Halloween Mischief - Day of the Dead Barbie Heads and Pumpkin Family Portraits

by Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio

It's been a drizzly-miserable week here in Virginia - perfect weather to get me in the mood for Halloween. This year, I thought I'd try some Day of the Dead inspired pieces in addition to the vintage Halloween items that I love so much.

This are my Day of the Dead Catrinas that I made using Barbie faces in vintage tart tins. (An appropriate setting for Barbie, wouldn't you say?) They have a coating of ICE Resin on top to preserve their makeup.

I think the ladies that volunteer at the thrift store must really feel sorry for me, because I buy the rattiest dolls that I can find. Messy hair, missing arms and legs... it doesn't really matter. I just want to harvest their faces. (The dolls - not the thrift store ladies. I love those ladies!)

I did a bunch more "punkmen" this year, too. I decided to line them up for a family portrait before they got shipped off to shops.

 

I'm going to miss these little creatures, but I know they'll all go to good homes.

Happy Haunting!

Upcoming Classes

I'm getting excited about teaching my fall classes.
Saturday, October 12  PonShop Studio and Gallery

Day of the Dead Collage Workshop

10:00-12:00

We’lll transform an image of a woman into a Day of the Dead Catrina complete with skull face paint and a halo of flowers. This is a fun introduction to collage techniques. All supplies are provided.

Ages 12-Adult

 

PonShop Studio and Gallery, Fredericksburg, VA

　

Vintage Tart Tin Ornaments Workshop

Saturday, November 9

10:00 am – 1:00 pm,
AND
Aristic Artifacts Annex, Alexandria, VA
Saturday, November 3
10am-3pm

We’ll use ICE Resin® to create up to three unique, heirloom-quality ornaments using vintage tin molds and holiday ephemera. All supplies are included, but feel free to bring favorite greeting cards, ribbons, trims, buttons, pieces from costume jewelry and other trinkets to create your ornament in the style of your choosing.

Ages 12-Adult


Artistic Artifacts Annex, Alexandria, VA
Upcycled Textile ShirtTuesday, November 12, 2013
10:00 am – 4:30 pm, ½ hour lunch break

Using simple sewing skills, suitable even for beginners, you will piece together your own one of a kind altered art to wear. This is a wonderful way to repurpose worn or outgrown clothing...or use thrift store finds!

Photo by Sylvan Brier

photo by Sylvan Brier

Here are some more examples of the upcycled shirts. I wore the short-sleeved version to class, and some of the students asked if my mom and I would teach a class on making them. It's a great way to upcycled vintage linens and shirts.

 

Playing with Knives -Perseverance Pays Off!

 September was not the quiet month that I thought it was going to be, and before I knew it, it was almost over and I was up against a deadline. I spent two days pushing things around on the table and got nothing accomplished. Then, I looked to Stephanie Lee's  book Semiprecious Salvage for inspiration and came up with this tintype buckle pendant.

And after that, I got stuck again. I knew I wanted to work with some hollowware knives that I had, but wasn't sure what direction to go in. This is what I made next:

I was happy with it, but I still wanted to do something different. After another day of trying and failing at a bunch of different concepts, I was starting to panic a little.

 I finally hit on a pendant that had the look and feel that I was going for, and my Knife Rocket Pendants were born.

 

Of course, now all I want to do is work on knife rocket pendants! Unfortunately, the real world has other plans for me, but I'll be back in the studio as soon as I possibly can.

Keys to the City and New Robot Assemblages

Scarlett Pons and I had the pleasure of teaching a workshop to a group of travel writers who were visiting Fredericksburg. The students made a "key to the city" with me, and a pottery box with Scarlett.

 Each bezel was collaged and then filled with ICE resin.

 

Here are the finished projects. I think they turned out beautifully!

 

I took a new group of assemblages to the PonShop last week.
Sprocket, the dog, looked a little worried!

 

 

This piece was the first one to sell:

 

These two are still waiting to be adopted:

 This is Sprocket, looking much happier.

Uniquely Spotsylvania

 This piece is part of the Uniquely Spotsylvania show that is currently at the Salem Church Library. It is titled Spotsylvania 22553 -- one of the Spotsylvania zip codes.

I spent a fun day with my daughter shooting photos of some of my favorite weathered and worn places in the area. Then, I printed the photos on the fabric, and incorporated them into the assemblage which also includes zinc stencils, a vintage level and an old spark plug. The quilt remnant is from a quilt that was sewn in 1874.

 

I was delighted that this piece was awarded first place in the mixed media category.

After we left the Uniquely Spotsylvania reception, we went outside to find that Mother Nature was putting on her own art show. I don't think I've ever seen these cloud formations before.

 

   In jewelry land, I have been combining lots of my favorite things: gears, keys, buttons, filigree and ICE resin. This series includes pendants and earrings and is currently available at LibertyTown.

Adventures in ICE Resin

I've been working with ICE Resin a lot lately. I like the idea of creating custom focal pieces for my jewelry.  I colorized the metal in the top piece.

 

Vintage stamps were used for the background of this piece.

I offset the gear in this piece. For some reason, that makes it look like it's in motion to me.

 

The little fawn in this piece is resting on a background of Chinese silk.

To add a little depth, I  poured two layers of resin on this piece. The octopus is in the first layer. The gears are in the second layer.

This camera piece has a snippet of an old tintype in it.  

I'm also working on some pieces with Susan Lenart Kazmer's new bezels that are available through Spellbinders. They're beautiful and affordable, and Spellbinders has cutting dies that match the shapes. It makes cutting the background images so easy!

Newest Robot Assemblages

By Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio.

 

This is Elephant Joke, one of my newest robots. His body is made from a vintage wasp trap.

His eyes reflect how I feel lately. An appliance malfunction flooded part of our house, and the resulting damage was a little overwhelming!

Samovar the owl is made from a Russian tea samovar that is more than 100 years old. He carries a rusy pistol adorned with rabbit bones.

 This is The Jacobean. He's a very proper fellow. Possibly a distant cousin of C3P0.

 

 Hygenica is a little old-fashioned. She  never goes out without her Franco-American Standard Complexion Powder, and a nice red lipstick. She was purchased from the PonShop (www.ponshopstudio.com) by actress Sally Struthers.

Flash has also gone to a new home via the PonShop as well. When I drilled into the magicubes that make up Flash's legs, the flash actually went off!