Saturday, February 16, 2013

Week 6: Making aluminum foil art

Today I finished up a craft I've been working on for a few weeks.  It was a Pin I found on Pinterest that led to this crafty lady's page:

Make it a Wonderful Life: Owls, Foil, & Shoe Polish

I was just mesmerized by the finished look.  So beautiful, with such simple objects and techniques. I had to try it right away when I first found it last year.  I had reasonably good results with my first attempt.



Pretty neat, huh?  Not bad for aluminum foil & shoe polish.

So then I tried something a little more complex:





I decided to revisit this same style of work in my most recent piece, but this time I decided to add some color.

Things you'll need:

*Cardboard (smooth, non-corrugated is best)
*Craft glue (Aileen's Tacky glue has given me the best results for the raised glue parts)
*Mod Podge or white glue
*Aluminum foil
*Shoe polish (liquid kind with an applicator sponge works better than jar polish)
*A dull, well-worn pencil with eraser
*Sharpies of various colors

I drew a design on the cardboard.  I made it fairly basic for this particular craft.  I want to keep it simple until I feel confident and have developed skills with delicate glue application.  I outlined the entire design with craft glue.  I left it to dry overnight. 





Once the glue was dry, I put a thin, even coat of white glue over the whole front of the cardboard.  I then quickly, firmly and carefully placed the aluminum foil over the picture (white glue dries fast).  I tried to make it as wrinkle-free as possible, while at the same time pressing the foil into the grooves of the picture made by the raised, dry craft glue.   Then, using the eraser end of a pencil (a somewhat worn-down eraser, not a brand-new one), I started bringing out the design more.  Then, I used the lead end of the pencil (with a very dull tip) for more precise edging. 








After revealing what was hiding under the foil, it was time to start the detail work.  Using the same dull pencil, I created various textured details in and around the original design.




Then I started coloring in certain aspects.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much these colors popped.  Lovely~




Here's where things started going awry...I loved the piece as it was, and I debated on whether or not to use the shoe polish at all.  Did it really need it?  I didn't want to ruin the colors.  But then, everything I had seen made me believe that it was the application of the shoe polish that really brought out the beauty of the design.  I ultimately decided to go ahead with it. 



I kinda wished afterward that I hadn't.  Because either due to my ineptitude at applying the polish, or because Sharpies and shoe polish don't play well together, I was left with something I was not as happy about as I initially thought I would be.  The colors were scratched & dulled.  Disappointing! I didn't want to take a photo of that, much less post it online.  But I had put enough time & effort into this that I wasn't ready to give up just yet.  Oh, I definitely put it down for several days and scowled at it every time I passed by, because I wasn't sure it was fixable.  But I didn't give up.

After almost a week, I went back to my creation.  I cleaned the polish off gently with a damp rag.  Not all of it.  I left the grooves.  I just wanted to make the foil shine again.  It was not as uniformly attractive as I wanted it to be, but it did work, and the imperfections gave it an odd sort of charm.  I wiped off the dull, scratched colors.  That was ridiculously easy, which made me make a mental note that this would definitely need to be sprayed or painted with a protective coating once I was done with it.

 I re-applied the colors, although they didn't look exactly as they had before. 



 Ta da!  Not bad.  Notice that it looks very much like the last one I made in some ways.  I could call it a theme, make one more and hang them as a trio or quartet (and may well do that now).  I still need to protect it with some sort of acrylic sealant or something along those lines.  I just haven't decided what I'll use yet. 
  
Since discovering this method in my random Pinterest searching, it's definitely become one of my favorites.  I have requests from my husband to make other pieces for his lab.   I wouldn't be at all surprised if another craft like this one shows up in the next several weeks.






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