Art Elements December Theme - All Things Christmas

 

This months Art Elements Theme is All Things Christmas. I have linked to the photo album on the Art Elements Community Facebook Group.

Mom found all of our ideas, but I did find a couple and posted them to the my Pinterest Art Elements Theme Ideas board.

Mom is more of a Christmas person than I am; I am the Grinch out of the both of us. So, the ideas she selected for this month's theme was perfect for me.

I do love celebrating St. Nikolaus Tag with mom. It brings back memories from the time we lived in Germany. 

Mom found the ideas and then made patterns out of the images.

Patterns glued to the copper.

Mom cutting out the pieces with the large
copper cutter. It makes the pieces more manageable for
mom to saw.

Mom cutting out the other two pieces with the cutter.

Can you believe this - mom and I didn't take any photos of the process of her sawing out the pieces, filing or sanding. Mom only took pictures of the copper pieces after she finished filing and sanding.

I did take pictures of the pieces with the powdered enamel on them before I put the pieces in the kiln.

I also took a picture of the Grinch face right after I took him out of the kiln. It looked possessed and I thought it looked really cool.

After I took photos of the Grinch pieces, in our lightbox, I left them in the computer room overnight because I was being lazy and not taking them out to the garage. When I went between my room, through the computer room, to the main part of the house, I noticed that the Grinch eyes were glowing in the dark. It was so cool. I did try to take a picture, but none of them turned out good enough to share. You are just going to have to take my word for it :)

Here are the final pictures of the Grinch face, Max (the dog) and the Grinch stealing an ornament.

Once I was done taking photos of the pieces; mom then assembled them into a shadowbox. I then had fun trying to take photos of the shadowbox. I hung the shadowbox up in our hallway and brought in a sunlamp to try and take a good picture. You will not believe how much shows up in the glass. You could see the roof of the extension in the glass in a couple of pictures, and shadows of the shrank in another picture. I did the best I could and I hope this gives you an idea of how the pieces look in the shadowbox.

So, that is our pieces for the December Art Elements Theme. We hope you enjoy the process and final pieces.

Art Elements October Theme - Gothic

 

Image from Pinterest

The Art Elements Theme of the Month is Gothic. I had fun looking on Pinterest for Gothic images. You can find my Art Elements Theme board here.

I had a couple of ideas, but the one idea I wanted to create was having a black cat, a full moon and the number 13. I LOVE the number 13. I especially love Friday the 13 with a full moon. Unfortunately for me, mom had me on a Tuesday, the 13th. Not the same ring as Friday, the 13th.

Here are the ideas mom drew up for me. One of the patterns is from the Pinterest board - called Never more.

The Nevermore piece I wanted to saw it out of copper and have a boarder around the crow and monument. I wanted to texture the piece and hand-stamp the Nevermore into the copper. 

The black cat, 13 and moon I wanted to enamel the two pieces together. That is of course after mom saws out the pieces from copper.

Mom sawed out the Nevermore piece. We ended up making a change to the piece before mom started sawing out. We added more limbs (clouds) to the other side of the piece so it was more balanced. 

I sawed out the perimeter of the black cat and the moon and then handed them off to mom so she could finish sawing out the interiors. I even helped file and sand some of the pieces. That usually never happens because I HATE filing and sanding!

I finally figured out what stamps I wanted to use for the Nevermore word (that was difficult). I also was going back and forth on the texture hammer and what textures I wanted to use. Huge ordeal of too many choices!!!!

Once I textured the piece and hand-stamped the word Nevermore onto the copper I put the copper into liver of sulfur for it to patina the copper. I think I ended up liver of sulfuring three times because I wasn't happy for the first two times after I sanded down the patina. I was finally happy with the final patina. After I finished sanding down the patina I then sprayed it with lacquer and then let it hang for more than 24 hours to dry.

Here you go for the Nevermore piece.

I am not sure how we are going to display this piece. I really, really, really think it is too big for a pendant :) I think we might end up just displaying it in a shadowbox. But, who knows. Mom and I have not discussed this yet.

On Sunday I set up the tables to enamel. I enameled the pieces for the Gothic theme and I also enameled earrings and pendants.

The pieces after we cleaned them and before I put the first coat of clear down on the backs of the pendants.

The clear on the back of the pendants. I am letting them dry and then into the kiln they go.

Color has gone on the pieces and waiting for them to try and then into the kiln they go.

I have just put the enamel on the front of the pieces and I have layered the pieces together. The piece will then go into the kiln and cross my fingers that this will work.

