Saturday, February 28, 2015

Diva Challenge #206 ~ Tools/Trade

This week, Laura Harms, the Diva, has challenged us to expand our horizons and try our tangles with new tools, or on new surfaces. This challenge came about when she hurt her thumb and was unable to use her normal pen and so chose to also use a larger paper with a brush tip pen. Fortunately, I didn't have an accident, but I found it challenging to use my chosen tools and surfaces.

For many years, I have dabbled in all kinds of crafts, since my mother taught me to crochet when I was a child and my grandmother taught me to tat and to sew. I have pretty much tried the gamut of crafts available and used to make a lot of stuffed animals and dolls and doll clothes. More recently, I have made jewelry and repurposed jewelry that was left by my mother and grandmother when they passed away. I have tried many kinds of surfaces and techniques, one of which was rubber stamping on dominoes and using the domino for a pendant. Well, I thought that I might try to tangle on one and see where that went. Actually, it was kind of funny, because the night before the challenge, I had found my dominoes and my alcohol inks and glimmer sprays and set them out to try on Monday. So....Monday came along and voila! I had what I was going to use for this challenge.

Now you may wonder why I am not posting this until the last minute....all I can say is "That seems to be the way my life goes". This has been the first day this week, I haven't had to run errands, take someone or myself to the doctor, or go grocery shopping. And since there are many days when I can barely walk, when I get home from these challenges, I am 'too pooped to pop' and just sit and read or veg.

But anyway, these were actually finished on Monday, but I haven't had a chance to get a picture taken, cleaned up, and posted until now. The are not quite ready for jewelry yet, they still need to have the hole drilled for the bail and strung on either chain or leather - I haven't decided which it will be. The pink one was colored with Glimmer Spray and had to dry quite a while before I could tangle on it, The green one was colored with alcohol inks applied with cotton balls and blended and pounced until I liked the color. I hope you like!

Diva Challenge 205
Media: Dominoes, Glimmer Spray (left), Alcohol Inks (right), Micron 01
Tangles: L-Cirque, Flux, Wud, Pokeleaf
R-Cirque, Flux and miscellaneous sketches

All in all, this was a fun challenge, but I need a lot more work if I am going to do this type of jewelry to actually wear ... it will need to have a coat of sealant on it and bails made, but there are many sizes of dominoes to play with. This set was my largest...the smallest I have on hand right now would be suitable for earrings, but my hand isn't near steady enough for that yet. So just let yourself go and try your hand at whatever is available, but most of all, HAVE FUN!

Thank you for looking at my blog and if you would like to see how others have answered this challenge, just check out the Diva's Blog (HERE) and if you are so inclined, try something yourself. Comments are always welcomed and I do appreciate feedback.  Thank you and have a great day!

8 comments:

  1. Both are very beautiful! I also like the coloring of the backgrounds.

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  2. These are really fun and beautiful.

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  3. Oh, I like it very much!
    They look so pretty

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  4. What a coincidence! I just gave a class in alcohol inks on Friday with some of my Zentangle students. We also used dominoes. Too bad I didn't see yours to share with them. Lovely!

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  5. Lezli, I was so excited to see your domino jewelry! I did a couple about a month ago, but was having a bit of trouble finding an ink that didn't wipe off! I used Sharpies for color and then my favorite Fabrico pen that is alcohol ink. I used bails, (i think they are called bails)that I glued on the back. I'll try and make a post about them. The only thing is what to seal them with. I did use Dimensional Magic by Modge Podge to seal it, but found that it was not the right thing for the job. Anyway, I have a lot of practice ahead of me. I did wear mine though, and I got so many compliments. So I think we are on the right track. Anyway, if I find anything new that works well, I'll let you know. :0) Annette

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  6. Both are beautiful! Wonderful colours and a great idea!

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  7. I love them! I also have made some domino jewelry and even sold them at craft fairs. I did a different process of making them. I scanned in my artwork, reduced it down on the computer to domino size and printed the images out on a laser printer, so the ink wouldn't run. Then I modged podged the tiny printed cut outs onto the dominos. You can embellish with paints, markers, charms etc. Then I use dimensional magic to seal it. I glued on the bales with E6000 glue. I've made earrings too. Love domino jewelry! It's so much fun to do. I might do a post in the future sometime on my process to share. :)

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