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Bella’s Corner: Ancient Relic Tutorial

Filed under Art Projects, Bella's Corner, Guest Designers, Tutorials

Note: most of the links on this post no longer work, as we moved to a new Web site in 2018. But you can try searching on the same names (as links below) on the new site.

Ancient Relic
Guest Designer Wendy Anderson has created a tin shrine she calls “Ancient Relic” and it is not only fabulous — but very easy to create as well!

Supplies
Large Jeweler’s Tin
Silk Ribbon
Tinsel
Dresden Borders
Resin Skull Bead
German Bouillon
– Brown, White, Turquoise and Light Patina Verdigris Paints
– Tiny skinny scraps of paper (words, music, color, design, etc)

Note: click on the thumbnail photos to see more details.

Directions
Take a metal tin with a glass topped lid. Paint the outside with aged, muted colors of acrylics, inks, etc. Brush with a bit of light patina verdigris blue-green paint. Let it dry.

Choose some things you might like on the inside edges: silk ribbon or other tiny ribbons, stretched out crinkle wire or German Bouillon, threads or fibers, or tiny skinny scraps of paper (words, music, color, design, etc).

Using black, brown, white, and turquoise paint take your gold tinsel, gold trims, and variegated silk ribbon and grunge up to darken them. Glue some special fabric or decorative paper inside the bottom. Randomly twist/bundle/wrap the ribbons and trims around each other and glue them around the inside edges of the tin and a little onto the bottom. You want to hide the inside edges and create a “frame” around your central object.

Glue in your focal objects. While you wait for them to dry, using the same paints that you used to grunge up your trim, paint all over the glass lid and rim. Quickly wipe it off the center of the glass until it’s clear and clean, leaving a ring of thin paint just around the edge for an aged, oxidized look.

Take a strip of German Dresden trim for the edge of the tin’s lid. Paint it up with the same paint colors to tone it down and age it. You’ll need to bend the straight trim to make the curve around the lid. There is a little indentation around the edge of the tin near the lid. Glue the bottom flat edge of your Dresden into this indentation with the painted side facing the tin, and the tips of the Dresden pointing upward. Then when dry, just fold down the tips.

There you have your very own ancient relic!

Editor’s Note: If you’d like to buy a finished relic, made by Miss Wendy, visit her Etsy store.

  
Posted by MizBella, November 12th, 2011

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