Friday, December 30, 2011

Playing in the Studio

I have a subscription to Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine. Each issue is filled with great ideas. I decided it was time to make something from the November /December 2011 issue, beer cap beads. An artist friend, Valerie Dowdy came over. Her website is
http://www.valeriedowdy.com/ and her blog is My View from 1502.
First, I got out the beer caps. They were clean. Then, I read over the directions. Neither one of us had used a dremel before, yes, I have one. I used a hammer, a block of wood, and a nail to make the hole in the bottle caps. Twenty caps with holes in them later, I got out the doming block.


It looks like a modern sculpture. The beer caps were placed one at a time in the doming block. I used the larger piece which is placed on top of the beer cap. I used a ball peen hammer to create a dome. Twenty domes later, we were mixing elmer's glue with a little water on wax paper. Tearing strips of white paper, we dipped them into the glue adhering the paper to the beer caps.
Neither one of us waited until the bead was try before trying alcohol inks. Valerie learned that to twirl the bead works best. Then we tried metalliac acrylics on the beads. We set them on cardboard and then, styrofoam. While looking at them, I thought glitter would embellish the beads. So, out came the Martha Stewart leaf glitter and gel medium. Brushing the beads with gel medium, and then sprinkling with glitter.
They are waiting for the next step. A sealant and then deciding to use wire or ribbon for the beads. Well, they might look good with some thread or small beads...

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