As You Wish (Princess Bride Box)

NB: I apologise for the background in these photos. Possibly taking photographs of my finished project ON TOP OF MY GROTTY WASHING MACHINE was not the best idea. Wasn’t thinking about the final presentation I guess…. Anyway, please ignore said appliance and focus only on the box itself, ok?

Hello! I hope you are all well and coping with this crazy world we live in. Been a bit brutal lately. If anything can realistically be described as “a bit” brutal. So much going on and most of it not good. I try not to watch the news these days because it is distressing and depressing and keeps me awake. This means that I am quite ignorant about it what is going on much of the time, but I feel that is the only way I can keep my sanity (or what’s left of it anyway).

My cousin recently turned the big 5-0 and, to celebrate, I made her this tea box. We both LOVE The Princess Bride and so it inspired me to make something that was related to that. I didn’t have a lot of time so it needed to be something I could put together reasonably quickly, with as little room for error (and subsequent swearing) as possible.

So, using the gorgeous Iron Orchid Designs “Primitive” mould, I moulded air-dry clay and glued it on to an old wooden tea box I had purchased from an opshop. I love the hares and had been wanting to use them on something for a while. I added hearts and lots of florals. On the front I used IOD’s “Harper” mould to spell out “As You Wish”. These letters are very fiddly and probably the most difficult to mould and glue on, but I think it’s worth it. Before allowing to cure, I gave all the clay a very quick, light coat of paint (I just used acrylic white paint); if you’ve not tried this before, I recommend it – it really helps reduce any cracking of the clay as it’s drying.

The next day, when all was cured and ready to go, I did a couple of coats of pale beige house paint all over the moulds and box. When that was dry, I lightly sponged over the whole thing with a lighter shade of paint, to give a stone or limestone finish. A couple of finishing coats of matt varnish and I was done. It really was quite a quick project but I am pleased with the results. The box was filled with specialty teas and other treats.

What do you think? My cousin loved it and I’m glad I took the time to make her something special. Homemade gifts are always nicer, don’t you think? It may not have compared to the diamond necklace she got from her partner, but I hope she will treasure it just the same 🙂

I always enjoy making things for other people – it gives more meaning to what you are making and somehow encourages you to put in more effort and take care of the details.

Using clay moulds is a great way to transform an otherwise plain item and upcycle things that would most likely end up in landfill or in the back of someone’s cupboard, never to see the light of day. It’s an easy method that takes very little skill or expense and can produce lovely results.

That’s it for today – just a quickie post from this very slack blogger!

Take care – be kind to one another. The world needs all the kindness it can get right now.

x

Frame Game

Howdy. Welcome to another edition of “Who’s a Terrible Blogger? I am” where I apologise for not posting regularly and make promises about doing better in the future. It’s becoming a habit……(is it a habit after more than a decade, or has it just become my way of doing things and is unlikely to change? You decide!)

I’m pretty sure I said I would show these framed pictures before but then never got around to it so, um, here we go! These were created purely by accident when I was just mucking about one day with clay and moulds and small box canvases. Actually, I think what really happened was that I had probably painted something on the canvas and, disgusted by my lack of artistic talent, ripped the canvas off the frame. I then saw that underneath the crappy, cheap, canvas was an equally crappy, cheap frame. But, dear reader, I saw promise in that badly-constructed little frame made from the kind of wood that possibly doesn’t exist in nature or contains some sort of cancer-causing fibres and/or is harvested from rapidly diminishing rainforests. You know the kind I mean; we’re not talking QUALITY here. I am sorry I didn’t take photos of this stage….hopefully you understand what I am on about!

Anyway, the frames were kinda cute – solid and boxy and somehow vintage-looking. Or, at least, they would lend themselves to techniques that would make them become vintage-looking. Plus, they had the added bonus of basically being junk now, so if I botched them it didn’t really matter.

First of all, I wanted to make the wood (or whatever we are calling it!) look a little more hand-carved and beaten up. So, I basically took to them with a little craft knife and battered them a bit – taking a slice off here and there, chipping other sections and generally softening the edges, so they look hand-carved and less modern.

Then, with my trusty IOD moulds and air-dry clay, I made a few decorative pieces to add to the frame. Some, I gave corner moldings to, others had just a feature piece on the top or bottom. I trimmed any that didn’t quite fit the space, and added extra bits if I felt it needed it. These were glued on and left to set. After 24 hours, I painted the whole piece in a solid colour – usually something pale like cream or off-white, grey or a rustic blue. I sanded this back lightly, once dry and then applied a coating of antiquing wax, making sure to get in all the nooks and crannies, and removing any excess before leaving it to dry.

I had a look through my millions of art books that I keep for cutting up (I know – sacrilege!) and chose a few suitable images. The aperture of the frames are generally quite small and, depending on the thickness of the wood, quite dark so I chose images that were lighter in colour and would not disappear into the shadows. Portraits and landscapes work equally well, depending on their composition. I gave each image a couple of good coats of Mod-Podge to seal and protect and make the paper a bit firmer, as the frames obviously didn’t come with glass to protect the picture. The images were then glued in to the frames and a decorative piece of paper glued over the back, to neaten it up and seal everything in, before adding hanging hardware.

