The Tolky Muft ........ for the Hopeful Artist: 2012-02-05

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Those magnets everyone makes with words

Always wonder why I never see words on them.. so I made some with.

These guys look so much better in person. The marbles are pretty big, from the dollar store. The background is the dollar store mardi gras napkins which look really beautiful on these marbles.. almost a shame to add the words, but really pretty (in person) with the words!

Paper text Feathers, using tissue tape (aka... the easy way!)

The world became a kinder, gentler place (in my head) the day I discovered tissue tape. I never have that many ideas of what to do with it, but its just a wonderful thing. So when I saw the text feathers floating around the internet I thought what better way to make them then to use tissue tape!

You need 3 things: tissue tape, scissors, and jewlery wire wire. I like the jewlery wire cause it bends easy and I have about ten rolls of it, but you can also use that thicker crafty wire if need be.

Simply cut a piece of wire about 3 inches. Cut a small piece of tissue about the size of a dime and wrap it around one end to make the quill. Squeeze it on there, you know how tissue tape can be, you can get it to stay there forever if you just squeeze it good.

Then cut another piece thats about the length of the wire. You will not be covering the quill again, and you want it to pass the end of the wire a wee bit. Lay it on top of the tape like this.

Now cut another strip the same length and carefully line it up with the first piece on the other side of the wire, making a wire sandwich. Press it down all around, emboss the wire with your fingers so it stands out. Don't worry so much if your wire moves because feathers often have wider barbs on one side than the other.

Now cut a large curve on the bottom, and taper it up to a point to the top of the wire to make it look like a feather.

From here its just cutting. You will make tiny slits starting at the base. the scissor should be pointed downwards. the best thing is that you can easily cut without fear of going all the way through, thanks to the wire. Cut tiny slits all the way around, be very careful around the top, remembering that you want the barbs to face upwards when complete. I like to give the feather a twist when its done so it bends to one side (looks more natural) and ruffle the barbs. Hope you like it!

How to make feathers, or a gorgeous leaf.. using a paper napkin

I saw a beautiful feather on Pinterest someone made, without a tutorial so I came up with a few ideas of my own.
This one is using a paper napkin (mardi gras napkins from the dollar store) glue, brush and copper jewlers wire (we all have this stuff!) and scissors. This wire is good to use because when it is done you can bend the feather, and you can trim it easily with a scissor if need be.

Here is what I did.. I cut a small piece of (1 ply) napkin and with a tiny bit of glue, and dry fingers, wrapped it around the end of a 6" piece of wire to make the quill.

Next I cut two longer rectangles, the length of the wire minus the already wrapped end. I placed the wire down the center of one of the rectangles, and ever so gently brushed elmers glue on both sides of the wire. I then laid the second piece of napkin on top, making a wire sandwich, and smoothed it gently. Allow it to dry for several minutes.

After it dries you can trim away the sides into a leaf or a thinner feather shape. You can make a more complicated feather shape but I would suggest you start out with a leaf and trim it down to a feather. You can see feather shapes in googles images if you are perplexed about what they look like, I found one shown below.

I started with this shape and gradually trimmed it thinner along the sides.

When it is dry you can carefully, and slowly clip the barbs (?) The cuts should be downward at an angle towards the quill. If you look at the real feather diagram below you will see on that feather that those cuts will not be uniform throughout.

I actually cut one in this shape as well, not sure if it is better or not. In this picture you really can't see all the cuts made into the sides to create the barbs, but they are there!