August 17, 2022 Janine O'Rourke

The Navigator's Watch by LOUISE CROSBIE

Hello again.

I’m sharing this project that I’ve made using some packaging from craft supplies I bought recently. It looked like a giant tag so it seemed a shame to waste it. The photo is of me wearing one of my steampunk outfits (with an edited-in background). It is this background I’ve used as inspiration for the composition.

I have a video showing how I made the project from start to finish over on my YouTube channel if you’re interested in how it was made but I will include a full supply list here as well as an explanation on how I got the mica powders to stick permanently.

Mica powders don’t adhere permanently on their own. You can mix them in to your paints to add glimmer or add them to clear gel mediums to make your own paint among other things, but in this instance,I’ve sprinkled them over the project here and there, then I have sprayed them with a mix of water and acrylic soft gloss gel medium (shaken well til the gel is completely mixed in to the water.

The gel binds with the mica and keeps them in place.

You could make your own individual sprays by adding the mica straight into this acrylic gel medium and water mix, but I prefer not to have rows of different sprays when I can simply have one bottle and sprinkle the mica on to the project direct.

Because this photo of me also had a cloud of steam billowing around me, I wanted to carry that story onto the rest of the composition. I did this using white Pearl metallique paint and a water mister.

Here is the link to the video if you would like to see how this was made.

https://youtu.be/ZnHVvuYX0eo

Thanks for reading.

Supplies used:

Finnabair Supplies.

Stencil: Book of numbers

Modeling paste

Heavy gesso: Black (Smaller tub available)

Moulds: Pieces of underworld, Steampunk hearts, Machine parts

Heavy Body Gel
Mica Powders: Golden hour set

Soft Gloss gel medium (larger tub available)
Metallique Wax: Aged Brass

Matte Wax: rusty red
Metallique Paint: Dragons Eye, White Pearl