More Crafty Blasts Form The Past!

I was cleaning out storage cabinets in the studio today, making room for more stuff, when I came across these platters I made from wooden blanks, back in my paper-obsessed days. They held up in storage really well.

 12" diameter

They were made by ironing colored wax (crayons worked best) onto slick paper, crackling the wax after it had set, and then filling the cracks with a contrasting paint color (I was always fond of the shimmer Lumiere gave to these platters, so that's what I used).

(detail)

I'd smooth double-sided adhesive sheets onto the backs of the papers, cut them into piles of half inch strips and apply them- one by one, overlapping- to the platter blanks. Then I'd seal the whole thing with several coats of polyurethane. 

 18" diameter

The cool thing was that there was no priming of the wood necessary, first. I did, however, paint the underside of the platters, usually with the same color Lumiere I'd used on the papers. 

 (detail)

Lumiere when buffed into wood is really beautiful. Even though this is usually a very opaque paint, the grain of the wood still shows through.

18" diameter

(painted back and platter foot)

For a while I was also into making art with masking tape. Did you know that plain manila masking tape stains beautifully?? I found liquid acrylics most effective, but even craft paint did a great job.

 18" diameter

I covered the surface of the bowl with torn pieces of tape and then stained it phthalo blue. I constructed the face and the rays by tearing more tape and placing the pieces directly onto one side of a sheet of double-sided adhesive. I cut out the shapes with a craft knife, painted them, and then applied them on top of the background. 

(detail)

Then it got a few coats of poly, as well. I didn't have finger prints for a week, afterward- who knew masking tape could dry out your finger tips that much?

One more piece of masking tape art, just for fun.

 Ginger Tabby, 18" x 26"

(detail)

Happy creating!