KAPOW!

OK, OK, maybe I was wrong. Maybe you did guess my deepdark secret. Turns out Perfect Pearls is mica powder. And that's what I used. Yeah, available at any Michael's and touted by all fine stamping artisans and card makers.

BUT! I wanted to share more of it because I'm so excited about how sheeeeemery glowy glow cosmic unicorn glitters everything is turning out. Except without the unicorns. In fact, my whole yardstick for knowing what to make is asking myself "Is this too unicorny?'
 So like here for ie, this badass lionface. he was a gift from SacredCake eons ago. He's a bigun and I just couldn't figure out what to do with him. He was originally in a big ol' frame too... anywhoozits, a little coloring and voila. Or as they say on etsy, "wa-laa!" I mean... Ok, now I'm doing that thing I do after my excitement has worn away and I'm looking at it on the blog and it's starting to look ... unicorny. Shit.

 Whatev, look at all the crap I done been making.

This one I rubbed most of it off to let the gold glow through. 

This one is all about the links! You know, to connect it to stuff.

 And this one! It was just another variously broken antique bronze escutcheon bracelet and now it's a big gay rainbow! And since y'all's comments put ideas in my head, the clasp is colored light blue with some eyeshadow I never did manage to rock. No I didn't mean to break it, it's just hard to hammer bronze without breaking it and to heat it up enough to bend I think you have to make it molten or something... I've already discussed my torch issues so no fucking foundry of molten bronze in my little condo...

 Now, the only reason my hand looks that clean is because I took the picture 1st thing this morning before it was covered with grime and blood and the guts of sacrificed innocents.

Even some finished babies!

And also some rezy-rez!

I found a book I got ages ago called... whatsitcalled... alchemy mysticism blah blah imagery blah...  I got it for the pix, forgot it, found it, and anyways, here's some resin:

By now there's already metal backings going on with most of these. I got a gold foil background I'm working on with these on the left. And some black against which the powders will look sorta star-cluster-y. Nebulish.

With galactic backgrounds...

 

(The royals here are all the same couple- the  

male/female duality of existence, siblings that did the

 horizontal mambo to create the universe. I know, ew.)

With this crazy fusible film imbedded.

Two pix to show how the color with the  movement and the changing.

Embedded with wrinkles to look like rays. Rays!

I've always had a thing for rays. They're like, lines of energy going out toward infinity. *tosses glitter up, looks at you mysteriously*

And when you move the piece around you can give yourself a seizure. Awwwyeahhhh. (Any clue how hoard it is for me to keep dog hairs out of these? Hm?)

And also some just regular pendants.

Lol. This is my 'just regular'.

And! An actual necklace:

Open it aaaaand:

 

KAPOW!

And then I found this cool video. Now you look at it.

Earth from Michael König on Vimeo.

Oh, and thanks for the feedback on kits. I've been gathering some up and it's already completely relieved my oversupply panic. You know what that means, right?
 Shooooopppiiinnnggg!!!!

Embezzling Metal

Lemme finally explain how I got

<--this effect.

So, I've mentioned a couple times that paper scrapbooky things are my guilty pleasure, right? Something about a kit being a great big cheating shortcut... Thing is, the materials are always cuter than anything people ever make with them. But, every so often I'll indulge in a trip around the web, checking out new products and papers and such. Last time, I stumbled upon:

Which while kinda silly, led me to a mini obsession about these crusty embossing powders. Like, look at a regular white:
 compared to this lady's white:

Anyways, I liked the splattered enamel look. So then they started selling these variety packs, and it was on.

I even got this swirlytwirly:
And some ink pads.






I should also mention that I got the idea of embossing on metal from this book.




The rest was trial and lots of error. I learned, for example, that rubbing the finished product with alcohol will remove a lot of it, as in this:
Which was originally stamped with the twirly stamp design. I like the random blobs, though.
 I was worried it might chip off but I  learned that not only doesn't it chip off, it's almost impossible to fully get off, even with alcohol and heat and burning all the skin on your fingertips ...
And that different colors behave differently. Or at least, the colors behave differently than the metallics.
I haven't listed this necklace but here you can actually see some stamping and not just random globs-

Although in the back the stamp pattern gets a bit lost:

Here's a cheap aluminum blank that I had fun hammering, shaping then adding a touch of the ol' embez:

The bottom piece shows what it originally looked like.

And there you have it. Easy and addictive. Look for more to come.

One more note.
 Most of the ephemera featured in these photos was not my old stash, but rather a recent gift collection from Waterhand, an avid paper collector for the past 35 years. She want y'all to know she welcomes a convo from anyone interested in custom ephemera orders.









So, yeah, I was surprised to hear Transylvania had seasons, too. Like, there should just be one: foggy. My mom had nothing to do with the iron, Tribalis! The hotel lady gave it to him. Though one time she was ironing and talking on the phone at the same time and stupidly put the phone down next to the iron to get something then came back and picked up the iron instead of the phone. She ended up with a red gash going down her face. People thought it was a knife scar and would be like "OHMYGOD! Did you get attacked?" And she'd have to be all, "No I answered an iron..." Then there was the time she tried to wash the dishes with Italian salad dressing and couldn't figure out why they weren't getting clean.... And it may be hot but you still have to dry your clothes, Sparrow. Not like they have a hotel clothes line. 

More stuff's up.

To Cast a Spell.
This is the stuff I gave you a sneak peek of with the tiny pictures.


But then I realized if you clicked on the little pictures, you could see them perfectly anyways.


Earth Mother.
Certainly some of you numbnuts didn't realize that either- so these pix are for you. Lub me some numbnuts.


Here's another wire bezel, but not soldered this time.

On the listing you can see the back, too. This wire bezel was originally going to be for the next piece below. That certainly didn't work. But let me show you from whence came this focal:

Right there behind granny. I had to wedge it apart with a crowbar. OK, not really. But when I got it out, I saw it had sorta been mounted on to a piece of plastic that was from maybe a car part or something. It had an indistinct paper label... You can see, in any case, how people recycle and use what they got in non-wealthy countries. It's pretty cool, even though they certainly don't seem to think so...

The Sweet Sisters. 

I ended up finding a much simpler solution for joining this photo to its frame.

Anywho, you can see the Victorian Tribal in full force. Balancing the opposites, synthesizing dualities, strollin' and high-rollin'.

The Spark.

Oh! Remember I said something about an experimental enamel-y heat embossing treatment that stampers do? Yeah, this is that. But also kinda not. Its my own version. Some time when I'm not on the 1st day of my period I'll explain.

I braided that. The leather strip was cheap and I was sure I'd never find a use for it. (Chinese cheapo bead store in U.) Now I so wish I'd gotten more. The trick is to turn the strip over and in as you braid it. 

That way it's not flat but rather rounder. If that makes sense. Which it so doesn't. Shut up.

The Mushroom Hunters.

Here's a folded tin bezel, like in the tutorial, but with dimensional elements.

It's in the vein of my cutesy stuff that often stagnates in the store but I can't help it- I think it's adorable.

The Vision.

Here's some eyeballz for Sparrow. 

The Turkoman button is also emboss...enam... embezzled? Cuz I need a new term. I think 'embezzled' works.

And finally these. But they sold already.

I'm glad you destashees have been enjoying yr goodiez.

Alteredarcheology! You're 37? So am I! So is Sparrow. Whut-whut!