My Mate Bert.

Hello, welcome to my blog :)  This is a lovely Steampunk project that I completed several months ago, at the beginning of UK Lockdown during the Covid 19 pandemic.  I needed something to cheer myself up and what better than some Steampunk!  This project was from a kit that I got from Stamps Away (Ali Reeve), which I 'tweeked' a bit, adding a few touches of my own.

The kit is called 'Steampunk Man' and includes a skull and a couple of large cogs made from plaster of paris, some MDF cogs, the elements to create a pair of Steampunk goggles and much more.

                           

 

I put the base and stand together and painted them with black gesso.  I added patina with a mixture of paint and black texture paste.  I then painted the skull with black gesso.  The next step was to create the top hat.  The kit included all the elements to make the basic hat.  The rim is made of MDF, the rest of the hat is made up of strips of black card.  On some narrow strips of the card I squeezed PVA glue in little blobs along the middle of the strips, and left them to dry.  When they were dry the blobs were clear and domed, I then added some of the patina mixture and some gilding wax made the strips looked like rivetted metal.  I wanted to decorate the top of the hat so I put some black card in an embossing folder with a metal tread pattern.  I applied gold, silver and copper gilding waxes to the embossed card, giving it a worn, distressed and rusted appearance.  I cut the card into pieces and attached them to the top of the hat, trimming the edges to fit.  I wanted to create the effect of a patchwork of sheet metal.   

There were MDF cogs in various sizes included in the kit which after painting with black gesso I added some EP, also from the kit, which gave the cogs the appearance of pitted metal.  I then added a little of the patina mixture to each cog.

 

I created some more embellishments using clay with moulds from my stash and painted them with gesso.  I then added some patina mixture as before and then used gilding wax to create a metallic finish.  I also added gilding wax to the sides of the hat and the MDF cogs.  I created several other embellishments and treated them in the same way.  

I attached the strips of 'rivets' and some of the finished cogs to the hat with a mixed media gel.

I  added some clay screw heads to the top of the hat, to create the look of metal sheets that are 'screwed on'.  

I followed the instructions to create the Steampunk goggles, added gilding wax and attached them to the skull, which also has wax on it to bring out the features.  

I then attached the rest of the embellishments to the stand, placing them so that you have something to look at from all sides.

I absolutely love this!  It was a lot of fun to make and I think it looks stunning!  As I've said it was a kit from Stamps Away but I added several of my own embellishments and the patina mixture is mine too.  He stands on the desk in my craft room and keeps me company as I craft!

Thank you for popping in today, I hope you've enjoyed this post.  Please feel free to continue browsing my blog or leave me a comment, and I hope you'll come back soon  :)