Still can't Sleep, Shall We Look at Rusty Things? Pt. 2

I figured I'd make this a separate post since it's a million miles in the other direction of Ugly Christmas sweaters. Here's the rest of the art I made for the Abandon Art project on craftster. I think I mentioned before how I was trying my hand again at assemblage art (yes I did, right here) showing how messy my craft table got. Well finally I can share pictures of my creations.

I have always loved the distressed, grungy look of some altered art and took that to be my muse in approaching this project. I also challenged myself to only use supplies that I had on hand at home because I, as I'm sure some of you can relate, have a tendency to pick up cool art supplies and then never actually get around to using them when I get home. Case in point: I got some rusting medium a year or so ago and never even opened the package! Well that's changed now...

I love shrines and wanted to do a couple of mini ones for the swap. This first one is inspired by Byzantine iconic art and uses a junky old doll toy that I covered in the rust medium. Interesting doing that on plastic, it gave it a really neat patina, not really rusty but definitely aged.



I also rusted the altoid tin, used a bit of vintage dictionary paper, and other odds and ends about the house. I must add that this was definitely a test of restraint, as I feel like when I try to do altered art type stuff I tend to overcrowd my pieces with "stuff". So I like the simplicity of it. This one definitely felt "done" to me.





I did a second altered tin as well, using the rusting medium with a doll hand. This one was a bit more challenging to get to the "finished" point and even then I'm still not sure. I had a texture paste I used to give the tin "innards" a bit more interest - I didn't want to do the same icon type style as the last tin. I'm really proud I got the nails to stay on the top too









(the last picture was taken by Onyxnox)

Then I switched gears a bit to some more freeform altering. I've had this star for a while that I bought from Michael's two years ago - it had to be used. And a brass bug, more texture paste, a juice can lid, vintage paper, paint, rust, etc. It definitely gets across the grungy factor. Not everyone's cup of tea but I like it. Oh and my favorite part is how the rust medium reacted to the brass turning it blue.







These beauties have been sent to the cold, white North of Canada (admittedly probably not terribly cold and white yet) to be abandoned and I'm hoping to get pictures so I can share it with you.

I also received an incredibly thoughtful package from Onyxnox at My Stuff, My Life (resident of the aforementioned cold white north) to abandon around my local area.

First beauty shots of her gorgeous mini books! (and by mini I mean they'd be the perfect sized books for a mouse to check out from the mousey library - caffeine is making me silly).





And some crappy cell phone pictures of a couple I have abandoned already (I'm not going to whip out a proper camera to out my sneaky abandoning adventures!)

First target: The gas station.



I thought I was terribly clever popping it up in the little holder for credit card applications.



And then I left one on the counter at the Post Office. Definitely gone by now; if someone didn't take it then at the least the janitor or whoever cleans up the PO has taken it.



And then lastly I dropped one at the library. Which was shockingly difficult as there was everyone and their mother at the library that day. I couldn't turn around without seeing another person. But I was sneaky. And finally found a relatively abandoned aisle where I dropped another wee book.



I need to remember to start dropping some of my own art pieces to be abandoned. And I will. And then there will be pictures =)