From the Tribe: Relics & Artifacts® Guest Ambassador Jools Robertson

We regularly invite members from our Facebook Tribe to be featured as guest Ambassadors here on the Muse.  This month, we are honored, humbled, and thrilled to feature Jools Roberston as our Relics & Artifacts® Guest Ambassador.  

I was always encouraged to be creative from a very young age, my parents said I was great as a child as I would sit quietly for hours drawing, painting and cutting up!  Nowadays, I work full time as a textile designer working on commercial interior projects and developing product collections.  I’m constantly being creative working with textures, design and colour, which I love.

In my spare time, I enjoy all types of arts and crafts and working with multimedia, particularly altered art using paint, die cutting, stamps, lots of colour, texture and experimenting with new techniques. I am also a design team member for DecoArt and Stampotique.

To connect with Jools, find her on her blog, Creative Journey!

I’m very honored to be Guest Ambassador for Muse using the fabulous Relics & Artifacts® products.  I love to use architectural detailing in my work and always use moldings to create interest and dimension.  I also like to use various media to create texture, working with colours and metallics to create depth and detail. 

I chose to use the wonderful Ostensorium's design as it is such a fabulous shape based on a Medieval museum piece. It is also referred to as a Monstrance which comes from the Latin word, "monstrare", meaning "to show". 

The Romans used this type of vessel to hold and exhibit an honored object so it was a perfect place to use the beautiful Regalis center piece.  Just look at those cherubs! I started to do some research into them.  Wow! I was blown away.  I was inspired by one that had a red center and liked the silver colouration and beautiful jeweled finishes.  Now you need to know that I have a thing about wings! So, although unconventional, it makes it unique and personal to my style.

Here's how I put my treasured vessel together.

Step 1: Once I had assembled the Ostensorium I applied a coat of white Gesso and allowed to dry.

Step 2:  Apply crackle paste to the surfaces with a palette knife, thicker in areas to create larger crackles. I allowed the whole thing to dry for a few hours. Once it was dry, I adhered the Regalis pieces in place with a strong glue.

Step 3:  The wings!  I cut the wings in 300gsm cardstock using the Cricut ‘Lovestruck’ cartridge twice.  Glue both layers with PVA glue and apply texture sand with a stencil brush to create more texture.  Leave to dry for a few hours.

Step 4:  It's time get centered!  Paint the inside with Quinacridone Red and darken around the edge with Quinacridone Magenta and Carbon Black.

Step 5:  Apply a coat of Silver Metallic fluid acrylic once the crackle medium has fully dried.  Apply a wash of Carbon Black working around the edge of the embellishment details.  Wipe excess to create a tarnished look and highlight the crackle.  

Step 6:  To highlight, use a dry brush with the Silver Metallic and then embellish with crystals.

Supplies:
Relics & Artifacts® Ostensorium 
Relics & Artifacts® Regalis
DecoArt White Gesso 
DecoArt Crackle Paste 
DecoArt Texture Sand
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics:  Metallic Silver, Carbon Black, Quinacridone Red, Quinacridone, Magenta
Jewelled Embellishment 

"From the Tribe" Featuring RELICS & ARTIFACTS® Guest Ambassador Lexi Grenzer

We have a special Guest Ambassador who has been a regular in our Tribe and a follower of Relics & Artifacts® for quite some time.  Her works have been inspiring, innovative, and simply beautiful.  Lexi Grenzer is our Guest Ambassador and she has a jaw-dropping project for us. But first, let's get to know Lexi a little bit better!

Lexi is a mixed media artist, licensed designer, watercolorist, doll maker and all around craft enthusiast. She is a wife, mother of two, and a huge animal advocate.

An Ostensorium is a vessel used in many Catholic churches to hold the Eucharistic host or in other cases, to display relics of saints. Historically, these vessels have been made of brilliant metals or glass and they are known for being quite exquisite.

Vintage saints, scapular, rosaries and assorted Catholic pieces have been a long time favorite of mine. I have found that many of my favorite old religious pieces are made of wood, have gold accents, and are chipped with age and time. I wanted to create a piece that I could display in my home that fit this same old wood and chipped gold feeling.

I'm also a very practical person, so most things in my home typically have multiple uses. So, when I envisioned how I might make an Ostensorium, I thought, "Why not use it to display some of my favorite jewelry pieces, especially ones with a religious undertone?" I selected one of Sandra's fabulous digital images to decoupage to the inside, further embellishing and and adding to the vintage look. Matrona Paduana was the image I selected and I did so because the woman had such a serene expression, one that reminded me of the Virgin Mary.

Once I completed the Ostensorium, I was ever so pleased to place my trinkets and bobbles in and on it. It meshed beautifully with my collections and memorabilia. My inspiration was one with a religious undertone, but it's important to note that I admire much about many faiths. In creating your piece, you might decide painting with a vibrant turquoise, allowing the paint to crackle and decoupaging a sweet bird inside.  This might be more your cup of tea. However you create your piece, know that you'll display and embellish it to match your fabulous self! Hope you enjoy my little tutorial!

Supply List:
Relics & Artifacts® Ostensorium
Relics & Artifacts® Digital Relic "Matrona Paduana"

"Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" with RELICS & ARTIFACTS® Ambassador Heather Thompson

Having young children at home and the fact that they STILL think Momma is fun and "the best Momma in the world," my art is highly influenced by them.  It tends to reflect on what we are actually doing around the house or in the gardens or what we seem to be watching at that given time. Also seeing that my daughter, Olivia, and I share an art room together she gives me her honest, heart warming opinion on EVERYTHING.

I mean, when she doesn't like something, she will usually give you a better way of doing it in her eyes. So when it came to the "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall" piece, we were talking about how we wanted it to look and we had the movie up on the screen. Olivia was pointing out details in the walls and torches and things evolved from there until it was time to make the torches.

So with Apoxie Sculpt® in hand, (she gets to mix it up for me and then play with the left overs because I can never measure the perfect amount) I struggled, and then struggled some more, and then mom duties where calling and I had to make supper.  She asked if she could help. I thought, "Why not? Let's see what the girl's got."

I was happy to see I wasn't the only one that struggled. She would manipulate and twist and turn and with much delight, the torches were done, and not by me! As proud as Olivia was of her handiwork, I said, "Well we better put them where they belong."

So to give credit where credit is due, Olivia, the little scutlper that she is, did in fact, make the beautiful torches. With some expert "Olivia guidance" of color choices, this "Best Momma in the World" finished the paint details that made the whole project seamlessly come together.

A collaboration of the minds, our rendition of "Mirror Mirror on the Wall" was completed and Olivia is one proud artist.

*Inspiration from Walt Disney's 1959 "Snow White", the main villain, "Evil Queen"

Supplies:
Relics & Artifacts® Facia Familiaris
Relics & Artifacts® Dresden Star Chain Gold
Relics & Artifacts® Ostensorium
Apoxie Sculpt®
DecoArt Media Gesso
DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics: Titanium White, Quinacridone Gold, Dioxazine Purple, Primary Cyan, Metallic Silver, Burnt Umber, Paynes Grey, Primary Yellow, Cadmium Orange Hue, Carbon Black Metallic Gold
Amazing Putty
Amazing Casting Resin
Stampin' Up!  Embossing Folder
Antique Iron Frame with mirror (from Italy)
Table Salt

We're Having A Sale

This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday everything in our shop is 15% off.

Now's a good time to let you imagination soar and pick up your Ostensorium

Or fulfill all your patina dreams with VerDay

And while you're here be sure to catch up on your reading at The Muse