Scrap Metal Birdhouse

This is how it looked when I bought it for $1.

A little paint on the underside of the roof and then I started covering the whole thing with pieces of metallic clay. I used gold, antique gold, silver, brass and copper.

All kinds of things got pressed into the clay to give it some texture and make it interesting. I also swapped out that cord for some copper wire to hang it from.

Multiple shades of PearlEx powders make the clay look more like metal and give the whole thing a nice shimmer that is very difficult to see in a picture.

For the edges of the roof I rolled out a bunch of tiny pieces of clay and attached them with a little ball point tool.

The roof needed some more layers and then it needed to be texturized and PearlExed.

The other side.

At this point I was almost done adding clay. At the last minute I decided to do a patchwork around the base but once that was done and after everything was baked and cooled I gave it a wash of acrylic paint to make it look old and tarnished. A few twists of copper wire and one tiny crystal bead finished it off.



Halloween Stuff At The Dollar Store

It's my most favorite time of year again and the dollar stores are full of all things Halloween. Skulls and skeletons, eyeballs and other body parts... so many things to inspire gruesome morbid craftyness!

I found this flexible ice cube tray and knew right away that I could use it with clay. Now I have a way to make skull heads for dolls, fast and simple!

These are a couple of clay heads, baked and ready to go. I am impressed with the amount of detail these have!

I got right to work on a doll! I used a styrofoam cone as the body and twisted a couple pieces of wire together for the neck and arms. I glued a piece of scrap fabric around the styrofoam so it wouldn't shed all over the place while I worked on it.

I used a little black paint to get into all the nooks and crannies of the skull and bring out the details in it. When it was dry, I glued the skull onto the wire neck and wrapped the arms in some scrap padding just to give them a little dimension.

I cut a few pieces of fabric for the dress and used scraps of lace and trim to fancy it up a little.

I glued on some loose wool roving as hair and a couple of rhinestones in her eye sockets. I almost left her like this but I wanted her to be a bit more mysterious.

I think that the veil makes her look like she's going to her own funeral.