Embroidery with Mirror Tiles

I missed last Thursday's post.  I have had so much happening this week that was unable to get on and post anything.  I don't even think I set foot in the studio at all.  It has been one of those weeks that I had to come in, set things down, and head right back out the door.  It seems like my whole week has been like that.  At the moment, my house is a total wreck and I need to pick up and put away a ton of stuff before I can even begin to get into the studio.  So I never did get around to posting on the Vampire Doll I was making. Well, I will have new posts for that on this coming Thursday.

In the mean time, I do have a photo of the embroidery around the mirror tile.  I had blogged about painting some mirror tiles in the last blog post.  At least it keeps post on the same subject together.  I hope to use this embroidery in a new project soon.  I had a lot of trouble learning to do this stitch.  I was pulling too hard and did not know that there was a stay stitch at the bottom of the tile. This meant that the embroidery kept slipping off the mirror. I had to seek help from a friend  in order to learn how to make the stitches that hold the mirror to the fabric.  (I don't mention names on the blog unless I have asked permission so she is not named here.  However, my friend knows who she is and I thank her for her help and encouragement.

Anyway, I have embroidered on this scrap of muslin as a test for my upcoming embroidery project.  This mirror was painted yellow with bake in the oven enamel paints.  The colors are not the best contrast, but I was using up some old thread for this experiment.  I think that the painted mirrors have some potential, if paired with some rich thread colors. 

The Thursday will be back on the Vampire Doll.  I have made some progress on it. Check back then.

Painted Mirror Tiles

Painted but not yet baked.

I am still working on the vampire doll project, but I knew that I was only going to make a small amount of progress on that project this week so I said that I would be blogging about a different project this post.  The Thursday blog post will be back to the vampire doll project.  Today I am blogging about one of my "what if" projects.  A "what if" project" generally means I am experimenting with a medium in a way that it might not normally be used just to see what happens.  Sometimes good things happen and I have found a new way to incorporate something into my art work.  Other times things don't really work out.  It is just fun to see what happens.  The joy is in the experiment, not tied to the outcome.

Thinner paint puddled in the center.

So today's experiment is on using bake in the oven enamel glass paints on mirror tiles.  Will the paints work on mirror tiles?  Will baking the tiles wreck the silvered backing?  How does the paint look on the tiles?  Will the painted tiles hold up over time in outside conditions?  I want to know, therefore I experiment.  I actually have a reason for wanting to know it the mirror tiles can be painted different colors.  I will get into that later in the post.  For now, I'll just leave it at the direction of a couple of future project depends on what I find out in this experiment.

For this experiment I used various glass paints that I had left over from previous projects.  The paints were Pebeo Porcelaine 150, Pebeo Vitrea 160, and Liquitex Glossies acrylic enamel paint.  The instructions for these paints are primarily  the same except for some variations in temperature.  Basically, you clean your glass with alcohol to remove oils and fingerprints.  Paint the glass.  Let the objects dry for 24 hours, then bake them at the recommended temperature.  The Pebeo Porcelaine 150 called for 300 degrees Fahrenheit (150C).  The other two paint types called for 350 degrees Fahrenheit ((160 C).  The paints say they can be baked in a domestic oven.  However, I sometimes paint on things that might not be all that great in my home oven, so I use a dedicated toaster oven for my projects.  In this case the toaster oven worked well.  On some materials, the toaster oven tends to over-bake the item.

Baked green tiles.

The mirror tiles were purchased at my local craft store.  They came ten to a package.  Since I am experimenting, I just bought a couple of packages and painted only one package of ten.  I would say that in the future, I will be hunting for a better source of mirror tiles.  In the package I opened, twenty percent of the tiles were not cut perfectly round.  They had jagged edges on them where a cut was missed.  That may not be so much of a problem on a mosaic project where the edges are covered with grout, but on a clothing project a jagged piece could cause an injury.

Baked gold tiles.

I guess that lead in brings me to my two future projects.  I recently was given the instructions for the stitch used to sew mirror tiles on clothing.  Now that I have finished my embroidered jacket, I was thinking of embellishing another jacket with some fabric and mirror tiles.  So I was thinking, what if mirror tiles could be tinted different colors to add jewel tones to the jacket?  What colors and paints would work best?  And that is the beginning of my experiment.

Another project is a mosaic gazing ball.  Of course, the mirror ball has been done.  And I would not really want a mirror ball in my garden because I do not want to be blinded every time I look in that direction.  I have used transparent stained glass on the gazing balls, but do not get the glow that I am looking for from it.  The opaque stained glass does reflect light as I want, but it is pretty expensive.  If I wanted just a few highlights of glowing glass here and there, was there something I could do that would not necessitate buying an expensive piece of glass?  Maybe painted mirror tiles are the thing.

