Rusty Tag

This time last week I was on a 3 day workshop and one of the things we were asked to do was to take anything rusty we could find. Although I had a fabulous time, it wasn’t what I expected and so I brought the bits back and a few more that Judith kindly let me use on the day, to do something like what I thought we’d be doing, but didn’t!

I look a large mdf tag and laid bits and bobs out how I roughly wanted to place them.

To create some texture on the tag I used kitchen roll. Paint the mdf and then just lay a small piece of kitchen roll on and dab it with the end of the paintbrush until it’s all covered. Then take another small piece and continue until you’ve covered the tag. You could also use fabric too, or a mix of both.

Whilst it was still tacky I started to place the pieces of rusty metal. 

Powertex also acts as a glue, so it’s very easy to stick most things down.

Then I added all the washers, screws, nails and the clay skull.

I made sure everything had a good coat of the black Powertex. I also decided to add strands of Power Cotton to create even more texture and set it aside to dry.

This is how it looks this morning after spending a night in the airing cupboard.

Close up of the skull. All the metal is stuck on with Powertex.

Close up of the tag and now it’s dried you can really see the Power cotton.

So onto the dry brushing. I used white to start with. Click on the words dry brushing to see the video.

So this is what I ended up with after adding the white pigment.

So this is where I kind of got to after I’d stopped videoing. If you didn’t manage or want to watch it, I did another layer of dry brushing, but this time used the red pigment. Again click on the words dry brushing to see the video.

And to brighten it up a little, I used the bronze and rich gold pigments. You’ll be pleased to know I didn’t video this one!!

Close up – you can really see the single strands of Power Cotton now.

And here I Powertexed the tacks using the heads onto the forehead of the skull.

Another close up to show off the textures.

A closer close up of the tacks on the skull head.

And this is what it came out like, I’m rather pleased with it.

If you liked this step by step, why not leave me a comment and you can also let me know what you thought of my little video. Be honest, I won’t be offended, it was off the cuff and not planned at all. Next time I’ll use a tripod so I have both hands free!