True to FORM

I'd been working steadily on Villa Leone for nearly 3 weeks straight before I grew weary, and ran out of gas. 

I needed to do something different before I jumped into the next phase of that build; 
which brings me to the beginning of this story:✈

My friend Bettie is downsizing her miniature collection and has given me some of her miniatures to play with.

Among the items she has placed at my disposal, were a number of Chrysnbon dressmaker forms which had seen better days.
They had already been spray painted with a white enamel paint which had reacted badly with the plastic forms and had bubbled and melted them certain places. 

Some of the plastic cages on the lower halves were broken in places as well.  
In short- they were all in pretty rough shape.

I was looking at them not knowing exactly what to do with them, when I decided that it might be fun to mess around a with them, and see if I could perhaps give them 
 A NEW LEASE ON LIFE. 

"Nothing ventured 
Nothing Gained"

I'd think of the time, as a bit of a vacation break from work on the villa 
 ✈ ☀
 
The photo below is to show you what the dress forms actually look like in the raw although the metal cage on this one, is also somewhat mangled.

The 5 which I used had bubbled where the plastic had melted, both in the front at the bust, and on the back and on the bum.

Unfortunately
I didn't bother taking the before photo of the them 
although I should have, but I'm sure that you get the idea. ☹

The dress form still on the sprue, comes with a stand 

The first thing I did was to try and smooth the most damaged and lumpy places by paring them down with a craft knife, 
then I sanded any remaining sharp edges.  
Following that,
 I painted both sides of the metal cage along with the carved 'wood' top, with black acrylic metal paint.

When it had dried I glued the two halves of the 
dress forms together and secured them with large spring loaded clamps until the glue had completely set.
I had to use the clamps because there was so much paint along the edges of the form that I wouldn't get a tight fit otherwise.

The bodies of the dress forms were then painted using a brush with my LIQUID STONE mix.
( gesso, water based acrylic sealer, drywall patch, water)
I used this mix primarily to fill in and to try and correct some of the most corroded areas on the dress forms. 
The mix was painted onto the forms in an even coat. 

My Liquid Stone Mix
the wet stuff is on the bottom of the container

After that had cured, I painted the torsos with 
Natural Tan acrylic paint.
When it was dry, I sanded the forms again using a fine grit sanding sponge which really ground the tan paint into the underlying plaster.
Some spots were sanded through and exposed the black plastic underneath

The torso was then stained with some browns & a black ink using a make up sponge.
The silver ink was applied sparingly to the black metal cage.
When the inks had dried then I sprayed them lightly with
"STIFFEN STUFF"

{sidebar}

 I bought this spray with the idea of using it for fabrics but it didn't work for me, so I have been using it for setting the color on paper, and to set chalks as well as ink and it is Wonderful!
It's a lot cheaper to purchase than the SceneARama  scenic spray glue which I was buying before.  

Anyway,
when the Stiffen Stuff was sprayed onto the inks,
it did just as I'd expected-
the wet colors ran.
I used a makeup sponge to lightly DAB at the wettest puddles as they quickly dried down, trying not to disturb certain areas which I wanted to remain as is.  
The blend of colors gave a real leathery look to the painted surface. 

I repeated this process onto the metal cages, then sprayed and lightly stippled them with a brown Iron Oxide acrylic paint, to add a little rust.
To tone down some of the shine, 
I went over the body rather randomly with 
Revlon
Clear Matt Nail Varnish.  

Lookin' Good Ladies! 

hey!
I think I'm done

NOPE- NOT YET!

After re-examining an inspiration photo of some
VINTAGE FRENCH MANNEQUINS,
I decided to add one LAST detail and
 make the metal attachments at the shoulders.
I chose some suitable press studs from my stash and flattened them a bit with a pair of pliers; stuck them onto some masking tape and painted them with the black acrylic metal paint. 

When they were dry I glued them onto the dress forms
using Jeweler's glue.  

I touched up any missing paint and sealed them with CLEAR MATT NAIL VARNISH 

okay

 NOW THEY ARE DONE!
✄

EVERYONE WAVE 
GOOD-BYE ! 


and it's back to the Villa I go ✈

elizabeth

La Cage?.... oh; FAUX!

HELLO EVERYONE! 
It was Very Encouraging to have so many people interested in my last post as to how I made the Shabby Faux Birdcages.  I was going to save THE TUTORIAL for later, but since I have a tendency towards laziness, I thought it best to present the whole thing now and just get it off the books.  As you can see from the photo above, I made way more than I'll ever need because once I began making them, it was hard to stop. 

I made some with bottoms as well as some without.  There are a couple with fancy tops which I shall show you later as well.  The basic method applied to each, but as you can see- the varieties are achieved through using your own imagination .

 STEP 1
I began with some #30 gage florist wire.
I used paper coated wire but I don't think that you have to.
I would think that a glossy wire would probably require a different type of paint,( an enamel), so that it would stick.  I haven't tried an enamel so I can't say for certain,
well anyhoosie, 
I used paper covered wire. 

I found this package at the Thrift store!  SCORE!!!
and so this is why I used it.  If you have a slightly bigger gage then try it out and see if it works for you. 

STEP 2

I cut
TEN
14-inch lengths.however
  I SHOULD HAVE USED
TEN-
10-INCH LENGTHS
But I decided to err on the side of caution to make sure that I had enough wire for this particular cage.  


