The Marvelous Moon, Challenge Reveal & Blog Hop


Yes my Dearies, The Moon, 🌕  La Lune. She's always fascinated me ... So when Lindsay of the Art Elements Blog announced the January Theme Design Challenge, I was all in. I'm a July Moonchild and perhaps that's part of my partiality. As a young adult, a winking crescent moon was the logo for my graphic design biz, a few years later I added a fairy and I suppose that set the course for my lifelong connection to this magnificent, ever-changing orb. She rules the tides, farmers and gardeners rely on her and she definitely has something to do with our moods ... well, at least mine!

I knew at once what design and medium I wanted to use and had a pretty good idea of the piece. I recently delved into Leathercraft (see this post) and since January's Full Moon is also called The Wolf Moon, la voilà!
This Hair Slide, reminiscent of the good ole 1970s, is my first tooling project. I guess an experienced leatherworker wouldn't call this 'tooling', but hey, ya gotta start somewhere, n'est-ce pas? I used a Swivel Knife, Beveler, Seeder, Edge Beveler, Hole Punch (all tooling tools) and a couple of Metalsmithing tools (dappers) so I think it qualifies as a Tooled Leather piece. Not good enough that I would try to sell it, this one's for my hair only. Plus, I made it large enough for thick, wavy-ish hair, which I definitely do have (yes, even at my age😉).

The Hair Stick is from a shop I happened upon online named Many Horses Jewelry Supply where Super Sandra makes the sticks to order. I ordered an assortment of 5- and 6-inch to start with and am very happy with the quality, thickness & colors (Lilac Tree (syringa) is just striking!) This one started as a  plain 6-inch 'thin' stick. I painted it with the same black leather ink and applied an acrylic sealer.


I started out with a piece of  8-9 ounce Veg Tanned Leather and maaan, this stuff is thick. I had a hard time using the Xacto knife to cut out the oval. So I finished with scissors. I need to get one of those bigger utility cutters. Actually, I'm going to try 6-7 oz. for the next Hair Slide so the Xacto may be enough (wishful thinking).
I used a simple piece of tracing paper to trace the design onto the leather using a dull point (I don't have a stylus so I used a ball point pen. It's important to case the leather (wet it) with a sponge before any cutting or tooling. Then let it dry a little. It helps the knife get deeper and when stamping or beveling, gives that luscious shading around the designs. I painted my Wolf Moon, so you don't the shading except on the 'before paint' images. The yellow is a muted mustard color, not sure if my edited color correction worked too well.
The darker moon spots are from my metal dapper. Unintended, but a nice effect after painting.

I stamped the little stars with a tool called a Seeder. I tried painting them whitish and they looked a little green, like those glow-in-the-dark ones for the ceiling. It's still a mystery to me what happened there. Before having an enlightened moment and deciding to paint the sky black, had applied a product called Leather Balm with Atom Wax over the entire piece. NOT a good move!!
While rubbing it, the paint started coming off of the Wolf & the Moon. I like the effect it had on the moon, some of the original leather color shows through and gives more dimension to it. But I did repaint the wolf & that's when the light bulb glowed about the night sky. duh.... night? ... sky? I think I've mentioned before that I'm a late bloomer and that must include parts of the brain!!
Before painting, I dipped the whole thing in water and formed it around the can of sealer, protecting the surface with bubble wrap and tape. This image is when the hair slide is halfway dry but I left it formed in the wrap until completely dry.
Ah, which reminds me ... I bought Leather Paint, though 'they' say that regular acrylics will work on leather but maybe eventually crack over time depending on what item is painted. Leather paint is just a thinner version and I watered them down even more. Not as much as a wash though. And then applied several coats until the coverage was what I wanted.

Last but not least, when I painted over the sky, all my little stars glowed no more! I had saved some extra watered down black and mixed a little of that with a smidge of pearl mica powder to add just a hint of sparkle and dabbed it on a few chosen 'stars'.
 All in all, I'm very pleased with my little Wolfie howling his heart out 🐺.
Al

How about Blog Hopping along with me to see what all the other Theme Challenge entrants and AE regulars have dreamed up? There are A LOT this month, who can resist such a great subject?

Guests:  Jenny   Melissa   Kathy   Sarajo   Hope   Sarah   Rebecca   Divya   Anita   Rosantia  Cat   Evia

Alysen (you're here)   Beth   Tammy

Art Elements Crew:   Claire   Laney   Caroline   Cathy   Sue   Niky   Jenny   Jen   Lindsay 


Comments

  1. I love the design. I made a pendant with a coyote howling to the full moon for a challenge a while ago, and I'm in love with a full moon, so this is really appealing to me.
    A beautiful piece!

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    1. Thank you Cat! I've been known to howl at it myself! :)

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    2. When my Ponder was younger, he actually howled to the moon. I kept thinking he must be a little werecat. He's still very much influenced by the full moon, mad as a hatter! ;-)

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  2. Thank you for sharing the process - I love leather and what people create out of it. I also like the little light bulb moments you got while creating this beautiful piece!

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    1. Thank you, leather's definitely going to be a learning process. Can't wait to do some Fringe. Light bulb moments are the best ...

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  3. Wow, this was a very cool idea! Thanks for sharing the process, I enjoyed seeing how you made it!

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    1. Thanks Sue, I realize I left off a lot, but didn't want it to be toooo long.

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  4. I have looked forward to seeing this finished from your teaser posts on Instagram this month and I am not disappointed! that is gorgeous I love how it turned out :D

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    1. Thanks, me too Laney, and the moon craters I thought I'd ruined with the black from the dappers really added the dimension. So some of my uh-ohs turned into oh-wows :)

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  5. What a great interpretation of the theme. Your leatherwork is coming along fabulously. Thanks for sharing some of the details for those of us intrigued by the craft. Enjoying wearing it, you moonchild!

