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 

"The Gypsies" with RELICS & ARTIFACTS® Ambassador Chrissy Colon

"The Gypsies in the noisy throng
Stray Bessarabia around.
Today over the river, long,
They’re lodging in their tents, worn out.
Like freedom their night-resting is –
And peaceful sleep the heavens under.

Between the wagons’ tired wheels,
Covered with rugs, long-used in wonders,
A fire’s flamed. A family’s Preparing, round it, a dinner;
A horse is gazing in the fields, Is sleeping, free, a teamed bear-thriller.

Amidst the steppes all well lives: The peaceful tasks of families,
Ready by morning for a travel,
And songs of wives, and children’ weeps,
And ringing of a mobile anvil.

But now, over the Gipsy camp,
The dozing silence is prevailing,
And heard is, in the sleeping steppe,
Just a dog’s barking and steed’s neighing.

Extinguished is each single light,
All’s peaceful now. The moon is shining,
Alone in the heaven height, And at the quiet camp is lighting."
--Aleksandr Puskin "The Gypsies" (1824)

Supply List:
Relics & Artifacts® "Andromeda Mini Throne"
Relics & Artifacts® Dresden Trim "Daisy Chain Small Gold"
Mod Podge
Liquitex Gesso
DecoArt Acrylic Paint
Napkins

Poem retrieved from https://www.poetryloverspage.com/yevgeny/pushkin/gypsies.html