Day 6 with Kae Pea

Celebrate our new product launch….with Inchie Arts

As you know, we carry several different sizes of the popular Inchie Arts Art Square products. And when they decided to launch their new 4” black Art Squares they invited us to announce and sell it first. 

In fact, it was one of our artists (thank you Sunny!) that nudged Inchie Arts to introduce this particular size and color.  To celebrate, we invited a handful of our designers and artists to let creativity fly with the new 4” black Art Squares. 

Every day from now through Saturday we will be posting amazing creations from Lisa Lee, Barb Rogers, Lindsay Ostrom, Sunny Carvalho, Jessica Sporn and Kristen Powers.

And on the Inchie Arts blog, ALL IN AN INCH, Lisa will be sharing lots of techniques and tips for all sizes of black Art Squares from 1" to 4". 

A few things you may not know about black Art Squares:

·        they are made from 100% cotton (not paper)

·        they are a super black with the 'black' sourced from natural ebony

·       they are a perfect 4 ply substrate for direct art application especially acrylic paints, white and metallic detail pens, colored pencils, Pan Pastels, stamping and embossing with white or light colors, chalk board style work and photo creations.  

Day 6 with Kae Pea- Moon Making!

I made a moon (well, of course I did.)

I started with :

 4" Black Art Square from Inchie Arts

the melanie stamp (RubberMoon stamp designed by Marilynn Kelly)

My Geo Circles Stencil from StencilGIrl

white gesso

The Ultimate Red Rubber Palette (small)

Sharpie Extra Fine water-based Paint Marker (white)

First, I started by tracing a circle on to my black art square from my geo circles stencil, using a white paint marker.

I did not want it centered, so I made it go off the edges of the surface just a bit.....

I put a thin layer of gesso onto my red rubber palette and used it to "ink" my stamp.

Then, I stamped the face into the circle. Like this:

See?  

It's not perfect and that's okay. Layering washes of paint will surely help!

I simply painted with washy gesso....

and I kept doing that. More thin layers of gesso and then some touches of paint on the eyes and lips... (I used a teeny tiny bit of watercolors but acrylics or practically anything will work) making it look like this:

I let this all dry a while and then I used my white gesso and red rubber palette again to stamp my ink splat stamp (I like this stamp a LOT and often use it as a 'starry sky')

See? Lika dis...

After that is all stamped across the background and all my paint is dry (which didn't take long because it's all nice thin layers.) I then went back in with some colored pencils and add a bit more depth and value and highlights.....

Like so:

Then I stamped this Love you to the Moon & Back 

stamp right here...

I like a good sentiment with my art. Don't you? 

.........

I liked my piece but it didn't feel quite finished...So I found a 41/4" x 41/4 " wood block and a piece of decorative paper that I thought looked dandy.... 

I mounted the paper to the wood block using my favorite white glue, painted the sides and back of the wood block with black gesso then I took my Inchie Art Square artwork and mounted that baby right onto my collaged, wood block and 

voilà!! 

Thanks for stopping by and taking your time to peruse and comment.

I want to say thanks to Lisa Lee over at Inchie Arts for launching this great new product with us!

And of course all the fantabulous artists that help make RubberMoon awesome! 

Barb Rogers

Lindsay Ostrom

Sunny Carvalho

Jessica Sporn

love YOU all to the moon & back!

It was a super fun week launching the new 4" Black Art Squares! I hope you got a lot of inspiration and we filled your pretty little head with lots of ideas!! 

xokp

OOOOH a GIVEAWAY!!! Please visit ALL 6 days, Come back here and tell me that you did and comment about a favorite stamp or technique you will be entered to win a stamp from EVERY participating artist PLUS a pack of the New Black 4" Inchie Art Squares!! 

Creating Jewelry Focals with RubberMoon Stamps (Friday May 9)

I work with a lot of different media in my art.  I love when they start informing each other!

I tend to use stamps nontraditionally anyways, amassing quite the collection for my clay sculptures.  So when I had the opportunity to learn how to use those same stamps to make jewelry focals, it was a no brainer.

When you start, you have to be ready to have as many failures as successes because it's rather inexact in outcome (or at least at my skill level, which is beginner).

For this project, I chose RubberMoon stamps:  David Brethauer's Leaping Girl, and Marylinn Kelly's Alter Ego (which you can see in the picture below, toward the upper right in the photo).  You want mounted stamps for this project, to keep your fingers safe from the hot metal when you're stamping.

Other stamps which might work really well for this project:

• db4255 Star Spiral
• db2355 Caligraphic Heart
• db2301 5-petal Flower
• mk4601 Spiral Rectangle

I searched for simple lines - it seems that RubberMoon's David Brethauer and Marylinn Kelly designs are wonderful pieces that fit this activity perfectly!

Other supplies include:

• Copper sheeting.  I've included a purchased sheet (to the left) and a piece of recyled copper (in the middle of the picture) - I prefer the recycled because it always seems to have more character, and can be cleaned up sparkly if you like with some 000 or 0000 steel wool.
• 000 or 0000 steel wool
• Lead-free Silver Solder....pricey, but you need that for jewelry.  You don't have to have Silver, but you must have lead-free.  Lead free can be purchased at most hardware stores.
• a micro torch and fuel for it .  Mine is a Blazer Butane Micro-torch, but you can find a lot of different kinds by simply googling "jewelry micro-torch".  Here's a board on Pinterest with lots of information on micro-torches
• A way to cut the copper - in this picture the blue handled tool.  However, I've also found that heavy-duty kitchen scissors work just as well, depending on how thick the copper is.
• Cross-locking soldering tweezers (next to the blue handled tool).  These are for picking up and/or holding hot pieces of metal.  You can use regular tweezers if you already have them.  Cross-locking are easier because you don't have to remember to keep the pressure on to hold the object.
• not shown:  a small jewelry file or metal emery board for smoothing edges and corners of the cut copper.  When you file, always file away from you, in one direction, not with a sawing motion.
• black permanent marker (can be cleaned off with fingernail polish remover or acetone)
• acrylic paint 
• a heat resistant surface.  Fire brick works. In my case, I use a kiln shelf with a fire brick on top.
• eye protection
• long sleeves and cotton clothing

Process

• Trace around your stamp with your permanent market 
• Cut the copper along the marker lines
• Smooth the edges and corners with your file or emery board
• Unroll a length of solder
• Light your torch
• Touch the solder to the metal and heat the metal not the solder.  When the metal is hot enough, the solder will start to melt.  You can direct the solder by moving it around on the copper, all the while continuing to heat the copper with the torch.  The strength of your torch's flame will determine how long this takes.
• Once you have enough solder, turn off the torch, take your stamp and carefully press it into the hot solder.  Hold for about 10 seconds.  Remove the stamp - use your tweezers to hold the metal down as you do this.  It will be hot.  Do not touch with your fingers.  Note:  the rubber does not melt. Do not push the stamp quickly into the solder and make it splash - it is hot and will burn your skin.  
• If you don't like the result, you can reheat and restamp.  When you first start this, it is good to think "abstract" rather than "representational" for your stamps.

• For these pieces I used burnt sienna and black acrylic paint (not shown) to highlight the depressions and make the pictures pop.  You can see that I used the MaryLinn stamp both for a large focal and a smaller focal.  The David Brethauer stamp is small enough for earrings.
• Let the paint dry and then scrub with the steel wool.  The higher ridges will shine up and the lower ridges will keep their color.

Now that you have several pieces, you can make the decision about how to use them.  In addition to making jewelry, you can glue them onto cards, journal covers and journal pages to name a few alternatives.