Getting ready for the start of my workshops with Powertex, my head is buzzing with ideas.
Love that so many of you are interested in sharing my journey with me and have signed up to the workshops.
The thought of bringing out the creative side in people in my classes really excite me, I love teaching and get a big buzz from it.
My area for workshops is in the SR7 postcode but if you are unsure, please ask.
This video shows some of the wonderful things we will be exploring in the workshops.
I needed a water pot for my brushes and likes and created one using bronze coloured Powertex medium a large jar, bits of cotton material and some clay cogs.
I love just how relaxing it is to work with Powertex, so much so that I will soon be teaching workshops with it. Don't worry I wont be leaving paper craft behind, I will be doing this alongside.
As you can see the pigments accentuate the creases and folds in the material and that is when the magic happens and the piece you have created comes to life.
I love to experiment with the colours of the pigments, quite often mixing them together to make other colours.
The beauty of this is that it will be fully waterproof in 3 weeks time, however, underneath the material and Powertex is a large Braston Pickle jar so I can use it right now.
I've seen so many people making a Fairy Garden that I wanted to get in on the action.
Have you got one?
So where to start, I know you can buy all of the accessories but i think it would be fun to make your own too.
I decided to make a little fairy house using Powertex and air dry clay. The toadstools were fun to make and the clay worked well and painted with mica powders to get the vibrant red.
This started as a mint sauce glass jar and after a couple of weeks indoors it will be able to go in the garden as it will be weatherproof, always a good thing in the UK. The lid is still removable so I would fill it with sand before placing it in the garden just to give it some weight.
I added aluminium foil under the material to give shapes of doorways and window and a little extra padding to the lid.
I used the ivory Powertex to dot the toadstools.
Adding the plaster door as the fairy has to have a door to get into her home.
I finished with a dusting of Mica Powder to highlight.
So now I need to figure what to make next.
I thought I would give the Powertex Stone Art a workout, it intrigued me, I like to see how things work, not really knowing what I wanted to make, I just knew that I wanted to try it, my local electrical store Calvert's allowed me to be a skip rat and search there polystyrene bin to get something chunky that I could work with.
This is the reverse of the finished piece so that you can see how it began, however the finished pictures below shows just how good this stuff is.
It all starts with the Powertex Ivory, so once you have the polystyrene and have cut and sculptured it to the shape you want, you then apply a generous covering of the Ivory Powertex liquid, whilst it is still wet you pat the Stone Art on top of it.
The magic then happens and you then start to add colour.
At this point it was wet as I had sprayed colour over it making sure the darker colour ran into the nooks and cranny's.
I awoke this morning and was thrilled with the dried piece.
How wonderful would this be for Chris's train layout?
I have a feeling I will need to show Chris how to do this, otherwise I will be a very busy girl making them for him.
Another in the sun.
It looks so real doesn't it?
I wanted to create something to signify the Working Class from Powertex fabric hardener, something a little tongue in cheek, actually I named this pair Elsie and Harry and then a friend asked if they were Hilda and Stan Ogden haha!
I loved making these charactures i knew what I wanted in my mind but putting that into practice can be challenging.
They started life as wooden spoons, I then made up some stone art clay and modelled their faces.
Making a jacket and trouser was the challenging part of this, the buttons on the jacket were made with the Powertex as it was drying on my rubber gloves I picked off a piece and rolled it into a ball and stuck it onto the dampened material.
Look she has her hair rollers in, roller made from the Stone Art clay and her hair is string wrapped around the roller, I think she may be going to the bingo as she has her lipstick and blusher on.
Did you notice he has a cigarette hanging out of his mouth? tut tut!
Just stepping out. A night on the town.
Some craft products open your mind to possibilities, I don't think that this was originally produced for the crafting world but heavens I'm pleased it got to us. Powertex makes my brain hurt, yes thats right, my brain is bursting with ideas and possibilities of what I can make next and how it will make, so my brain hurts in a good way.
I wasn't sure is this book idea would work but it did as you can see.
I love how the folds of the material work. I used a hard backed book as I also wanted it to be able to stand up.
I called it a secret book for a couple of reasons, one of which is that it started life as a Mason book, Masons are said to be a secret society or is that a society with secrets. The second reason is in the next image.
A secret compartment cut into the book. The Powertex also works as not just a fabric hardner a paint but also an amazing glue too.
I used mica powder to add colour to folds and add the gold leaf effect at the edges of the book pages.
Ideas tend to just pop into my head when I start playing with Powertex. I love creating and getting messy and testing to see if things will work.
I think this did but I will let you be the judge of if its good or not.
Working with piment powders to create colour.
Creating a moodlight with battery fairylights.
Pebbles from the garden come in handy too.
A bit of lace here and there and stockenette, Pwertex likes the natural materials.
Pretty methinks, give it 3 weeks and It could be mood lighting for garden partys, BBQ etc.
To find something to decorate bottle giving in an unusual way is a gift in itself, using black powertex to make an interesting bottle decoration.
I would willingly display the bottle with one of these wraps attached.
This started life as a holed T-shirt, a bit of stockinette and some string, i wanted something for the front as a focal piece and found a large paper flower and a couple of smaller paper flowers in my stash.
So the neat part about this is once you have drank the bottle contents, you can transfer the bottle wrap to another bottle.
Once dried, it takes about 24 hrs or less in a warm room it was dry brushed with varnish and mica powder.
This is my first of many more that I will make, the fact that each one will be unique depending on the folds and type of material used.
I had a wonderful day yesterday with a very good friend working, ahem...playing with Powertex.
Linda is opening Riverside Retreat workshops in the Northeast very soon so watch this space.
So let me show you what I did.
Three seperate pieces of which this is the first, a wall plaque, made using the Green Powertex some cotton material and netting.
One the piece has dried you use mica powders to highlight areas.
Its fun to watch your pieces grow.
The next project started life as a jam jar.
It's a bit Harry Potterish don't you think?
Cotton and string, even a starfish added to this one.
A sqaushed cola bottle lid for a window. This project was made with the bronze Powtex fabric hardener.
Adding a little fairy door and once dry using red and gold mica powder to decorate.
My last piece a was mesmorised making it, it started life as a flat backed plaster face, hard to believe that you could end up with this beauty.
From rags to riches making your own figurines from scraps is so satisfying.
Using lace scraps and wire to form wings.
Pulped paper soaked in the powertex and draped over the wire to form the wings.
Its hard to believe this is material and not stone.
I finished the colour at home with this one as time was getting on and I had my own mica powders.
There's something quite tranquil about this piece.
So as you can see we got quite a bit done, it was so lovely to get together again. We won't leave it as long next time.
