Showing posts with label tins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tins. Show all posts

Friday, July 10, 2009

Tinned Treasures

It started as a challenge to my creativity. I'd asked my Dad to pick me up some old lunch trays I'd seen at a garage sale he'd organized. When he brought over the trays he gave me a box of old cookie tins too. Thought I'd want them too. I think cookie tins are kind of pointless and I really had no use for them- but it's my dad and he'd got them for me so I mumbled thanks and tossed them in the garage. But later I was thinking about art and how really we should be able to make amazing art out of anything. So I started to play around with the tins. I did a post a while back with my first experiments altering their finish. I'd crackle painted one and spray painted another trying to see what I had to work with. Then I dropped it to do the book stuff.

So a couple of days ago when I needed to try and quick come up with a submission idea for the next Sew Somerset my eye fell on the tins and I thought I'd give them a try. Anything can be art right? The tin on the right is my first attempt. I really struggled with it at first. I knew I wanted to use some fabric and wire- :) and I knew I needed to include stitching, and because of the depth I thought it'd be cool to have things at different levels. So those were the parameters.

It turned out kind of fun. The central flower is actually fabric petals that I cut, coated with gel medium and then stuck to a mini plastic easter egg. To attach the wire, I used my handy dandy crop-a-dile and punched holes. The little silhouette at left is courtesy of Singlestone Studios. I was trying to channel the whole cameo look.

So there you have it- a little creativity and now I'm looking at the tins in my garage in a completely different light. Thanks Dad!

Monday, June 1, 2009

To tin or not to tin...

I played around with a tin project today. Something that I've had in mind for a couple of days- I was kind of just at the edge of really visualizing it and then today it clicked. I painted it with Tim Holtz crackle paint and then wrapped the outside with fabric and the inside with pages torn from a book. It makes a great shadowbox! So now I'm trying to figure out where to take it next. I held up a few items just to get a feel for how they'd look. I know that whatever I do I want to make use of the depth and do some layering. I figure I can hang an item as well as wire through the tin either through the back or the sides. It would make a very cool base for an assemblage. Something else that ocurred to me as I was working on it was maybe masking over an oval in the center. That would leave the reflective tin surface as sort of a mirror and would reflect anything I hung from the center.

So lots of options including turning it into a photo frame. I was also planning on doing a wire loop de loop border along the outside of the piece. I also like the idea of turning it into a sihlouette sort of thing too. What to do, what to do. I have to apologize for the heart pic. It's kind of fuzzy because I couldn't get it to stop moving. Oh well!

Oh, and then there's embellishing. I could add vintage buttons, I coud use the old keys I have, I could stamp on the background or add a bit of bling...I kind of like the idea of using a sparkly old brooch I have. So many ideas!!! I'd love to know what you would do with this canvas... If you'd like to share!!! Thank you!