Thursday, July 23, 2020

TAD with Rain Faces PPF

Hi Everyone!

Hey happy Paint Party Friday. Adding my TAD post to PPF.
 
Today is TAD with Rain and the theme is "Faces on an object" There are a lot of ways to go with this topic. Since I've had some requests to show how I make my leather faces 
I thought this would be a good time to do that.
First you need a table, space to work that you won't need for a few days. Next you will need some leather, now this gets into a whole separate class, however, find a piece that is a split, or suede and fairly thin. A large pan or pot to soak the leather in, White glue, a heat gun, optional, and old towel to cover work space. A thermometer for water temp, house hold gloves, scissors, and odds n ends items to help shape the leather and a face mold.

The face mold can be ANYTHING. It can be a ceramic, glass, wood, clay face that you have at your home or something you found at a thrift store. OR... you can make your own face. There a lots of places to buy plastic face molds and fill them with plaster of paris.  Or sculpt a face out of clay.

It goes like this. Fill the pot with enough water to well cover the leather. To make the leather stiffer when dried add about 1/4 cup white glue.


Stir the glue so the water is white.

Now heat the water not going over 120°
Turn off stove.
If you go over let it stand until it cools off
Add the leather to the hot water.
You may hear bubbles as the water penetrates the leather.
Push the leather down to make sure it is submerged.
Allow it to soak up to 15 minutes to when ever.
Sometimes I get busy with other things and hour pass. LOL
Just make sure the leather is saturated though.

DO NOT RINSE THE LEATHER.
Remove it from the pot and then wring
out as much water as you can. Now
start stretching the leather. Do this
in all directions.

It's time for the fun part
It took me all day to load this video. Blogger eeehhh.
These are the hands of a hard working woman.
Look so old.

Allow the leather to dry for dayyyyssss or take the heat gun and on the low setting,
dry the leather. This won't dry it completely either but it will give
it a big start. Once it is thoroughly dry remove it from the mold.
Now you can attach the face  to a painted canvas,
a nice piece of wood, a glass vase just about anything you can think of.
Paint and decorate it anyway you like

Here are some of the leather faces I have done over the years.
 Well the ones I have kept for myself.












I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe are 
inspired to make some leather faces.
If you have any questions leave me a comment I will answer you.
Be Safe out there.

Nicole/DVArtist
 Honor and integrity in art, in life.

21 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

A fascinating process and a beautiful end result!

Barbara said...

Very cool, will think about trying it. Your work is so excellent, hard to pick favorites. I think I’m partial to the bright red one. I can see why you kept all of these!

Valerie-Jael said...

Wonderful faces Nicole, they are all very well made. Valerie

Gillena Cox said...

Bravo, wonderful art Nicole. Happy Thursday

Much😊😷😊love

Elkes Lebensglück said...

What a great idea to make such a face, thanks for explaining! It's cool! The others are beautiful works of art with the faces.
Have a good day, hugs Elke

Christine said...

Fabulous work Nicole, you do amazing work!

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Wow, Nicole, I knew you were working on something for TAD, but had no idea this was going to turn out as well as it has. I have NO thin leather, but I love what you have created. I am totally in AWE.

Linda Kunsman said...

your leather sculptures really are so fascinating and beautiful Nicole! Thank you for sharing how you make them too. Happy PPF!

Andrea @ From The Sol said...

You make it look simple, but I am certain it is not and you have the technique down to a science. Your leather faces are beautiful and I love all the different treatments. Tempted, maybe ... first I would have to find a source for the leather ... any thoughts?
Stay well...

Andrea @ From the Sol

denthe said...

I've always wondered how you make those leather faces Nicole. How wonderful to see it and read the explanation. Love seeing all of your examples too. They look so mysterious .... Hugs and happy PPF ♥ ♥ ♥

peppylady (Dora) said...

Interesting. I try to challenge myself in lot of things, even my creativity.
PPF

LA Paylor said...

wowie! I have been seeing an artist that does leather bags made of faces and covet them but they are VERY expensive. Have you ever tried making a purse/bag? I am in awe over this. I love faces in general.

carol l mckenna said...

Nicole ~ These are so wonderful and thank you so much for the tutorial ~ well done ~ ^_^

Live each moment with love,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)

DVArtist said...

I spent decades making Native American dance costumes, moccasins, handbags, man bags, clothing, and shoes all from leather.

Jean said...

Wow - so very cool! These are amazing works of art. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

NatureFootstep said...

wow, love this. I am so happy you shared the process with us. It is so beautiful what you create.
I might try it if I can find some mold to use. It would be fun to try. Thanks for sharing.

Lowcarb team member said...

Wow!
These are wonderful.

All the best Jan

lissa said...

This is definitely a new method, one that I have not heard of before. There's something eerie about faces artworks but also a bit fascinating.

Have a lovely day.

Tammie Lee said...

So interesting to see how you go about this. I had no idea. Fun fun.

Rain said...

My gosh Nicole, what an EXCELLENT tutorial! I'm totally bookmarking this post and I want to try this around Halloween if I can get my hands on the right materials. Thanks SO much for doing this and I loved hearing your voice!!! My favourites are the first few, the reddish faces, they remind me of aliens! Great work, you're so creative!!! :)

Kokopelli said...

You know I love your leather faces! Such nice work and every face is different with a different story to tell. Happy PPF!