Moulding Experiment {with Grunge Paste and Fresco paint by Trish Latimer}

Hi Everyone, Darcy here with another of my 'experimenters'. Remember they are just showing you the results of experiments and not a step by step project. This time Trish has been building houses, quite literally, take a look at her different options and the results. At the end you will find a great example of how to use this experiment. 

Hello! Trish Latimer here, reporting in for Guest Designer duty!

I have been a huge PaperArtsy fan right from the very beginning. I remember waiting with bated breath for each new Ink and the Dog stamp release and as a result now have a massive collection of PA images, ranging from those very first quirky designs, right up to the newest collections! I was thrilled to be asked to share a project on the blog, and it was a very tricky decision as to what to use…so many ideas!

I want to share a Grunge Paste experiment today, and I’m actually a bit embarrassed letting you in on the reason why this all came about! I’m a very messy crafter in all senses of the word, I love nothing better than getting covered in paint, ink, glue, pastes, you name it. Consequently, my studio gets just a *little* messy as well! During a long overdue tidy up session, I unearthed a pot of Grunge Paste which hadn’t had the top put back on properly. See, told you it was embarrassing! The paste had set rock solid, and I mean ROCK solid. Which led me to wondering, can you make strong, study, stand alone embellishments from Grunge Paste? I had seen Alison and France create thin Grunge Paste embellishments ( here and here ), and Lin had created some thicker, but still quite small flowers in her post here . Just how big could I take it?

I made a mould from moulding putty, and made sure it was quite deep. The idea was I wanted the resulting shape (if it worked!) to be free standing. It was an easy (messy, but that’s nothing new!) job of filling the mould with Grunge Paste. I wanted as smooth a surface as possible, so used a palette knife over the top. Then I waited….and waited…. And waited! Five days later (!) It was dry enough to remove from the mould.

The house shape was totally rock solid, but as you can see, had cracked completely across one corner when drying out. On to plan B! I decided to add a little paint into the Grunge Paste. (Approx 1 teaspoon of paint to 4 tablespoons of paste) As acrylic paint has an element of plasticity about it, I thought it might help hold the dry Grunge Paste together. At this point I also decided to have a plan C in place, adding Gel Medium ( again approx a teaspoonful) as well as paint to the Grunge Paste. This should give even greater plasticity to the mixture, just in case paint alone didn’t work!

The other two houses took about the same amount of time to dry out (again, 5 days), and once all were dry I compared them all to see which had worked the best.

From left to right… the white ‘Grunge Paste by itself’ house has clearly broken, so not much use! The blue house is the Grunge Paste plus paint experiment, and as you can see it has also cracked, but this time the crack isn’t deep, and the house remains rock solid. The pink house is the paint/gel medium/Grunge Paste combo. Again, cracked, but a shallower crack than the paint/paste combo. What you can’t see from the picture is that the pink house, whilst solid, is quite bendy! The gel medium obviously adds more flexibility, which wasn’t what I was after! The last ‘test’ came about because I wasn’t too happy with the finish on the dried out houses. Not as smooth as I would have liked! So, can you sand the houses down without them falling apart?

As you can see, if it’s the paint/Grunge Paste combo, then yes! This picture also shows just how thick and solid the house is, great when you want it to stand up by itself! The pink house was much harder to sand, the plasticky (is that a word?!) texture didn’t want to play at all.

So…. Results of the experiment? Mix paint and Grunge Paste together to create some unique, stand alone embellishments!

I used my house to create this whimsical shadowbox assemblage….

The House was decorated with painted and stencilled tissue paper, and stands solidly. The small red heart is also a 'grunge paste' mould. 

I’ve had a ball experimenting with Grunge Paste, thank you PaperArtsy for having me!

Trish xx

A huge thanks to Trish from PaperArtsy, for agreeing to be an experimenter. This is a huge chunky experiment, and it is so interesting to see the effects of the acrylic paint on the paste. All this arty stuff really does have its roots in Science! It is very cool that your house is freestanding, and it looks great in the shadowbox. 

We would love you to join in with our monthly challenge. If you are inspired by any of this month's guests who have blogged between Sept 1st 2014 and Sept 30th 2014 then join in and link up your creativity HERE. You will go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. You need to add your link by 19:00 (London time) Sept 30th 2014