Welcome Back Alison Bomber Project #1 Golden Oldies ....

The start of a new month and a new week welcomes back Alison Bomber for her last month of Guest Designer projects.  I'm sure we are in for some fabulous treats this coming week.

"Hello everyone, Alison here with the first of my December projects.  And since it's now December, it's okay (in my book) to start getting Christmassy.  Only one of these projects is a full-on Christmas creation (we'll save that one for last), but the others are certainly Christmas-ish, as you'll see today".

First up, an experiment that's ended up pleasing me quite a lot.  I didn't really have much of a plan when I set off - other than using some Lynne Perella stamps and doing something with a jar... that was about it.

So, here's the pretty unassuming jar... instant coffee granules if you're interested and - although it wasn't part of the plan to start with - I also ended up using one of these adorable little coffee milk bottles. These are two more that I have ready for altering - I forgot to take "befores" with the actual things... but wait til you see the after!

I started by giving the coffee jar a coat of Liquid Leaf in White Fire. I just love the transformative qualities of this stuff... looks pretty cool already, I think.
{Note from Leandra: We have ceased selling liquid leaf due to the recent Royal Mail restrictions on posting hazardous products within the UK, and similar international restrictions. However, this amazingly, fantastic, metallic solvent-paint continues to be manufactured in the UK, and is available from most fine Art Supply stores}

If you simply brush it on, you get a completely opaque, smooth as a mirror surface, but that wasn't going to suit my plans.

So I used the brush bristles to give it a slightly mottled surface. It levels out again as it dries, but it did retain some texture.

That mottling is really important, as it creates some places on the jar where light can come through, as you can see from the inside.

I wanted to see if I could create a kind of black and gold mercury glass effect, so I added some Little Black Dress Fresco paint to the surface, direct from the bottle.

I used some kitchen paper to smoosh it around.

And the same kitchen paper to knock it back until it looked about right.

Before going any further, I needed to know how much light would show through... so I popped a tea light candle inside to check. Can you see where I'm going with this?!

Well, a minimal glow... but with quite nice speckles of brighter light. But clearly, if I wanted a lantern worthy of the name, some of this surface would have to go in the long run.

But first, some stamping. I got out the fabulous cityscape from Lynne Perella Collection 012, and inked it up with Black Archival Ink.  I really didn't want to add anything else to get in the way of the candlelight, so stamping onto tissue paper wasn't an option.

LPC012

It was heart-in-mouth direct-to-jar stamping, so I decided to do partial inkings, rather than trying to wrap it all the way round in one go.

Not the best of images, but in this particular case, that didn't really matter - in fact, it was downright helpful... 

... because the next stage was to do some scratching! I used one of the Idea-ology Memo Pins, and started to re-define the details in the image. It became clear pretty quickly that it would be quite a "doodly" version!

And before I got too far, I thought I'd better check that it was actually going to work...

Now we're in business!  So I finished it off all the way round. There were places where I had to check the illustration from the packet, but in fact the dense black inking helps because it provides a better contrast for when the lantern is lit.

See what I mean!

Well, I thought I was pretty much done at this point, but it turned out my subconscious had decided that there was more to this.

I'd used the top of one of the little coffee milk bottles to try out the gold and black effect on, since I had plenty of them but only a couple of jars. Clearly Mr Mojo had decided it would be wasteful not to make use of it.

So, I covered the rest of the bottle with Liquid Leaf and did the black paint thing, whilst musing about what could be done with it. You're obviously not going to get a tea-light inside, but isn't that neck about the right size for a normal candle? A little narrow, it turns out, but definitely do-able...

Time to decorate a candle, then. And, while I was at it, I didn't want the lid of the jar to feel left out.  Turned upside-down, it's the right size to hold a thicker pillar candle. Time to decorate TWO candles, then!  Only one extra liquid ingredient needed for this - let's add Old Gold Fresco to the minimal supplies for this project.

I'm reluctant to own up to the other ingredient used at this point, for fear I'll be hunted down and held to ransom in order for people to get their hands on it. Yes... I still have some of the PaperArtsy Crackly Tissue Paper, and that's what I grabbed for the next stage.

I stamped the LP cityscape again, this time dabbing Old Gold onto the stamp with some Cut N Dry foam. I really didn't want too clear an image, so I put quite a lot of paint onto the stamp.  

It's perfectly possible to get fabulously clear stampings with Fresco paint, but what would be the point of my doodling in that case?!

I used a PITT pen for the doodling - again, using the image on the packet where things weren't clear enough on the stamping. What can I say - it's a loose interpretation!

I glued the tissue stampings onto my two candles with multi-medium, and added some curly black wire to each candle holder - Words and Pictures regulars will spot some more of my salvaged notebook wire bindings! I like how the scribbly wire echoes the scribbly doodling.

And the coffee jar lid has just been given a coat of Liquid Gold to tie it in with the rest. It's not the most dramatic of transformations, but I'm hoping people will be looking at the candle mainly. Now for some close ups .... are you ready??

I'll leave you with some pictures of them all in a nice festive setting (a lopped off fir branch lying on a railway sleeper where we park the car - very handy!).

And, of course, I need to show you how it works when candlelit. One of these is taken with the flash, and the others in the gathering dusk, which the camera decided was pitch black night!

So, a massively photo-heavy post, and very long too - but you're used to that from me by now, right?! Thanks so much for stopping by, and I hope you'll be able to join me again tomorrow for another Christmas-ish affair. Until the ..... Alison x

We do hope you can join in with Alison's techniques this week. you can link to your own blog, Pinterest or Flickr Pages, or any webpage that shows us what you have made in response to her posts this week. Just come back to the Sunday nigh winners post, and use the linking tool to show us your entry.

 

On Sunday 8th December  by noon (GMT) you need to have your link entered below, and you will go into one of 2 draws to win new stuff. 

Leandra Says: Wow your a regular little candle-factory-designer all by yourself Alison! Love the Liquid leaf through the glass, and the etching is inspired. Fabulous how you describe the process, and you have crackly! People could stalk you for that! ;)

Gillian Says: Oh la la .... the molten tones, textures and doodles are simply gorgeous. Love the added addition of the wire.The whole collection of Christmas inspired home decor ornaments look like they could be bought in a very high end store. Bravo Alison.