Give Me A Sign

One of my friends is gearing up to have her own classroom of eager young minds this year and she asked me to help make the decorations for her classroom. The theme is pirates, with Captain Gillespie at the helm. Arrrrgh! Pay attention young Jim Hawkins! First off be the sign designating the Capt’ns quarters.

Specifications:

• Size to be about 9 by 22 inches
• must read “Captain Gillespie”
• make it look like a parchment that has seen cannon fire

Materials on hand.

• A canvas of about the right size
• various colors of acrylic paint, old brushes, ink and a fishbowl

Supplies, Americana Cocoa and Primary Yellow mixed together in an old fish bowl

I applied a thin layer with an old brush but the texture looked stripy, not parchment like….

Not quite right.. Color is good, texture is off.

I find that a plastic baggie is often the nearest thing at hand in my shop. Arrrg, better there than in the stomach of a sea turtle. Arrrrrrr!

A crumpled plastic bag makes an excellent texture tool

The texture was perfect once it dried.

I painted “Captain Gillespie” on in some Indian Red Calligraphy ink. The next step was to simulate the look of cannon fire. I could probably do this with some ochre or charcoal but I don’t seen any nearby.

I did have…

Somehow a project is always more fun if I can work a warning label or two into the materials.

After a few light scorches (and extinguishing the canvas twice) I have the final product. I think the good Captian shall like it.

All hands on deck mateys and get "Kraken" at yer school work! "0.125! 0.375! 0.625!"

Advertisement

In the Shop

Its just past four in the morning and I find myself in my basement workshop unable to get to sleep. An all too common condition these days. So… What better to do than to make a blog! Seriously, I have a laptop, typing is quieter than running the dremmel or banging out metal, and its been on my to try list for about a year.

I love to make things. I work largely with found items, cobbling together what I want/need from what I have. On occasions I’ll be gifted with a truly fine tool, paint, clay, etc. and find myself staring at it for months before I can work up the will to use it. Its just SO perfect. *laugh* Whereas I’ll put something together out of nails, cardboard, fimo, cloth and whatever else I happen to find and I actually USE it. The result has been a basement workshop that I’m truly comfortable in.

Currently I’ve been fueling my late-night addiction with cruising steampunk images and attempting to absorb the whole of the Instructables website. It is really addictive. So be warned. 🙂

Some other Items I’ve been looking at and some of my own stuff.

Chris Fisher’s Steampunk costume

My Gallery page of some old stuff I’ve done

Anna’s Knitting Blog