To be honest, I had a bit of a prejudice against dimensional foil art. Then I watched a couple of online videos and realized that it actually has rather creative possibilities.
Not that I've mastered any of these possibilities, but I am now more of a fan. For an interesting look at one artist's take on dimensional foil, click here.
I decided that a foiled box would suit me best. I bought this box at the dollar store, with visions of an elephant on the lid and a parade of elephants around the sides.
You don't need much to create a piece of foil art. In addition to the box, I used the following:
• White glue
• String—I actually used fine sock yarn
• Lightweight cardboard
• Rhinestone shapes
• Lightweight aluminum foil
• Acrylic paint and paintbrush
• Rags or paper towels
• Acrylic sealant
The video mentioned above called for something called "bitumen paint" to age the box. While I know what bitumen is—basically, liquid asphalt or tar—I'd never heard of bitumen paint. Asking at the art store resulted in blank stares. With memories of painting a tarry substance on my first car's rocker panels, I thought it might be something like that. In Canada, where I live, rocker panels are now painted with a rubberized compound. Hmmm...
Then it occurred to me that the gooey black stuff I use to seal pruning cuts in my trees is remarkably tar-like. And indeed, it does contain bitumen. So, if you want to go the "bitumen paint" route, and live in a country where no such thing is readily available, try tree-wound dressing. My little test using the tree stuff actually worked well enough, but I found it a bit messy, so I went with paint instead.
I had decided that I wanted to have a string outline on the top of my box, and a cardboard line of parading elephants around the outside. I drew an elephant on the top with a permanent marker to guide me when I laid down the string. Obviously, you don't need to do this if you're doing something abstract, or feel more confident than I did.
I laid a bead of glue along my outline, then laid down the string, pressing it gently into the glue. I used a toothpick to poke it into place, and to remove excess glue.
While the string was drying, I cut out eight small elephants from light cardstock to parade around the edges. And because I wanted them slightly raised, I glued a bit of corrugated cardboard to the back of each.
When the string was dry enough for me to handle the box, I glued the cardstock elephants around the edges.
To finish off the underlying design, I glued on some rhinestone shapes. This was mostly just to give it a bit more visual interest—or perhaps just visual chaos. I forgot to photograph the top once I'd added rhinestones and the like, but it included flowers and round beads more or less where you see circles on the image above, as well as scattered through the background.
I left the whole thing to dry for about an hour on its own, then used a hairdryer when I grew impatient. I was now ready to add foil.
I brushed white glue lightly across the top first. A light coat is fine because you want the glue to be slightly tacky. You also want to avoid a glue so wet that the foil slides around, as well as blobs of glue that will not only take forever to dry, but will also create bubbles under the foil.
I laid my foil over top, pressing and smoothing it gently across the pattern. Uneven edges are fine throughout this process, as you can just add extra glue and foil wherever you like. I also wasn't slavish about smoothness, as the textured effect of foil is the most attractive part.
Without waiting for the top to dry this time, I completed the rest of the foiling and left the whole thing to dry for an hour or so, again attacking it with a hairdryer for a few minutes.
It was now ready to paint. I used full-strength bottled black acrylic paint, slathering it on with a paintbrush.
I let it dry for a minute or so, then wiped it off in a more or less circular motion with paper towels. I didn't rub all that hard, but I did switch to a cleaner paper towel about halfway through the process.
I then left it all to dry. At some point I'll spray it with a sealant, but I didn't get that far today.
It's a bit cutesy, I know, but I kind of like it. In real life, it has a really interesting pewter look that appeals to me. And now that I've gotten my feet wet, so to speak, I can even foresee more dimensional foil art in my future.
Elephant Lore of the Day
My friend and neighbour Maureen McEvoy sent me a link to this made-in-Canada story about what some consider to be one of the world's most successful elephant breeding programs.
Entering the world on August 2, 2013, Nellie the elephant was recently introduced to the public for the first time. Born at African Lion Safari in southern Ontario, Nellie is the first "all-Canadian"
Asian elephant to be born in the country—all-Canadian, because both of Nellie's parents were also born at African Lion Safari.
The park's 200 acres are home to a dozen elephants, including three generations in the same elephant family: Kitty, Natasha and now Nellie. Nellie's mother Natasha has also given birth in the past to a male elephant, Jake, born in 2009 through artificial insemination.
Nellie is the fourteenth elephant to be born at African Lion Safari, which currently has the largest elephant herd in North America. With some estimates suggesting that elephants are now being killed in the wild at the rate of one every 15 minutes, successful breeding programs like this may be the elephant's greatest hope for survival.
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| Four-week old Nellie, with her mother Natasha at African Lion Safari, September 5, 2013. Photo: Cathie Coward Source: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4066758- meet-nellie-the-all-canadian-baby-elephant/ |
To Support Elephant Welfare
Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary (Thailand)Wildlife SOS (India)
The Elephant Sanctuary (Tennessee)
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