So far, not bad

Well i've played around a bit with friendly plastic. A couple of simple broach type ideas, which worked. I bought a butterfly mask as i simply love the shape and have several ideas for masks. I covered the mask in tin foil, to be honest it wasnt as smooth as i wanted, the foil kept tearing, so it was layered in several places. For some reason i had wrestler masks in my head at the time, similar to the ones the mexican high flyers wear. I cut several strips of FP and a few shapes. I like how the first few strips came out.

I'm learning a fair amount by trial and error really, but in my opinion the best way for any artist, only so much you can learn from books and the like. Lesson 1. my heat gun gets really hot, very quickly. So i'm adapting how far away i hold it. Lesson 2. Joining using the heat gun doesnt always come out the way i want, the colours blend unevenly or the black under strip comes through. So some form of hot water method has to be looked at. Lesson 3. Constant re-heating of the plastic as i add more to the mask, it simply distorts the first plastic parts more, fine if i want a free-form or a mask i'm going to colour again. Not if i want a block/smooth colour one. Lesson 4. Finger prints. No matter how hard i try not to touch the plastic i kept getting them. I use my palatte knife with a bit of water which helps, as do my embossing tools, but sometimes i prefer smoothing my hand. Gotta work on that.

As an alternative material, friendly plastic has many possibilties. My one issue is keeping the surface smooth and less 'plastic looking'. I know sounds weird as it's....well plastic haha. But many surface finishes can be used to make it look like othe materials, i just need to perfect the heating method so it heats evenly and doesnt distort so much.

Friendly Plastic-The begining

By the gods, has it really been a year since my last blog...whoooops. To be honest i have been lax in keeping up with a few of my online accounts, but i'm working to change this, including my blog.

So, what have i been upto, that is a whole other entry, so i wont bore you now.

Over the past few years i had been tempted to play with a material called Friendly plastic. The possibilties look impressive and wide ranging, from card embellishments, picture frame adornments right through to jewellery. What grabbed me was the use in mask making. Really no idea why all of a sudden i'm drawn to mask making, but hey like every good artist i go with it to see where it takes me.
Having looked around online for friendly plastic tuts and info, there isnt an awful lot. In the UK there is Liz Welch @ rarebird.ltd.uk, who in the couple of short e-mails has been very helpful with a few tips n hints.

So, onto my new play things. First couple of plays not bad, apart from my mistake of laying transfer foils the wrong way up on the plastic...idiot hahaha.

I'll post the randomness of my first plays soon.