Rock Hard Hat! and some cracking news!!

I am very pleased and excited to announce that I have been invited onto the Decoart International Design Team!

I was very honoured to be asked by Andy Skinner, Decoarts Executive Creative Consultant. I first met Andy two years ago and was instantly a fan of his style of work and techniques, he is an incredible artist and an innovator of mixed media techniques

Through Andy's workshops I was introduced to Decoart products, which are great quality and always produce excellent results. Their product portfolio is extremely extensive http://www.decoart.com
I am really looking forward to the opportunity of using more of the products as part of the design team

 

For this project I was inspired by a rather unique place we visited regularly when I was a child, Mother Shipton's Cave in Knaresborough, North Yorkshire

It is said to have been the birth place of an English soothsayer and legendry prophetess 
But the most fascinating thing for me was the Petrifying dropping well
As I a child I looked in awe at the hats and teddy bears hung in the flow of water slowly turning to stone
Some of the items have been frozen in time since 1853; you can turn an item to stone in as little as 5 months' for more info http://www.mothershipton.co.uk/

I had always wanted a stone hat, so this was my opportunity to recreate it! Hopefully in less time…..

I had acquiring a rather dapper bowler hat, a bit battered but the real McCoy and proceeded to use Andy's techniques Rock my Book to transform it, it’s quite a large scale project for me and the first time using the techniques. But with Andy’s expert tutorials it has probably taken about 5 hours in total

I'm really pleased with the result and love the colours and all of the texture and detail

 

For more information on the techniques used, please visit Andy skinners Book of Ruination online workshop, which incorporates the Rock my Book workshop

http://bookofruination.andyskinnercrafts.com/

Products used- Tando gears, Tim Holtz embellishments, die cuts, pearls and screw heads

Decoart Modelling paste and paints as shown