Creating Faux Pottery Using Paint, Stencils and Stamps

Hi friends! As promised, I am back again for another post as part of Seth Apter’s Creative Team and today I am featuring a home decor piece I created using a variety of Seth’s fabulous products.

I think it’s so easy to get into a groove of creating art pretty much with the same substrate you alway use and/or perhaps the same colors. I know I do. And though that is your sweet spot, I would love to challenge you to change one of those up. Today I have moved away from working on mixed media paper to working on top of a glass jar, and maybe I will stay in this lane for a bit and maybe I’ll be creating some gifts along the way. Anyway, I kept my “home” by choosing colors I felt comfortable with but I decided I needed to make a home decor piece instead of another piece of wall art.

To create this project, I purchased a flat-ish type jar from the craft store BUT it would be awesome to recycle or repurpose a jar you have or bought at a Thrift shop. I put gesso on top of my jar first so that the paint would adhere better but I discovered that any chalky paint or craft paint that is designed for glass works just as well. Just make sure it dries.

After the base coat dried I painted my top coat. Now I did notice if I put it on too thick it had a tendency to crack, which I ended up loving, but if you don’t like that look, make sure you put on several thinner coats and allow each to dry well.

Next I dabbled bit of Seth’s paints and a few additional PaperArtsy colors on the jar in random places. (Links and names of supplies used are at the end of this post for your convenience.)

I came back in and added some pops of a brighter color. My favorite “control freak” thing I love to do is to stamp, paint or ink on deli paper and here’s why. I can move it around to position it where I think it might look best as opposed to being stuck with something that was stamped or painted in not the best location. Ok, confession over! I feel so much better but I certainly have some personal things to work on. Lol. I also added little paint splatters along the way. (I will say, and it isn’t showing in this pic but I did eventually stamp one of Seth’s stamps and applied one of his ATC stencils on the jar. Baby steps, right?)

The next step was so fun because who doesn’t like playing with a gelli plate? I rolled out some colors onto the plate, laid one of Seth’s stencils down, making sure the lettering was facing the opposite direction, smoothed a sheet of white paper over the top then lifted the stencil and then placed my round jar onto the plate.

If I missed any spots I just went back in to the plate and made sure I got all of it covered and the press was clean. I absolutely loved the randomness of the paints and some of the texture it created.

Adding more depth through deeper colors, painting stencil markings, more stamp images and embossing a bit of WOW! powder gave the jar the look I was hoping for. Btw, I wanted a really dark color for accents so I sprayed both the Blue Moon and Honey IZINK sprays on a palette and blended them together and used them on the substrate.

I am all about dimension, both in the art world and the craft world so I decided to add the word “Timeless” to the jar using Hard Modeling Paste.

I thought it was cool how some of the Izink spray colors came up through the modeling paste.

I had to add a bit of the embossing powder to the top of the jar as well. Look at all those speckles!

And here is the completed jar…

What I love about mixed media is that no two pieces of art ever look quite the same. Every piece has the artist fingerprints on it, and each one unique.

As you all know I have been writing The Art of Photography series for Seth Apter’s Creative Team and one of the topics was on stylizing and telling a story. When I was shooting the pics for this post I thought I would challenge myself to shoot some extra photos so I did one that was warm, moody and a bit vintage, one that was more on the modern side, an all art shot and a tight shot. (If you have been reading my photography post, I’m doing my homework. :)) This is what transpired.

Such a difference with a change in backgrounds and a few props. And for those of you who aren’t into props, here you go.

And cutting props way down works too!

I created some similar “mock-pottery” over at StencilGirl® Talk last year. You can take a look here.

Thanks for joining me today. It is a joy to be a part of this art community. Happy creating!

XO,

Supply List:

PaperArtsy Paints: Buff, Hint of Mint, Niagara Falls, Carmel, Snowflake, Autumn Fire

PaperArtsy Stamp: Eclectica3 Mini 52 Cling Rubber

Impression Obsession Stamp: Planner Basics Cling Rubber

IZINK Pigment, Burnt Orange, IZINK Sprays-Blue Moon and Honey

WOW! Embossing Powder-Weathered Gold, WOW! Embossing Pad

StencilGirl Stencil by Seth Apter-Timeless

Other:

Jar, Paint for Glass, Paint Brush, Gelli Plate, Modeling Paste, Deli Paper, Permanent Black Ink, Brayer