This tenth challenge is to use the Assemblage Clock set, as described on page 33 of Tim Holtz' Compendium of Curiosities, Vol. 3. This challenge is being hosted by Linda Ledbetter at her blog Studio L3 and sponsored by Funkie Junkie Boutique.
I wasn't sure I was going to do this one. Clocks aren't my thing (I really don't have a place to put "larger" art items like this so I tend to resort to flat things like tags and cards) and I really had no clue what to do with one if I had one, but I did finally give in and order a clock several weeks ago, just in case I changed my mind.
I had three small, VERY pink rubbery plastic flamingos that came as "freebies" in packages from various online shops with my purchases and there HAD to be something I could do with them. So I made them my inspiration! As a rule, I'm not a flamingo person. Normally, I would threaten to kill anyone who wanted to put a plastic flamingo in my husband's garden (maybe even him, if he were so bold, even though we do have things approaching garden gnomes in kitchiness!) But there was this time...
Back in the mid-80s, when I was doing environmental site studies for an engineering firm, (two weeks after I broke a toe and had to resort to wearing a right shoe two sizes larger than the left and showering with a plastic bag over my foot) four of us were sent to Algeria for 30 days to study the environment of a marsh in northern Algeria, a marsh which is now a UN protected site and a bird sanctuary. One of the birds we saw there was the flamingo (actually, more than one --- a whole flock in the open water in the south of the marsh where the water was fresh and relatively clean). Somewhere, I even have pictures of them --- albeit from VERY far away as they were very skittish. Anyway, I thought, why not a tribute to this trip to the Mariais?
I actually remembered to take my camera to my craft area this time so I could take pictures of how I did this...
The first step was to create a little platform from dark olive green card stock and cardboard for the three flamingos (no way they would stand upright on that curved clock surface). I attached the flamingos with foam dots and added a but of distress glitter (Shabby Shutters and Antique Linen) and a pair of Chit Chat stickers:
I wasn't sure I was going to do this one. Clocks aren't my thing (I really don't have a place to put "larger" art items like this so I tend to resort to flat things like tags and cards) and I really had no clue what to do with one if I had one, but I did finally give in and order a clock several weeks ago, just in case I changed my mind.
I had three small, VERY pink rubbery plastic flamingos that came as "freebies" in packages from various online shops with my purchases and there HAD to be something I could do with them. So I made them my inspiration! As a rule, I'm not a flamingo person. Normally, I would threaten to kill anyone who wanted to put a plastic flamingo in my husband's garden (maybe even him, if he were so bold, even though we do have things approaching garden gnomes in kitchiness!) But there was this time...
Back in the mid-80s, when I was doing environmental site studies for an engineering firm, (two weeks after I broke a toe and had to resort to wearing a right shoe two sizes larger than the left and showering with a plastic bag over my foot) four of us were sent to Algeria for 30 days to study the environment of a marsh in northern Algeria, a marsh which is now a UN protected site and a bird sanctuary. One of the birds we saw there was the flamingo (actually, more than one --- a whole flock in the open water in the south of the marsh where the water was fresh and relatively clean). Somewhere, I even have pictures of them --- albeit from VERY far away as they were very skittish. Anyway, I thought, why not a tribute to this trip to the Mariais?
I actually remembered to take my camera to my craft area this time so I could take pictures of how I did this...
The first step was to create a little platform from dark olive green card stock and cardboard for the three flamingos (no way they would stand upright on that curved clock surface). I attached the flamingos with foam dots and added a but of distress glitter (Shabby Shutters and Antique Linen) and a pair of Chit Chat stickers:
The backdrop for the flamingos was next. It is a combination of Tim's techniques: painted industrial background (using Tattered Rose and Picked Raspberry Distress Paints on some Generations metallic stickers). Over that, a pair of layered book plates from Office Werks with an archival epoxy sticker from Keepsakes CK, and touches of Antique Linen Paint and Crushed Olive Distress Stains to muddle the colors a bit. Over all that I overstamped with StaZon Forest green using a Stampabilities bamboo stamp to resemble the tall phragmites we found edging waterways in the marsh (sorry, can't find a stamp of phragmites so bamboo will have to do, even though it didn't grow in the Marias):
I decided my clock needed a label, an identification tag, so I used Tim's distress ink layering technique with Tattered Rose, Picked Raspberry and a spritz of water on a Paperbilities tag, front and back:
I printed out the name of the marsh and it's location and pasted them on the front and back of the tag, respectively. I overstamped that bamboo stamp again, with StaZon Forest Green on both sides...
And attached a ribbon.
Now, for the clock itself! I noticed that the design team used gesso before painting but I didn't think that far ahead. I brushed the clock with Tattered Rose (on the clock body) and Picked Raspberry (on the bells), let it dry,
reapplied the paint for a second coat, let it dry again, and then dry brushed with the contrasting colors for a streaked matte finish
As a rule, I'm NOT a pink person but those flamingos needed some balance, so pink it was.
Final assembly: the flamingos are in, as is the background, the tag is tied to one of the clock "bells" and layered Hero Arts green paper flowers (with Craft Works Candi gold centers) were glued onto the top and side...
Let me present "Marais de las Macta":
Final assembly: the flamingos are in, as is the background, the tag is tied to one of the clock "bells" and layered Hero Arts green paper flowers (with Craft Works Candi gold centers) were glued onto the top and side...
Let me present "Marais de las Macta":
It commemorates my first (and only) field trip on that environmental job I worked at for 12.5 years, my first (and only) trip to Paris (on the way in, with that toe really really bothering me and it was hot as Hades), 30 days with a broken toe in an unfinished construction trailer at an LNG Plant construction camp in northern Algeria (where what little French I had learned in college rapidly degenerated into pidgin), and my first ever visit to London (on the way home, because our tickets were messed up --- let's just say, Air Algerie doesn't fly from Algiers to NYC despite what the face of the ticket said - so we had to stay three days to reschedule, during the heat of summer in Silver Jubilee so hotel space was scarce)... The flamingos were among the nicest memories from that 30 days!!!
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