I based this on the size of the form that I'd chosen to use for the mold.  Again, this measurement is flexible.  You will see why in a moment.

STEP 3

I bent the TEN wires in half so that I could find the mid-point.

I took another short length of wire and I went through the middle and twisted it tight to anchor the centre.

STEP 4

Because I am going to be building this cage from the bottom UP- 
I am clipping the centre wire.
BUT
if you are building it from the TOP DOWN, then leave the wire intact!  

                          are you confused yet?  
It gets worse .....  
                   but Stay tuned and hopefully you'll see what I mean.

Here I am trying to space the wires evenly because they are going to go over my form.
And for THAT, -
I have chosen a soft plastic bottle as seen below.

I got mine from the dollar store.  It came in a package of 3 

STEP 5

I cut off the nozzle end with a craft knife.   I left as much of the lower portion intact because it will allow me to make cages of different lengths. 

The bottom of the bottle is going to be where I place the wires and work down.
But first I have to add the bands that will hold them.
I used quilling paper that I already had on hand.  You will need a long length to wrap around the circumference of the bottle at least 3x's.   

STEP 6
APPLY a SINGLE dab of glue, I used QUICK GRIP, as an anchor for the paper strip.

STEP 7

Wrap a length of quilling paper 3X's around the entire bottle 

You don't need any more glue until you come to the end of the third cycle.
Secure the end of the paper strip with another dab of Quick Grip

DONE!

STEP 8
now chose the spacing for the next paper band, and repeat
Steps Six and Seven
the distance that you put between the bands is what determines the length of the body of your cage.  

DONE!
Now this is where the wires come in..
For 
STEP 9
you centre you wires at the bottom of the plastic bottle and try to space them as evenly as you can.  You can use a bit of GLUE to hold it in place or just use your thumb.
Because these cages are destined to be aged, I got them close to  being evenly spaced .

STEP 10
holding the wires at centre, run the spokes down and around the bottle over top of the 2 paper bands.  Adjust them as necessary.

Hook-Anchor the ends of each wire over the edge of the bottle.  

STEP11
my wires were way too long so I had to trim off the excess, but leave enough to still hook over the edge

It should look like this inside the bottle.

STEP 12
use your glue and cover the
ENTIRE SURFACE OF
ONE
of the paper bands THEN add
3 MORE layered bands
 of quilling paper over the top of the wires. 

The top layer of paper sandwiches the wires so that they won't shift or move so make sure that they are as straight as can be.

And of course, mine is now OFF CENTRE ><
oh well :/
Repeat the same process for the second band

This is what it now looks like with both bands of quilling paper.

The closed end could easily be the TOP of the cage if you so desired.
However I'm planning to flip this baby around and use the open end as the TOP
Below you can see what you can do with a different shaped mold.
For the small one I used an old makeup lid.
Leave your cage to set up and dry.   

And now for the top of the cage-
enter

 CHANEL

I happened to have some old Chanel sample containers that I was getting ready to throw away.
Chanel distributed these with sample moisturizers and foundations in them.  I don't know if they still sample their products this way, but I had 4 of these so this is what I used.
and it just so happened that the screw portion fit nice and snug within the interior circumference of the birdcage which became the domed copper roof of La CAGE. 

I pierced the centre with an awl, making the hole big enough for the doubled paper wire to pass through

I selected a filigree bead cap to tread the paper wire through. 

I doubled over a length of wire to form a loop and fed it through the hole in the bead cap leaving a length of about ONE inch.
Then I treaded the 2 tails of the wire into the loops of the bead cap and secured it. 

Clip off the excess wire tails and then guide the top of the wire in and through the hole in the tub.

Add additional beads to the stem of the twisted wire gluing in between each set of beads

The filigree anchor will keep the beads in place

NOW IT'S BACK TO THE CAGE
and onto -

STEP 13
unhook the ends

 and using a hard flat tool, gently loosen the paper strips from the plastic form, running the tool just under the paper bands both top and bottom 

Use your tool to gently guide the form out, it should come away clean from the mold and leave you with the cage shape intact.

The empty cage

STEP 14
trim away the wire tails and test fit the roof of the cage to  
as pictured below
BUT DON'T GLUE IT IN PLACE YET

Add some filigree metal or paper for the bottom of the cage.
I used a large scalloped paper punch to make an insert for inside the cage and a metal piece for the outside of my cage.

Now for the paint
I used a copper acrylic paint and I painted the entire cage inside and out.
I painted the cage roof inside and out too
 and Left both of them to dry

When the copper paint was dry I went over the entire cage again with BLUE BAHAMA acrylic paint, which I purchased at Michael's.

When that was dry I added a bit of
Transparent Black Gel paint.  This product is really thin and dries transparent.  An alternate may be to dilute some black acrylic with some artist's gel medium and water to get a slurry.

Brush the black wash  lightly over the blue and let dry,
glue on the roof
and
YOU'RE DONE! 

La Cage! #1
and below is
La Cage #2

For #2, I made and added a Faux Cage door, as well as a perch. I'd also embellished the 2 paper bands with metal chains prior to   painting them.

Below is the entire lot!
For the Shabby white cages I used white chalk paint as a base color and then aged them with the CINNAMON RUST!
see my rusting tutorial 
"Meeting Rusty at the Game"
http://studioeminiatures.blogspot.ca/2015/09/meeting-rusty-at-game.html

Voila! 
 and that's the end

elizabeth :D