When a batch of vintage cameras that I purchased included a non working vintage camera, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. I selected a head and pair of hands from my stash of doll parts.
Since they were rubber, and I wanted a more aged look, I decided to give them an antiqued finish. First I coated them with a slate blue acrylic paint. Once that coat had thoroughly dried, I coated them with Delta Ceramcoat’s crackle glaze. While that was still wet, but a bit tacky, I painted a coat of white acrylic on top. As it dried it created a crackle finish, with a hint of the blue showing through giving it an aged look. With paint I added details like hair, eyes, lips, and a rosy glow on the cheeks.
I used an assortment of found hardware to form the wrists and legs, using super glue to stick it all together. After the basic form was completed I began to embellish. I cut a bit of a book page to fit the view finder area, stamped the word ‘memories’ onto it, added a touch of paint, and glued it in place. I added a paper cutout of a keyhole from a digital page by Cemerony, and slung an antique key around a hand. I added some Tim Holtz embellishments: assorted gears, a watch face which I “messed up” a bit with glue and paint to make it look aged, and a metal strip with the advice to “live in the moment”.
I enjoy all the nostalgic analogies in these bits of recollections, ghosts from the past… and the representation of quickly passing time, leaving behind only the preserved images of our memories.
Featured in the Winter 2014 issue of Somerset Studio Gallery magazine, on the newsstand now.
This assemblage piece is available for purchase from my etsy shop!
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