Crossing my fingers did work. These are the completed pieces. But hey...can you see something spooky in the the picture? Look at the black cat and tell me what you see.

Here - I will make it a little bit bigger for you:

I totally freaked myself out when I saw that in the picture. I was trying to figure out what put that image into the glass. I was looking around the garage and there were no pictures to cast the reflection, and it wasn't me reflected in the glass. I was thinking that the garage was haunted.

Mom was laughing at me. What put that shadow in there perfectly was three holes in the copper. Mom and I decided we weren't going to put a design in the cats face or put whiskers on the cat. But, we made the decision after mom drilled the holes into the copper. I told mom I would just enamel over the holes. When I took that picture the shadows, and the holes, cast a perfect spooky image to freak out Beth :)

Here is the images of the spooky full moon, black cat, 13:

If you would like to see what everyone else has created please go to the Art Elements Community Facebook page and check out the month's challenge album.

Art Elements September Theme - Blue

One of the images we used for this month's them.

The Art Elements Theme of the Month is Blue. This theme made mom and I think of different ideas to try. Mom found the space image and I found the other image we used for the second piece.

What does blue mean: blue is seen as trustworthy, dependable, and committed. The color of ocean and sky, blue is a constant and calming influence in our world. Blue has equal appeal to both men and women. (Sensational Color - Mean of Blue: Color Psychology and Symbolism).

Did you also know that the colors pink and blue arrived as colors for babies in the mid-19th century, but the two colors were not promoted as gender signifiers until just before World War I. (Smithsonian Magazine). In a June 1918 article from the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants' Department said, "The generally accepted rule is pink for boys and blue for girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for girls. (Smithsonian Magazine).

I thought that was interesting to learn. I had heard about the colors for boys and girls before, but it was fun reading about it again.

So, onto our pieces for this month's theme challenge.

The two pictures mom worked on making patterns for us to use. Mom and I first find images we like to use as patterns. Then mom draws out a pattern to use to glue onto the copper (again, I seriously hate to draw so mom does this part). Once the patterns are created we then scan them in and save them for future pieces. Then we glue the patterns on 20g copper to be sawed out.

Then mom works on sawing out the pieces. We use a jeweler's saw to saw out all the patterns from copper. If you would like to see mom saw out one section of the "Blue Woman" you can go to our Facebook page and click on the videos.

Once the pieces are sawed out they are then filed and sanded.

Sawed out pieces for this month's theme

Mom filing the "Space" piece

Mom filing the "Blue Woman"

After mom files and sands then it is turned over to me for enameling.

I had mom come out to the garage, after I laid out the colors. I had laid out all the blues we had to decide what we were going to use on the "Blue Woman" (I didn't realize how many blues I had in the opaque's until I laid them out). Then we started working on the colors to use for the space image. Again we went through the blues and then had to figure out what oranges to use. I then wrote out all the colors on the images so I knew what to use when enameling.

These two photos I have is mom trying to figure out how the two pieces fit together. We made the space piece into two separate pieces and then I was enameling them together. Mom had to figure out the lay out so I could take a picture to make sure I enameled the two pieces together correctly.

Then it was onto the enameling:

The two separate space pieces before I enameled

them together.

The "Blue Woman" after I took her out

of the kiln. The iron helps flatten the piece

when it bows from the heat while sitting on the

trivet.

Now that you have learned our pieces it is now time to show you the pieces:

The pendant is actually the piece that was sawed out of the middle of the "orange" section of the Space piece. Mom wanted me to use the enamels I use when I make our "Cosmos" pendants and bowls. I did add some of the yellow into the piece to tie it all together. There is blues in the middle that go into black and then I added orange, purple, and white too. I really love how it turned out. This photo does not do it justice.

Here is the "Space" piece. I really love how this piece came together. I love the blues that are going into black on the bottom piece and I am really happy with how the oranges turned out. The holes we have drilled in the pieces are to represent the stars. I do have white around the holes, but the photos aren't showing the white. I am going to have to take pictures again, because again these photos don't do the piece justice.

Our final piece is the "Blue Woman". I used three different blues and one gray enamels in the piece. I love how it turned out, it didn't exactly turn out the way I wanted it to, but I still love it. I am so glad mom is so patient with the drawing of the patterns and sawing, because I sure wouldn't have been able to create this piece.

If you would like to see what everyone else has created please go to the Art Elements Community Facebook page and check out the month's challenge album.