Jar of Arts

Hello everyone!  Thank you so much for your lovely feedback over the last few busy days here at Words and Pictures - I am so grateful to you for taking the time to stop and look and comment.

It's time for a new Get Altered challenge at eclectic Paperie... In fact, it kicked off yesterday, but since you have a whole fortnight, there's plenty of time to play along.

Our host this time is Donna-Marie, and she's looking for Altered Glass Bottles or Jars.  You can see her amazing make here, along with all the challenge details, and other inspiring pieces from the DT team in the linky list.








My offering is an altogether simpler affair - two jars that I've altered to keep my travelling craft desk in a bit more order.

I decided that sometimes it's okay to just let the stamps do the talking - especially when they're as fabulous as these ones by Tim Holtz!

You can see they're pretty straightforward, but I like to be surrounded by fairly simple, unobtrusive things when I'm working - anything too ornate will only distract from the task in hand.














I have receptacles to hold brushes and tools at home in the UK, but here in the Czech Republic I've been "borrowing" a jug and mug from other duties in the house.

And even though I'm heading home in about a week, I'll definitely be back, so I thought it was time to do the job properly.






I gave my two recycled jars a coat of Watercolour Ground, though Gesso would do just as well, and left that to dry.

I wanted a rough "working" finish... with the brush strokes visible, and finishing at random heights around the jars.

Next step was to ink up the stamps from the gorgeous new Artful Tools set with Black Archival ink, and press them (oh-so-carefully so as to avoid slippage) around the jars.

I was delighted that the brushes fitted perfectly round the jar in two stampings.







For the tools, it was more like one and a half stampings, so I had to decide which instruments got to go more than once!












I really like the effect of the detailing of the stamps against the rough brushwork of the background.

A couple of twists of burlap twine finishes them off - a utilitarian, workmanlike finish for a practical - but, to me, very pleasing - alteration.









I hope you'll be inspired to join in with the Altered Glass Bottle or Jar challenge over at eclectic Paperie.  We've had so many amazing entries for the recent challenges - it's been an absolute pleasure to hop around.  






There's an eP voucher for the winner, generously sponsored by Kim at the eclectic Paperie store, so link up by May 16th.  

Hope to see you there!








Oh, and for anyone wondering about the post title - it's a play on the song title Jar of Hearts... a very poor pun, sorry, but a very fine song, I think.  Happy Crafting!

Among the many thousands of things that I have never been able to understand, one in particular stands out. That is the question of who was the first person who stood by a pile of sand and said, "You know, I bet if we took some of this and mixed it with a little potash and heated it, we could make a material that would be solid and yet transparent. We could call it glass." Call me obtuse, but you could stand me on a beach till the end of time and never would it occur to me to try to make it into windows.
Bill Bryson

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
Anton Chekhov

I'm hoping that this is Clean and Simple enough to qualify for the CAS challenge at Artful Times

Click on the links to go shopping!