Et voila! So easy and, I think, so effective. I think they look like something you’d imagine seeing in an old pub or the cabin of a ship, where a lonely sea-going captain would gaze longingly at his betrothed or images of home. Or something like that.

It’s also a great way to use up damaged or ugly canvases. We’ve all been given one of those little “Live, Laugh, Love” wall-art canvases by well-meaning workmates or family members….repurpose them! Rip that canvas off and start upcycling the frame with images that suit your personal style and décor.

What do you think? I enjoyed making these and love how they turned out. It’s always good to repurpose items that would otherwise get binned or hidden in a cupboard somewhere. I am planning on making my own frames someday (seeing as how I bought a mitre saw 6 months ago with great plans for its use and have yet to even unpack it!) but, until then, I am pleased with these little ones.

Thank you for stopping in for yet another sporadic blog post 🙂

Moulding Moments

Molding or Moulding? Mold or Mould? That depends on where you live. I live here in Australia, so I am going with “mould, mouldy, moulding”. Just thought I should clear that up.

I am hoping that I haven’t posted these before….I could check before I spend time typing this up but I am lazy. Also, I am pretty sure I made these in the period where I wasn’t posting at all so I should be safe. So I shall proceed with abandon!

It seems that anyone who is anyone is hopping on the moulds bandwagon lately. Thrift-flippers and DIY-ers and everyone in between. I was probably a bit late to the party, but I turned up nevertheless (possibly under-dressed and forgetting to bring a plate, but still…).

I am not at the furniture flipping stage (unless you mean literally flipping furniture, like clumsily walking into a side table and knocking it over – THAT I can do with surprising regularity) so my foray into the world of clay and moulds has mostly been focused on small items.

I found these delightful little faux succulents in my local hardware shop and thought I could do something with them. They were surprisingly cheap (is it just me or are succulents – both real and fake – are ridiculously expensive?) and just begging to be made-over, so I grabbed a few. They already had a really solid, concrete-like pot with no glaze which made them perfect for painting and sticking stuff to! I always forget to take “before” photos, so you’ll just have to take my word for it.

Using an ancient mould (I think I got it in the 90s….) that featured a variety of faces, I used air-dry clay to create some suitable moulded shapes for each pot. Some had just one large face, others had multiple. They varied from moon-like to somewhat alien in nature but I just went with what I had. I glued them on with wood glue (I use Liquid Nails) while they were still wet, so I could shape them around each pot. They were then left to dry/cure overnight.

The next day, I painted them all over with a base colour, choosing tones that looked like concrete, sandstone or terracotta. Then, using a slightly lighter colour, I dabbed all over the pot and mould with a rag, adding more highlights to the facial features. They were allowed to dry completely before sealing with a matte varnish. I’m quite pleased with how they turned out and they were so simple to do.

I also had a larger faux cactus that was in an ugly, plain pot that needed a makeover. I decided on a mould from Prima Redesign (I believe this one is from the “Regal Emblems” set). I trimmed the clay piece slightly to fit the pot and glued it on with the same wood glue as before. Once cured, I painted the pot a pretty duck-egg blue (just a sample pot of colour I picked up at Bunnings – make sure you check out their “mis-tint” shelf – lots of bargain paint there!) and let it dry completely. I then dabbed on some metallic copper acrylic paint to highlight the mould and edges of the pot so it had a rustic look. Please excuse bird cannister and tongs in the background – I really need to learn to stage my photos properly!

Next up, it was time to tackle a larger project. I wanted to make a piece of wall art that would look like a clay tile or relief plaque / sculpture (you can tell I have no idea what to call it!). I started off with a small-ish piece, roughly 20cm x 30cm in size. The base was a cruddy old wooden plaque I had found at the op-shop. I think it had one of those very 80s unicorn pictures on it – tres chic! Again using the Regal Emblems set from Prima Redesign, I created the clay shapes and glued them to the board in a pleasing, uniform pattern, trimming them as needed to fit.

A smart person would have sanded off the existing picture, to give the clay and paint something to hang on to (rather than a shiny surface). But I am not so smart. The clay adhered fine with Liquid Nails, but once I started adding paint, the paper of the image started bubbling and peeling. Sigh. Not to be thwarted, I added a fine layer of tissue to those areas, using Mod-Podge, crumpling the tissue as I went. It ended up giving the piece a really great texture and didn’t detract from the overall look, thankfully. I dabbed over with a lighter colour paint as per the pots, to highlight and define the details of the moulds and textured background. I love how this one turned out and it sold almost immediately.

This next piece of wall art was similar in technique and style, just on a larger piece (measuring around 50cm x 50cm). I was worried I wouldn’t be able to keep it straight and balanced as I glued on the various moulded sections, but it’s pretty even 🙂 A little bit of wonkiness adds to the organic feel, right? This one also sold and is now proudly displayed in a friend’s covered courtyard.

So, lots of projects that are easy to do and can take as little or as much time to complete as you like. The moulds are a great way to jazz up a simple piece or completely transform another. They look great on wooden items too and I will show you in an upcoming post how they can transform simple wooden frames into vintage-inspired lovelies 🙂

Thank you for reading – stay safe and well. The world is a little crazy right now.

x