Blue tiles (top left) are not very reflective.

So back to the experiment.  My limited experience with glass paint is that if it is not thinned to the right consistency the paint is streaky.  This paint was pretty old and thick.  I did not have any of the recommended paint thinner for the Pebeo paint.  Even after it was stirred, the paint went on in thick streaks.  For this experiment, I was perfectly okay with that.  The streaks add character.  (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)  The Liquitex paint could be thinned with water, but it did not need it.  It was still quite fluid.  So fluid in fact that the paint flowed into the center of the mirror tiles.  Apparently those two tiles had a slightly concave curve to the glass.  Both paints had some air bubbles in it.  I painted the mirror tiles and left them to dry for forty-eight hours.  I did not have time to get to them at 24 hours.  At forty-eight hours the paint had plenty of time to dry, but I could scratch it off with my fingernail.  After baking, the paint was hardened and did not scratch when a fingernail was drawn across it.

I had been worried that the backing of the mirror tile might burn off during the baking process, but that did not happen.  The tiles survived intact and reflect the light well, at least on the tiles that are less opaque.  The streaky tiles are reflecting light in some spots and not reflecting as well in others.  It give the tiles a textured look.

I also found that the dark blue I used was very opaque and did not reflect much light.  The Pebeo green and gold colors looked better overall.  The thinner Liquitex paint did reflect light through the paint, which is really what I was looking for, although I may have a problem with coverage if many of the tiles turn out to have concave glass on them.    

So all in all, my experiment was a success as far as the glass part goes.  I attempted a couple of tries of sewing the tiles onto a piece of scrap fabric to show you what the tiles would look like.  However, that part of the project still needs a little work.  I finally realized that I needed a larger piece of fabric and an embroidery hoop if I was not going to make a complete mess of things.  So I don't have a finished sewn on tiles to show you.  Perhaps you will see one in a future project.

Next blog post I will be blogging about the progress of the Vampire doll.  Check back on Thursday.


 

Vampire Halloween Doll 3

It does not look like nearly three hours of work, but it is.  Since my last blog post, I finished adding the muslin skin over the batting layer of the doll.  Then I started working on the needle sculpting of one of the hands.  The doll is very small.  Its finished height will be about five and a half inches tall (13.97 cm.).  Because of the small size, it is difficult to work on.  It is hard to hold onto it and the thread keeps getting trapped around the arms and legs.  The challenges of working small make it take much longer to complete the doll.

I plan to work on the doll some more today and tomorrow.  Once I complete the needle sculpting on the other hand, I will begin working on the head.  I have not made a decision on the head yet.  I have some bake in the oven clay, so I could make a clay head.  But I have some reservations on baking a head that small.  Sometimes the air dry clay will burn if it gets too hot.  Earlier this year I spent the better part of a day sculpting a small hand only to have it burn to a crisp in the oven.  If the clay is not baked at the right temperature for a certain amount of time, the head could crumble.  At the moment, I am leaning towards making a cloth head.  I think I will try making the cloth head first.  If it does not look right, I may go back to the idea of a clay head.

I also took some time to do an experiment on a different project.  I call it a "what if" project; as in what if I try this and see what happens.  I will blog on that next blog post.   That will give me a little time to work on the Vampire project.  Hopefully, I will have made a fair amount of progress between posts.  Check back on Sunday for my new experimental project.

Vampire Halloween Doll 2

Armature covered with batting.

A little progress has been made on my latest Halloween project.  I have been so busy this year that every day has been turning into a 20 minute crafting day.  I run into the studio, do some small thing, then head out to get on with the day.  Sometimes it is frustrating to always be so busy.  I have learned to be my own cheerleader for even a small step.  Recognizing even a tiny amount of progress helps keep me on track to completing the project.  Otherwise I might feel discouraged and let the project drop.

Muslin on the torso and arms.

In the last few days I have begun working on making the doll.  In my last blog post I had only completed the armature.  Now the batting layer has been added to add some shape to the doll.  In the photo you might notice that the batting is stitched on with a teal colored thread.  I use thread left over from other projects on this layer.  It will be covered by a layer of muslin, and the stitches won't show through.  This helps me use up some thread that I have left over.  That helps keep crafting costs down.  When I add the muslin layer, I will use matching thread.

Front of box.

This is a tiny doll.  It will only be about five and a half inches toll (13.97 centimeters).  I am using small scraps of muslin to create the "skin" for this doll.  Practically no scrap is too small to be utilized on such a small object.  Of course, the body will eventually be covered with clothing, so most of the skin layer will not be seen either.  I try to make sure that areas that will show will have a smooth appearance.  I have almost completed the muslin layer.  I have sewn on the upper torso and arms, but the legs and lower torso are not finished.  This section takes longer than you think it might because of the difficulty of handling and sewing on such a small piece.

