Hex Tech Tuesday - Freedom by Kim

 I'm trying something a bit abstract this time. I hope you like it.

"Freedom!"

From the Tando Creative Hexagon set I used 3 x 3.5mm hexs, and 3 x 5mm hexs (that's length of the sides)

I started with the cage. For the bars I used clean bamboo sticks from a room infuser (the thing that has smelly oil in the bottom and sticks poking out to make the room smell nice). I drilled holes (as shown) in two of the 3.5mm hexs to take the bamboo sticks. The sticks were a bit too long so I cut them to 8cm. Before I glued them in I bent and broke two of them to allow the butterflies to escape.

Next stage was to glue the remaining ten sticks in place. I put them all in one hex then lined up the second hex to complete the cage. I glued the third 3.5mm hex on the top to cover the drill holes. I added some washers and rivets left over from Tando's Industrial Elements kit to decorate the top of the cage.

The stand is made from a piece of cardboard tube cut from a cooking foil roll. I wanted the whole thing to be skew-if, so I cut the bottom at an angle, and the top at an angle but not matching the bottom angle (see picture). I stuck the cut piece on a large hex. All was set aside to dry while I arranged the butterflies.

I took 11 butterflies from a set of Tando Mini Butterflies. I used six, three matching pairs, attached to a pile of four washers from Industrial Elements, to make a firm base section. The remaining butterflies were arranged as if flying out of the cage, their wing tips were glued together with PVA.

Before I assembled the sections I painted them. I used black and white for everything except the cage bars and escaping butterflies.

The cage floor was painted with a harlequin diamond shape, as was the top hex base. I feel there is something sinister about the design. The two remaining large hexs are painted one black, and one white.

The tube support for the cage was painted Lamp Black. When dry a coat of DecoArt Weathered Wood was applied and allowed to dry. White was painted over that to give the lovely crackle finish.

The cage bars are painted with Venetian Gold. The escaping butterflies are stippled with bright colours - I used yellow, green, red and blue, with the top two having gold edges to their wings. The three pairs of butterflies not escaping from the cage are painted black, with Zinc (grey) and white lightly dry brushed on to add texture.

Assembly (not the sort we had at the start of our school day!)

Glue the two large hexs under the base section. Make each one twisted slightly out of alignment, black on the bottom, white next.

Glue the dark and coloured butterfly sections together at the wings, making sure they fit nicely in the cage. When they are dry glue them in the opening of the cage. I added a bit of support by glueing the wing to the top of the cage. Allow to dry.

The broken cage bars can now be added, arranged to look like they have burst open. It is a bit fiddly and you will need to support each bit until the glue has set - might be worth using a solvent, quick drying glue here.

Last is to glue the cage to the stand, sit back and admire your handiwork!

I hope you enjoyed this Hex Tech. Thanks for stopping by!

Product:

Tando Creative Hexagons

Tando Creative Mini Butterflies

Bamboo sticks, or similar

DecoArt Americana Colours

DecoArt Weathered Wood

The World in a Matchbox - by Kim

Ever thought it would be nice to carry your whole world in a matchbox? Well, I’ve sort of done it by putting all the Oriental astrological elements in one box; fire, earth, metal, water, wood.

I’ve used, from Tando Creative, their Matchbox, Medium with inserts. It arrives flat packed but assembly is easy and straightforward. I used ordinary PVA to stick it together.

I decided that I would use four inserts and the cover would be the fifth element, and that would be a dramatic ‘metal’ finish. 

For the individual 'metal' plates I used pieces from Tando Offcuts. I chopped the edges randomly to to make them less than perfect, and more interesting, then glued them to the surface of the cover. (Be careful when using sharp blades!)

Base coat the entire cover - except the plates - with Lamp Black, including going inside by a brush width incase it is visible on the finished piece.

I painted two coats of DecoArt Venetian Gold on the plates so that it was well covered. Next I aged the edges by blending Quinacridone Gold Media Fluid Acrylic. Finally, I blended Paynes Grey Media Fluid Acrylic around the outside, to give more depth to the ageing.

Now to the inserts. I printed four pictures*, one for each of the remaining elements, and glued them on. I cut them slightly larger than the insert so that I could use coarse sandpaper to ‘blend’ the edges to fit.

To embellish the pictures I printed the Chinese characters and words. For the back of each card I used the element’s associated colour; earth - yellow, wood - green, fire - red, water - black,(metal is white) and a slip-slap graduated blend of DecoArt colours. A little gold wax rub-on round the edges finished it off.

Back to the cover. I added characters, words. and title to the outer. The inner tray was painted black outside and white inside. I stamped ‘I paint what I like’, added characters, and finished with ‘long life’.

(*Make sure you have permission to use the pictures)

Products used:

Tando Creative : Matchbox Medium with inserts

Tando Creative : Off cuts 50g

DecoArt Colours:

Venetian Gold Metalic acrylic paint

Lamp Black

Titanium White 

Media Acrylics:

Quinacridone Gold and Paynes Grey

Various colours of your choice for the backs

Also:

Gold rub-on wax

Pictures as appropriate 

Rubber stamps with Chinese characters