Curio Clock

Double trouble today - it's a while since there have been two posts in a day here at Words and Pictures!!

I'm honoured and delighted to be here with a Guest Designer project for the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog.  I was invited to guest design after my fungi ATB, There's not mushroom inside... was selected as one of their top picks last October.

Overnight I shared some Golden Hours with you for the new Vintage Journey challenge, Against the Grain and now, as promised, I've got a second project for you using a quote from one of my brand new sets, the Time Edition.

(If you missed them earlier this week, do check out all three new stamp sets along with the samples I created for them in the launch post here at PaperArtsy.)











Creative Artiste is a fabulous challenge blog, where it's Anything Mixed Media Goes every month.  To fit that mixed media brief, I've been playing with all sorts of mediums as well as a an upcycled old watch of mine to create this little Curio Box.






Once again, I've not exactly made my life easy on the photography front.

Curio Boxes cast all sorts of their own internal shadows, which makes things tricky...








... and with textural and floral details tucked into every little corner, it's pretty hard to let you see all the angles.

















The focal point is an old pendant watch of mine (no way to replace the battery once it's died, sadly).  In fact, you saw the back of the watch in action earlier today in The Golden Hours... well, it would have been a waste to glue it down so that it was invisible!













And as I mentioned, it's paired with these wise words from Benjamin Franklin, from my brand new Time Edition quote collection.











The box itself is cut using Tim Holtz's new Curio Box Bigz XL die, though I did add some extra waste cardboard to the foot of the box for additional sturdiness, knowing the contents might end up being fairly weighty.













Here's the watch before any altering was done to it.  I still have the chain to use another way another day.  I was planning to surround it with cogs and gears for quite a steampunk/vintage industrial look - but that's not what happened in the end.














I added various crackle mediums over the top of the design papers...














... and layered on antiquing medium and washes of acrylic paint to highlight the crackles and deepen the colour tones.















Over the top of that I added some shimmer using Treasure Gold waxes.  Somehow, despite the metallic finish, I think this still somehow resembles gnarled tree bark in places...














... and I think that's probably what triggered my imagination to turn in the direction of plants and flowers.  Not that I need much encouragement to head nature-wards!














So I added some mossy colour to the gnarly tree trunk texture in places on the outside - I really like this effect!

And then I started gathering together some moss and some of my favourite dried flowers and arranging to grow out of the "ground" below the clock.













The watch itself also got a touch of the waxes to lighten the old gold into more of a White Fire silver-gold, but once I started with the mossy look, I added some green-toned PaperArtsy Fresco paints in places, to give it a really weather-worn look.












I hope you can also catch a glimpse in the background of some of my favourite tangled tendrils, courtesy of the Rubber Dance Weed Love stamps.

Because I only decided on the plant-based theme after gluing the box together, I had to do some pretty deedy stamping to get these trailing everywhere I wanted them.  And in the end,  you only really see them properly when you take the lid off!











I felt I needed another floral motif to bring it all to life, so I selected a Scrapiniec chipboard flower stem from my hoarded collection.














I used Frescos to paint it, trying to keep the paint nice and dimensional for an enamelled look.

















After it had dried, I decided I wanted a bit more of a vintage look, so on went the crackle glaze.
















I'm really happy with the finished look of the flowers, subtly textured with a look of old glass or cracked enamel.
















And I think they are the perfect adornment for the outer frame.

That's about it, I think, apart from lots of spatter of course.














Oh, and I'm delighted to say that you can still press the button on top of the pendant and open the front of the watch.
















It's set to my usual time... and yes, there is honey still for tea.












I love all the texture on the lid or frame or whatever you want to call it, and the matte mossy paints contrasting with the gleam of the Treasure Gold.

I hope you like this little Curio Clock.  I'm really happy to have found a way to display a watch I loved a lot when it was working.

And with all those wildflower buds and stems, I like the idea of time being swallowed up by nature.

Thanks to the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog for the opportunity to guest with them.  I hope you'll have lots of fun playing with mixed media this month too.  Happy crafting all!

Stands the Church clock at ten to three?
And is there honey still for tea?
From The Old Vicarage, Grantchester by Rupert Brooke

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Proverb

I'd like to share this in the Floral Frenzy over at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

Don't forget to check out how I used the back of the watch in The Golden Hours if you missed it earlier today.

Scheduling meant it only got about five minutes to itself, so I'm giving it another shout out here!