The team at Art Elements has recently started hosting themed monthly challenges, which involve a reveal and blog hop at the end of the month. The theme for April is Horses, picked by Jenny, with the reveal being hosted by Cathy.
At first, I thought “Seahorse!” These creatures have inspired so many artsy pieces (especially jewelry.) Thinking on and off about seahorse projects, I slowly realized I wanted to stretch myself and go for the land-horse, which I find more challenging.
I didn’t delay starting the project as much as I did last month, but it definitely began in the later half of the month. 🙂 My aim was to create a horse head accessory for a tote bag that my sis and I plan to make – the horse would be made of polymer clay, and have a beaded mane. I also wanted to check off at least one item from my make-nine list for the year, and I chose alcohol inks.
The colors in the project are inspired by the summer here, with blue added in since it’s also been raining recently! That’s some weird and wonderful weather. 🙂
The Claying
I drew an outline of a horse head using rough strokes, traced it multiple times with my pencil, and pressed a sheet of white-with-translucent clay on it to transfer some of the outline onto the clay. On the other side of the sheet, I used a texture sheet to add a pattern I liked. I then cut out the figure roughly following the pencil outline.
Now came the trials with alcohol inks. I added drops of different inks over the textured clay, prodding them so they mix well at the boundaries. When I was satisfied with how the colors looked, I let the ink dry a bit, and dabbed a paper towel spritzed with rubbing alcohol to wipe away some of the ink on the raised surfaces. After the ink dried fully, I applied Perfect Pearls on the raised surfaces.
I added one more clay layer with a simple-textured back to strengthen the piece, and added some color to the back and the edges with chalks. To help with my beading of the mane later, I poked holes 0.3cm apart all along the top of the neck.
Baking time! (I already liked how it looked when it came out of the oven; the Perfect Pearls, however, seemed to have dulled a bit.)
The beading
I added beaded fringes, each 15-18 seed beads long, one fringe per hole, ensuring that overall color theme of each fringe matches the color of the base clay in that area. As I made the fringes, I began attaching them to one another to keep them in place. To steady the top of the fringes, I made a 1-row modified brick stitch edge behind them, along the top edge of the neck.
This is one of those rare times that a project turned out better than I’d hoped for – I totally love this piece! Challenge accomplished, as far as I’m concerned. 🙂
My sis and I have not yet taken a call on exactly how we’ll use this – it’ll either be a short swinging charm, or held in place on the bag. Meanwhile, I feel a little more confident about alcohol inks now, and I can’t wait to use them more!
If you’re curious to see what the AE team and the other guests have made for this challenge, go have a peek at their blogs! (Some guests don’t have blogs, so AE team member Laney has posted their creations on her blog.)
Guests: Alysen • Anita (that’s me!) • Beth • Catherine • Jill • Paulette • Raven • Sarajo • Tammy
AE Team: Caroline • Claire • Jen • Laney • Lesley • Marsha • Niky • Sue
I absolutely LOVE this horse! The colors, textures and style of this piece is just perfect. I love how you added the beaded mane and your color choice of beads is stunning with the colors of the alcohol inks. The inks really worked well. I can’t wait to see the finished tote.
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Thank you, Cathy! I’m beyond excited that all the elements work really well together. 🙂
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The colors and texture on your horse are perfect and I especially love the beaded mane. What a great idea.
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Thank you, Tammy! I love that the design choices turned out well. 🙂
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Great job, Anita – love the colors you chose!
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Thank you, Sue! 🙂
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Awesome piece! Love the beaded fringe for the mane. Great job!
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Thank you, Ginny! We can’t wait to use it for the tote. 🙂
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What a fabulous piece! The alcohol inks worked out perfectly – will they be a go-to supply for you now? I also love the beaded fringe, you can’t beat mixed-media!
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Thank you, yes, mixed media is the best! I’ll definitely use the inks more, if not all the time. 🙂
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Wow – I love all the elements you have incorporated into the horse head! I just love the beaded work for the mane and the colors are amazing. I can’t wait to see how you incorporate the horse into tote!
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Thank you, Beth! I’m pleased that I actually had all those bead colors with me. 🙂
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Anita- thanks for joining us. Love the combination of clay and beads. Sorry I missed the reveal, glad you liked the theme!
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Thank you for the fun and challenging theme, Jenny, and glad to see you back (and catching up too!)
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I love your horse. It’s a beauty. I’ve never used inks. You do some the prettiest ink, blending, textures and bead working mix media combo that I’ve ever seen. Your horse will be a gorgeous accessory wherever you decide to use it.
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Thank you, E.C.! Now that I’ve used inks, I can’t wait to try out different things with them. 🙂
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beautiful colors….
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Thank you so much! Yes, I love how the colors look. 🙂
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