2016 #15 Trinket Goblets {by Julie Ann Lee}

 2016 Topic 15: Patterns - Trinket Goblets

Hi everyone, Julie Ann here from Magpieheaven.

Tonight I'd like to share a post about Patterns.When you were a child did you ever daydream and see faces in those floral patterns on the curtains, or the carpet? The more I thought about pattern, the more I began to think that our life is about patterns: sleeping, waking and opening our eyes wide to find patterns in the world.

I love the patterns in flowers and plants so I chose to work with Lin Brown's beautiful Eclectica stamps for PaperArtsy, ELB16. Ever since I saw Darcy Wilkinson's exquisite little papier-mache tea-cup here. I wanted to have a go at creating with papier-mache and playing with pattern on my finished piece. I've created three little trinket goblets that reflect the pattern of sleeping, waking and living and that - I hope - evoke friendly faces peeping out of the leafy curtains!

Step One:This project uses all recycled materials, apart from the wonderful PaperArtsy products - of course! I began by drawing three little faces with a Micron pigment pen. It's very important to use pigment pen if you're going to draw your own faces for this project and that you heat-set them with a heat tool, as you don't want the lines to run when you apply Satin Glaze to them. If you use stamped faces, heat set the ink you use in the same way. I drew the faces onto white tissue wrap that came with some packaging and painted it with a little Nougat Fresco and a touch of water-colour pencil.

Step Two: I put these aside, took three of my treasured Chinese tea-cups and lined them with cling-film. I had some old music books I'd found in a charity shop, so I tore these into strips; made up a nice, messy potion of 2 parts PVA glue to 1 part water; soaked my strips and moulded them carefully into the tea-cups. I created one layer, waited until this dried, added another and then, when that dried, a third. This process took me about four or five days until the cups lifted out of their 'moulds' and they were firm and dry. The cling-film peels away very easily.

 ELB16

Step Three: While my cups were drying, I painted some more of the tissue with a blend of diluted Teresa Green, Zucchini, Granny Smith and a mix of Brown Shed and Snowflake. I stamped with ELB16 in Ranger Coffee Archival. I wanted to create subtle colour, as my plan was to allow the music notes on the goblets to show through in places.

Step 4: Now the fun begins! I painted my cups with a blend of Satin Glaze and Inky Pool to create a blue glaze rather than a colour as such and applied this to my cups. When this was dry, I painted areas with more satin glaze where I wanted to stick a pattern of cut out faces and Lin Brown petals/leaves. I carefully smoothed out as many wrinkles as I could before giving a top coat of Satin Glaze. The tissue is remarkably tough once it's been painted with Frescos, but if it does tear it's possible to piece it together.

Step 5: You can probably see that I wasn't able to eradicate all wrinkles as I smoothed the tissue around the curve of the cup , but I wasn't too concerned about this

Step 6:  My cups needed something more and as I glanced around my craft corner, I noticed 3 empty wooden spools. I had one of those 'light-bulb' moments and exclaimed 'Goblets!' Probably anyone who heard thought I'd gone completely mad! I could have decorated these, but I rather like the natural wood contrast. For a finishing touch, I painted the insides with 2 coats of Little Black Dress. Finally I applied a coat of Pearl Glaze to give an interesting finish and rounded off with a narrow line of painted and embossed copper foil, which I had over from another project.

When I'm working, especially on miniature projects, I like to have my bits and bobs to hand in little containers, as they so easily go astray. Now I'll have three pretty patterned goblets reminding me of natures's patterns.

You do need to be patient as you wait for your little cups to dry, but I thoroughly enjoyed creating something from recycled materials that I could use to keep trinkets and tiny pieces of collage paper or charms to hand - you could even wind some twine or ribbon around the stems so you have that close by too. You could try creating all kinds of patterns on papier-mache cups or bowls, collaging with stamps of faces, flowers and abstract patterns - the possibilities are endless. The child in me loves making a gloopy mess with the PVA potion, but it's really important to wear old clothes and an apron and cover your work area thoroughly with a project like this, as the glue mixed with water drips everywhere!

Thank you so much for dropping by today. I do hope you'll have some fun creating patterns and enjoy all the wonderful patterns around you. 

Julie Ann @ Magpieheaven and Twitter woletz1.

Oh Julie Ann these are fabulous, I love how you took inspiration from my teacup and totally made it your own. These goblets are so creative. Finding faces in foliage and clouds is something we all do, and here you have brought them to life ~Darcy

We would love to see how you interpret this Patterns topic by linking what you make to our 2016 Challenge #15: Patterns, on this page HERE.

All of our bloggers love to see your twist on their ideas,  particularly if you were inspired directly by their post. 

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Patterns link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Aug 21st 2016. The winner will be announced 2  hours later at 19:00.