which is "Anything Goes" I thought long & hard as to what I wanted to make, I wanted to try to tell a story through my art this month, The industrial part of the genre jumped out to me & I knew what I wanted to do. One of my life long hero's is Isambard Kingdom Brunel, not just because of what he did for the industrial revolution, but I was lucky enough to be born & bred deep in the heart or 'Brunel' country, My dad was also a draughtsman & he never failed to point out Kingdoms work whenever we passed it, rode it or drove over it, so the Industrial Revolution became my theme of my canvas!
For the base of my canvas I used a small cake board, you know one of the silver foil coated ones, that most of us have languishing in the back of the cupboard. I set about with my trusty pot of black gesso & painted all of my surfaces with it, including the cogs, clock face & the piece of textured sheet that I made, using a Stamperia soft mold,
When everything was dry I played around to find the best placement for the cogs, the molded sheet etc. When happy with how it looked, using a soft gel medium, I glued the pieces in place.
When done, I liberally spread some of the gel medium to the board in the remaining space & added seed beads to resemble coal, When completely dry & set hard, I tapped off any loose beads before painting them with a good coat of black gesso. When dry I then rubbed it with black wax & sprinkled a very light dusting of glitter dust. I didn’t want it glittery, but just the odd glint of reflected light, like you would see in real coal. Tip: give the board a tap after applying, most of the glitter will come off leaving you with just a hint of it.
Next, I took some jewellery wire & wrapped it tightly around the end of a paintbrush, to create my copper spring & glued that in place.
Then, it was time to build up the colours, for this my medium of choice was Finnabair waxes, I just love those dinky pots of loveliness for this type of project & they are so easy to use.
I have had a few gentleman shaped die cuts in my stash drawer for years, just waiting for their day to shine & they were just right for my canvas, he originally had an umbrella, but that had to go!
I stuck 2 of these guys together for a bit of strength & coated them in varnish & popped him on top. I searched out some appropriate wording & I was done.
If you are not sure who Isambard Kingdom Brunel is, check out the link.
I hope you like my canvas & I have inspired you to join in with the Steampunk Challenge this month & please checkout my fellow DT members blogs & see what they have made.
Please leave a comment to let me know you have visited me.
Stay safe, smile loads & enjoy life
🌴 Jane x
