Bobbetts blog No 3, RHINESTONES AND VARNISH

RHINESTONES AND VARNISH

So this week the blog is written by me (Cas) The kids are back to school so it's time to finish up a couple of projects and experiment with Christmas ideas. We had a look on instagram and on various pages, green seems to be the colour of the season, jade, brightgreen, peagreen and emerald my favourite . #lisa_loves_vintage has some great images on instagram and #bumble_bee_cottage_ a new page we came across with lots of beautiful pictures of a families creative home. Rhinestones  bring the bling to this blog oh and us.

My first priority was the to finish the sculpture restoration. The piece is part of a 14 part series called the station of the cross, I've done a little bit of research and one of the series was for sale on Etsy its circa early 1900 french and they wanted nearly £500 for the piece, granted it was in better condition but as it only cost £8 from a car boot I'm dead chuffed.

Using watery acrylic, I painted in and aged some of the plaster. I wanted to keep it simple and decided a few more buildings, heavenly rays of light and a touch of antique gold would do the job.

I then took the task of cleaning the piece, it's probably spent near to a hundred years on a church in France and it looked like it had never been cleaned. So with a fine brush a small amount of water and baby wipes I carefully started to clean. Pushing the brush in to every detail and it sure had plenty of them. A good 2 hrs it took me to clean until I was satisfied with it.

I let the piece fully dry and then gave it a lacquer with a clear varnish suitable for plaster and paint. This I tested first on a small area and it really bought out the colours and detail.

As you can see it really transformed it!

Even Goldenballs gave it his approval

Helen bought over the bling this week

You can buy these rhinestones in many craft outlets and she uses a fabric glue to stick them to her material they can be used for many different accesories to give that glamour look.

First you need to map out the design using a chalk or if your not good at drawing you can buy a ready made design on Amazon or ebay, prices vary depending on colour and design.

A simple design Helen is working on below

I started playing too and added it to her Christmas tea cup gifts.

For more pillows and tea cup designs watch out for them in our shop . The tea cup christmas garden is £12 and we offer free delivery in the UK

www.bobboutique.co.uk Or Etsy bobboutiquecouk

Helen also finished her clients commisson a dark stone paint effect with a gold vintage feel, its stunning a real transformation from a dark oak heavy piece of furniture. You can read how she does this effect in our first blog.

If you have anymore questions, or would like to know more about us and our crafting please get in touch, you can also follow us on facebook, twitter, instagram, linkden and pintrest.

written by Cas 14.09.18