The Big Reveal

Now that the lucky recipient has confirmed receipt of her prize, I can reveal what I actually made for the UK Art Raffle .

The theme was circles, and I kept thinking about what I wanted to do, but kept.... going round in circles.... oh ROFL....

That was until I paid a visit to my local poundstretcher, and there in their shop they had a wooden ornament. Really naff, I should say (though apologies to anyone who loves them). Just a slab of wood painted black with a couple of swipes of gold.



My darling hubby drilled the holes I needed in the wood. I then coated it with grey paint that I'd mixed roughly myself, so it didn't give an even coat - I needed a marbled effect, which I got ever so subtly.

Once that had dried I used some dark grey ink to stamp the images.

First of all I used the Judikins Artifacts Cube - the "stone" side. I used some very dilute white paint (and occasionally, a sakura pen!) to highlight the seams created - almost giving the effect of marbling.

Once dry, I repeated this with the Celtic Knot stamps (all from The Stampsmith (gotta love that sea horse!)) and the Mayan (?) stamps. I'm not sure if the Mayan stamps ARE Mayan - all I know is they're an ancient culture, and I got the stamps off ebay years ago. There's no maker's mark either - so if anyone can identify them, I'd be much obliged!!! I have to say, it's the first time I've used them too, and I'm very impressed (oh, pun) with them.

With these I used a paintbrush with dilute white acrylic paint again, to highlight the outside of the image, or the whole thing in the case of the celtic knotwork. I images it kind of came off more like grafitti!!! I still like how it came out, though.

The base wasn't painted, I left it black for contrast, but I also stamped it with the Artifacts Cube using white Stazon.

All edges were then given a rub with Pewter rub-on.

Once all dry, I gave it a coat of gloss acrylic varnish.

The last question was "what to hang from the holes?" right from the word go, I felt it certainly needed something which was why the holes were drilled in the first place. Then it hit me - many MANY years ago, an ex-boyfriend of mine who was heavily into Star Trek bought me a Bajoran ear cuff. Beautiful. But I like wearing pairs and this was a one off. I still had it - not sure what to do with it, but I hadn't worn it in 15 years. It was sat on a shelf in my craft room, crying out for a special project - and hear it was. Perfect. The only bit I didn't use was the actual cuff. The stones in question are Swarovski crystals, and hematite.

My piece was one of 31; lucky Sheila - very well done to you on your win!













One amusing thing though - before I posted it I took it into work, cos they're always interested in what I've been creating. One guy saw it, picked it up and then gasped... "I thought it was metal - I wasn't expecting it to be so light!"....

And I enjoyed doing this so much, I bought two more to do! Well, at £1 each, it's not a bad price, eh?