Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Foil Art

I've been wanting to try some foil art lately and i've been watching this guy at Loving Mixed Media
http://lovingmixedmedia.com/forum/topics/foil-art-technique,  i like a lot of what he does and with this foil art he uses Ashphelt /tar or Shoe Polish,  i opted for the shoe polish because i couldnt find any tar,  basically you create a piece with lots of mixed media in it, cover it with the foil and then paint with different colors. Then you give it a coat of the tar/ shoe polish and wipe off, So heres what i've done so far
These are the pieces just covered in paint, i actually forgot to take a pic before that when they were completely covered in kitchen foil, so anyway i was just using random colors so i could see what it would do and where i was going and in no particular pattern or anything

 
Once the paint was dry then i brushed on quiet a heavy coat of shoe polish and let dry a bit, then wiped off with a dry cloth. They've both got 2 coats.   When he used the tar you wipe off with white spirits and also you can spritz the spirits on to leave a very cool effect, as i didnt use that its ended up like this. I've used rolled up pieces of foil, netting from a garlic bag, hand spun yarn, bottles tops and a key.

 
This one is mainly rolled up foil with flat pieces of foil, yarn and very small shells.

 
Not sure i really like them much and at the moment there not sealed with a varnish. I might give it another go and maybe even just use burnt umber paint to age it.  Shoe polish is very messy but it was fun to make anyway

9 comments:

  1. Very interesting and beautiful work Karen! I like it very much! This kind of ageing with shoe polish, bitumen or oil paint I use a lot in my decoupage. I use a bit of vegetable oil to remove the excess of ageing medium. I hope I will keep going and show more!

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  2. They look good, Kaz :)
    It all sounds a bit stinky though :)

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  3. These are cool Karen - I love the texture. I think it would look interesting to sand back the paint a bit so you can see the foil underneath in places and then add some burnt umber paint and wipe back.

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  4. Thankyou Felicity, I never thought of using oil to wipe it back and i'm wondering if vinegar would work as well xoxo

    Thankyou Zed, the shoe polish isnt very smelly but i think the bitumen might me, although i am going to test it out lol

    Thankyou Ruth, i'll give it another coat of the polish and then ill try some sand paper on them :)
    There a fun project to do !!

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  5. I don't mind the smell of shoe polish, someone in our house put a rag they'd used with white spirit in a bin by the radiator the other night! The whole house whiffed!

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  6. Hey Zed, yes shoe polish is not so bad but a rag with spirits in a bin next to a heater would reek, and be pretty dangerous lol I hope you found the culprit that did that, let me guess out of 2 boys M or B, naughty boy lol xo

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  7. So fun for this creation. First time to see it. Great color and texture.

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  8. They're great Karen! I've got something similar saved on one of my pinterest boards to have a go at. I like Felicity's idea of using oil paint.. that must be a lot nicer to use than shoe polish & tar.
    x

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  9. Thankyou Terri, they are a lot of fun to make :)

    Thankyou Deborah, I"m going to give the shoe polish one more go and then i'll try the paint, I'm loving this and working on another one now for a friend. You'll have to have a go and i cant wait to see what you come up with :)

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