Creative Chaos Design Challenge Reveal

Skye from Creative Chaos almost had me stumped with this challenge kit.  The rules: pick at least one thing from each baggie and use it to design a piece of jewelry.  Here's a closer shot of the items - remember, I had to use something from each group:

Yes, that's a brass plate that goes behind a drawer handle.  And feathers.

A couple kinds of cord.

A random assortment of coconut shell & wood thingies.

Some buttons and a die. 

 Sky did specifically say  that we could alter the items any way we wanted, so I decided to give the die & a button a little overhaul:

Decked out in rust:)

Then I had this feeling of the rusty old detritus in my Papa's shed.  Odd little bits of this and that and leftover scraps of things.  Old and dented and a bit rusty.  Shabby.  And that was my inspiration for this piece:

I made a rosette from the brown and gold cord and stitched it on to a scrap of embroidered fabric cut from an old dress.  I added the rusted button and a couple of feathers tacked down with one of the little coconut shell pieces.  I sewed on a backing and stuffed it just a bit with the rest of the feathers from Sky's kit.  I decided it needed some movement, so I added a little copper do-dad with some chain an danglies. It feels a bit gypsy-ish to me.  

 I did have a couple of setbacks.  I had wanted to use the brass plate as a bracelet focal, but it was just too heavy for me to bend.  And I really wanted to use the rusty die, but I just couldn't figure out how to attach it.  I think I should have tried drilling it before I rusted it.  I'm going to have to figure out something to do with it, though.  It's just too cool!

Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm dying to see what everyone else made with this kit:

Sandra of Skye's Creative Chaos - http://skyescreativechaos.blogspot.ca/
Marge Beebe of RockCreekCreations - http://www.rockcreekcreations.blogspot.com/
Kristi J of CuriositiesbyK - http://curiositiesbyk.blogspot.com/
Tammie Everly of TTE Designs - http://ttedesigns.blogspot.ca/
Sarah Goode of Pookledo - http://pookledo.blogspot.co.uk/
Sherri Stokey of KnotJustMacrame - http://www.knotjustmacrame.com/ (you are here)
Paula Hisel of SimplyBeadiful - http://simplybeadiful.weebly.com/simply-stated.html
Shawn Mills of Bent Wire Boutique - http://shawnmariedesignsatbentwire.blogspot.ca/

A Little Rusty

So, if you've been following me for any time at all, you know I have the attention span of a gnat and I want to try EVERYTHING.  I can't help it - I'm an Aries.  My latest adventure involved Modern Masters Iron Paint and Rust Activator:

It says to use primer if you're using it on wood or metals and I'm always a "read and follow instructions" type of gal... OK, maybe not so much, but I did at least read this far in the directions, so I bought the primer, the iron paint and the rust activator.  And a few disposable foam brushes.  They also have other paints (copper and brass maybe?) and patina activators, but I went for rust.  It says you can use it on anything, so I chose some victims:

I found a seashell and some wooden beads, a couple of cameos, a pair of old earrings, some odd tin star brooch, a metal clay (maybe?) heart, and some random plastic/resin pieces.  I gave everybody a coating of primer, just to be on the safe side.

The directions said to let the primer dry for 12 hours.  Huh.  There is no project in my world where I wait for 12 hours.  I did wait an hour or so - it was really hot and sunny outside, so I figured that was good enough.  Besides, I was dying to get to the good part, so I brushed on the iron paint.  Here's how Mr. Monkey looked at that point:

This part didn't take long to dry.  They suggested an hour, but mine was dry after only about half an hour.  You can put the activator on with a brush or a sponge, or you can spray it on.  I settled for a sponge brush, because that's what I had handy.  After a short wait:

 Way cool!  So I brushed a good coat of the activator on everything before I went to bed.  I let it pool in places and didn't even try to be neat about it.  The next morning was like Christmas - the anticipation as I went out to see what I'd ended up with - I felt like a kid again!  And this is what I found:

Some pieces seemed to rust more than others and I'm not sure why.  I did also lose some of the rusty color when I sprayed it with sealer, but I really thought that was necessary - can't have folks getting rust stains on their clothing from my jewelry, now can we?  But those pieces just needed something, so I got out my Gilders' Paste and rubbed a bit here and a bit there:

Most of the colors of paste I had on hand didn't show up much.  The only one I was happy with was the teal blue, but it sure is pretty on the flower, isn't it!

I think this was a very successful experiment and I've got lots of fun pieces.  Now I just have to figure out what to make with them!

Cameo before & after rust technique