Prompt for Week #2 ~ Adding the Element of Metal

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Wow! What a great 1st week.  Excellent work everyone!

Here is the next new technique that I would like to introduce.  It is using some rather specific products, but my prompt is for you to use metal of any type or sort.  The metal that I'll be talking about is powder coated, fine gauge aluminum.  

In the first photo you can see the three basic ways I use this metal and the simple tools required.  The metal comes in sheet or rolls. It can be cut with rotary cutter or scissors or ripped then it can be tooled with a pointy teflon tool while set on top of a soft surface.  It can be wrinkled up for texture and it can be embossed.  I'll walk you through each of these techniques.

In the second photo, I have embossed the metal.  I set it on top of a hard, textured surface, in this case an embossing plate, with the color side up and used a paper stump (shown in the 1st photo) to push the metal down into the crevasses around the design on the plate.  Once I embossed the design then I used fine grit sand paper to sand the raised surface to remove the gold color and reveal the silver of the aluminum.

 The third photo shows a piece of blue metal that was wrinkled then sanded.  To wrinkle, cut or rip a piece of metal that is about twice the size you want the finished piece to be.  Working with both hands and beginning in the center of the piece of metal, push small wrinkles into the metal trying to keep the metals original shape and keep all of the metal color side up while forcing in the small wrinkles.  Once the entire piece is wrinkled, use a rolling pin or other cylindrical tool to gently roll it flat then sand away the raised areas to reveal the silver below.

The final way, and the favorite way, I like to use this metal is to tool it.  Lay the metal color side down on a soft mat such as thick fun foam and using a pointy, Teflon, tipped tool, carefully draw on the surface of the metal.  Push into the metal enough to raise the surface on the other side, but not so hard as to pierce through.  Once you have completed your doodling, turn the metal over and sand away the color from the raised surfaces to reveal the tooled designs.

There are many other ways to use metal too.  You can age or patina it.  You can find old bits in the street and parking lots.  You can use machine parts, etc.  Let your imagination soar as you search out metal to use on your next piece.  If you're local, we sell all of the products used to do the techniques I've written about here. Enjoy this weeks creativity.  I know I did!

Heather