February Kit - Twirly Whirly by Zoë Sanderson

Hello, it is my turn today to share my take on this great kit.  At first this one really had me none plussed so before getting started I really had to think about it.  There are 4 sections to the wheel so what comes in 4s?

The 4 Horsemen? 

The 4 Seasons

The Cardinal points on a Compass

The Suites in a pack of cards.

When the kit arrived the first thing I did was dry assemble it.  There were a couple of reasons for this the main one being to get an understanding of how it will all fit together as there are couple of things you need to be aware of.

There is a base (not in the picture above) that come in 4 parts plus the turntable the large circle above. then there are the compartments and the top divider that helps secure them from above.  With the compartment ends, in each section there is a narrow piece with tabs top and bottom that is the inner end.  the outer end has a tab and a slot the 4 arm piece fits into that slot on the outer but takes a tab on the inner.  When you start gluing them all together it is important that you make sure each section piece has one of each kind of narrow piece attached.

In the picture above you see the top and bottom sections.  The bottom is a solid circle with 3 rings on top this makes space for the long bolt head that everything else fits over.  The top is in 3 pieces each smaller in diameter and with a central hole for the end of the long bolt.  When assembled there is a butterfly screw to hold everything in place on the bolt.

First of all then the 3 main elements were stuck together, ready to be painted.  I did take a photo of this stage but my iPhone camera decided to make it a 1 second movie which will not upload here, sorry.  The stage was with all the compartments completed but before the top arms were added, made it easier to paint.  Anyway when I looked at it like that a fort came to mind and for a while I considered not putting any of the top on.

The fort idea also solved a couple of other issues the paint work became fort walls with plant life at the bottom and the theme became the 4 seasons.   After fiddling around with air dry clay models and things the idea of making a wire tree for each section presented itself.  With that an old compass stamp suggested itself for the very top and the dragon as a weather vane.

Main body painted, a stencil used on the ends with an embossing paste and mica powder.

The compass stamp die cut into 3 sections slightly smaller than the top circles so the larger 2 are attached to the one above and then "their own" part.  This helped blend the top into one piece.   clay dragon hollowed out to sit on top of the bolt.  Butterfly screw not needed in this case.

First tree Spring with Peridot and then I needed to make it stand up.  Air dry clay moulded in a broach mould and while wet the tree pushed into it.  That works so just 2 more moulded pieces needed.  Winter is a bare tree that was attached with heavy body gel medium.

Summer with Amathyst

Autumn 

Winter, Structure paste

North is Winter, East is Spring, South is Summer and West, Autumn.

Although it was January it was a lovely sunny day so the back garden was the perfect spot to take the finished piece pictures.

For me this was a little more challenging than most but that made the final result even more of a pleasure.  

Products used.

Tando Twirly Whirly Art Stand

Tando Set of 4 Background and Flourish Stencils

Media Acrylics

Various Gels and Pastes

 Gem stone chips, copper wire, air dry clay and other elements from my personal stash.

Playing with Plaques - Zoë Sanderson

Today I'm going to share with you a project that was going in one direction but needed with one piece going off on a tangent.

So what happened along the way.  The original plan was to use the Plaques and the Whimsical Houses.

Having released a couple of the houses from their board it was time to start.  Usually with a project like this the first step is to gesso everything however I knew texture would be a feature making time to get the pastes and stencils out.

OK I wanted to have a play as well.  This was an opportunity for me to try the DecoArt modelling paste out for the first time.   The stencil I used is from this set of 4 and I've had lots of fun with this one especially.

The fun thing about the paste is that it dries clear!   Once the paste had dried then gesso was brushed all over.  Now it is time to start to colour them.

Something else that is a lot of fun is applying wax pastes.   I like to use a cotton makeup removing pad, they pick up the paste easily and make it easy to apply.  The best thing is to use circular movements working over the surface and building the colour up.  Repeated working also brings the shine and luster up.

For the other Plaque I used watercolour paints and then decoupaged some printed tissue over the top.

The Houses were also given a gesso base, watercolored, and then glued together.   One of the houses was also given some printed tissue additions.  Although it looks OK in this picture in real life it's not so good.  I play around with layouts for a while before finally deciding how the Whimsical House plaque would look.

Well that was one plaque but what about the other?   That third house was not working especially not on the metallic finish of the second base.  It just happened that all this took place during a 4 day crafting binge when I tried all sorts of different things.

Included in my some resin casts and clay casts using a great American mould.  The resin piece was coloured with DecoArt acrylic paints, the clay pieces didn't need any paint adding.

 As always I hope you had fun reading this and are encouraged to go out and get inky/messy yourself while having fun!  

Products Used

Tando 12 Assorted Plaques

Tando Whimsical Houses 2

Tando Set of 4 Background/Flourish stencils

DecoArt Media White Modelling Paste

DecoArt Media Metallic Lustre

DecoArt Fluid Acrylics

Other mediums from my stash.