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    1. Thank you Hope, I'll definitely wear it and post a pic with it in. Awoooo!

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  6. This takes me back about 14 years to my first year of college when I made a moulded leather clip. I now wonder what it would be been to paint a wolf on it for yours looks fabulous

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    1. Divya, this just had to have paint, as you can see from before pix. Now, if I were a more experienced tooler, maybe not, as my beveling, etc. would leave nice shadows. I'll have to experiment more with the design too.

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  7. Love your leather hair slide! I'm a July moon-child also. When I was young I experimented with leather working. My parents had most of the tools. They would let me make things using their tools. Thanks for sharing and reminding me of a happy memory.

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    1. Evia,fellow Moonchild, what a lucky one you were to have artist parents. I've given the maker skill to my daughter and she uses it well. Happy to have been the bearer of nice memories.

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  8. I just love this so much! I have a wolf moon fiber piece in process that will hopefully get finishsed one day. I think the moon is perfect. Pure serendipity that some paint smudged off. It gives it such a textured'moon' quality. Painting the background black definitely makes the moon shine bright!

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    1. Thx Cathy. Are you talking about the wolf princess or a different one? Yep, serindipity could probably be my middle name :) ...

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  9. What a great project and I so agree to the "tooling" part! With the paint...uhm...could have happened to me too ;) I also enjoyed seeing all the different pictures of the process!

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    1. Thank you kindly Claire. Just as in life, little accidents bring out our resourcefulness and sometimes even happy surprises, even better than the original!! :)

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  10. You did an amazing job, it looks fantastic! Look forward to seeing more!

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    1. Thanks Caroline, I'm now trying to divide my limited available time between two mediums. Also in the back of my brain is 'how can I combine them?' .... I think I won't be adding a third to the mix :)))

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  11. WOW! That's super cool. Wish I could wear a hair slide, but I if my hair gets below my chin, I start wanting to shave my head...LOL! Lovely work. And I love that you're dipping your toes into a new medium and using it for a theme challenge! Thanks for participating again and look forward to seeing you in future challenges.

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    1. Thank you Jennifer.. I will first put in a hairband tho then the slide over it. Usually my hair is around shoulder length, in layers cause too thick. But I decided to be like the 'footballers' or the tennis guys letting their facial hair grow during a tournament and let my hair grow as long as I'm here taking care of my Mom. It's pretty long now so this will come in handy.

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    2. Just let me know if you ever want to talk about leather! I am not a tooler but I very much enjoy other aspects, especially dying/painting. I love that you've shared your tooling with us! Thank you so much for playing along with us this month!

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    3. Thx Lindsay! I may take you up on your offer! A few YouTube channels that I've learned alot from are Don Gonzales, Weaver Leathercraft & of course, Mr. Linnell at Tandy (I think). I can find links later and send them to you (email?) if you'd like. Alysen.

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  12. I love the design, the howling wolf is a mighty figure! Thank you for the details about your craft - even if I never try it, it's good to know about the labor that went into it!

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    1. Never say Never Rozantia :) ... I'm 21x3 (shhh) and just started!

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  13. Your leather work is coming along wonderfully! I've been wondering from your sneak peeks what you'd make, and this is just brilliant! It's fun to experience the little accidents and brainwaves that make projects interesting, and you've certainly made the most of yours.

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    1. Thx Anita :). After pondering, I think I'll try another with a silvery moon (Feb's full moon is called a Snow Moon), now that I know that I can mix my sparkly pigment powder with the leather paint. Oooh oooh, will have to do that this weekend...

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  14. Wonderful - perfect for our January wolf moon. I have heard regular acrylics are fine. too... Do you plan to do more in leather now that you are warmed up? Glad you could join us.

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    1. Jenny, Definitely doing more leather projects (see response to Anita above). I now have five 8x10 sheets of different weights of leather to use up (yay). About regular acrylics, there's a blurb above under the last picture :). I'd like to try iridescent and pearly paints too!

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  15. So neat to see this process! Thanks for sharing the journey with us!

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  16. This is a gorgeous piece and really nice to see some leatherworking. You did a great job tooling and painting the piece and I hope you're proud of it. It's lovely

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    1. Thanks for commenting Sarah. Oh, I am proud of my first piece. I realize that any new craft takes lots of practice, luckily I'm extremely patient & stubborn :)) .

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  17. Reading about your process was fascinating and the hair piece is amazing. Love the imagery.

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    1. Thank you kindly Tammy! I wanted to keep it on the shorter side so left out a few pix & words too.. There was much more involved in the process.

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  18. Thank you for showing your process and what a beautiful piece you created! I love the dark rich brown that you used to Finnish it off with!

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    1. Thanks Niky for the compliment. I received my acrylic paint sealer (the correct type of sealer) the next day, don't know if that's going to change the moon color or not. hohum, I shall see ..... it's all experimentation.

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  19. I love this! I've been intrigued by leather-work, but haven't had an opportunity to play... yet! Lovely craftsmanship... you've inspired me, for sure!

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    1. Gee, thanks Rebecca! Leatherwork kind of just evolved this year after my try at the feather a couple months back :). I've got lots of room for improvement and would like to combine gemstones and/or wire .....

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  20. Love seeing your process, leather is such a fun medium. ♥

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    1. Why Thank You Dry, for taking the time to read & reply! Yes, I'm definitely eager to learn and do more projects in leather.

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