Hinges on the back.

Once I finish covering the torso with muslin, I will add the head.  On a doll this small, you cannot have but so much detail.  I will do a little fine needle sculpting around the nose and eyes, but the rest of the detail will be paint.  I will add some sort of doll hair, but I have not investigated the colors of doll hair I have in my doll making supplies.  I may have some black, but most likely it will be dark brown.  The head will be so small that it would not be worth it to go out and purchase a package of black doll hair.  I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

Open box.

I put the hinges and hasp on the coffin shaped box.  That did not take long, but the screws are very tiny and hard to handle.  Before I replaced the hardware, I experimented on the bottom of the box with full strength glow in the dark paint.  In my last blog post, I had mentioned that I had used some of the paint diluted with some glaze and some gold sparkle paint.  That did not glow.  But, it does glow when used full strength.  However, the paint had a very streaky look to it on this project; the balsa wood box is a bit rough.  I decided not to paint the full box with the paint. 

I plan to do some work on the inside of the box to make it look more like a casket.  I will have to start digging through my scraps for something that will add some detail.

I think this glow in the dark paint would be great on Halloween items that you might leave outside such as tomb stones of other yard objects that will be seen from a distance.  I am thinking of painting one of my painted gazing balls with it just to see how long the glow lasts.  But that is a project for another time. 

Vampire Halloween Doll

Apologies to regular readers for missing the post on Sunday.  I had to make a quick trip out of town.  Today I will be blogging about the new project I mentioned in my last post.  As usual, as I start thinking about autumn, my thoughts turn to a new Halloween project.  This is one that I hope will be some fairly quick and fun.

Last year during the after Halloween sale, I found a small wooden coffin box.  I picked one up, thinking that sooner or later I would figure out something to do with it.  I ran across it the other day and decided that it was time to start a Halloween project.  I decided that it will be a vampire doll in the coffin.  I am sure that I have some black satin scraps around somewhere that I can use to make the doll's clothing

The box actually has small brass hinges and hasp, but they have been removed for painting. I base coated the box with gesso and then gave the box a coat of flat black paint.  I guess I was feeling a little silly the day I painted it because I also gave it a coat of glow in the dark paint mixed with a gold glitter paint and some glaze.  The effect is that it gave the box a gray-ish dusty look.  In theory, the paint is supposed to glow in the dark by absorbing sunlight and then glow in the dark.  Perhaps my mixing it with other paints has dimmed the glow in the dark paint, or perhaps it is not getting enough sunlight, but it does not seem to glow at this point.  I will have to experiment further to see it it is going to work.  It would be really great if it glowed in the dark at night.  I will let you know more about that as things go along.

I have started making the wire armature for the tiny doll.  I used fairly thin wire because I expect the doll will be lying in repose.  However, if I decide that I want to post the doll as if it is beginning to sit up and climb out of the coffin, the wire armature will give me that option.  We will see how things go as they go along.

Anyway, that is as far as I have been able to get on this project so far.  Check back on Sunday for the next blog post. 

Playing With Owls 2

A few blog posts ago, I showed my drawing of an owl and the stencil I made from the drawing.  I was doing this while doing some creative play while decompressing after a couple of long projects.  I am still in play mode, but wanted to try my hand at a painting.  I used one of my stenciled owl silhouettes for the basis of my owl painting. 

This is just a thumbnail acrylic painting to see if I could paint an owl.  Regular readers know that my painting skills are not the greatest.  Every once in a while I decide to do a painting to try to improve my skills.  I plan to do a larger painting in a Halloween theme soon.  This was just a practice run.  I think his pupils need to be larger.  Rather than looking fierce, he seems to have a "deer in the headlights" look to him.  Well, better luck next time.

I had hit a spot where all of my projects had finished up at about the same time.  Without the continuity of an ongoing project, I sort of fell into a void.  Suddenly my creativity got up and went.  When that happens, I try to get over the block by playing around with various media.  This time I chose to work on owls.  I want to do some paintings that look at least somewhat like real owls.  (Well, at least I can hope.)  I want to do some campy pop art owls.  This is all in fun.  I don't have an attachment to the outcome of creative play.  They can all go in the trash if they look silly.

Although I have been playing for a few weeks, I have not spent a lot of time crafting.  I have been so busy that there are only a few minutes here and there that I can get into the studio.  However, I am moving back into working on some of my more complex ideas.  I am starting a new quilt.  The fabric has been purchased, and I am in the process of cutting the pieces.  I have cut more than a hundred pieces so far, and that is only the first piece of fabric.  Once the fabric is completely cut out, I will be ready for another craft project. 

Actually, I have a small craft project already started.  I will blog about that next blog post.  Check back on Sunday for an update on that project.