In Case Of Emergency

In Case of Emergency

Not too long ago this was a shiny, new Altoid tin. It had those nice chocolate coated peppermint Altoids in it. By golly I loved those Altoids, so much so that I just had to keep the tin! Not too much later it occurred to me that I could probably make this precious tin into a piece of Art. So I figured I'd start by stripping the paint off. That was no simple task, I tell you what. I ended up having to take the Dremel to it. Eventually I won the battle and gave it an interesting brushed appearance in the process. But that just wasn't enough. Then I realized I had a lonely plastic soldier that needed a home. So I decided to get out the Dremel again and I cut out a window in the lid of the tin and put a nice little sign in the window.

Having done all that, I felt that this little tin still needed some texture - something to give it character. What could be better than a nice crusty coating of rust! So I rusted it! Yah, I did. I rusted it good! Now it finally felt like it had a story behind it. And you thought this was the story! No, this is just the foreword.

By the way, this currently does not have a clear coat on it, as I thought I'd let it rust a little more, but I'll give it a little bit of a clear coating before I send it off to it's new owner. I'd love to be able to send it without the coating, but I'd be afraid that all that lovely rust I made might rub off and that just wouldn't do.

THANKS so much for stopping by!

At What Price, Liberty?

Today I decided to revisit a collage piece that I'd had on the backburner. Sometimes I just have to put things aside to gain some perspective on them or to let them come into focus more clearly. This was one of those projects. And I'm glad I decided to put it aside, rather than try to force it when I originally started it, as I think the end result is much more coherent.

You might perhaps notice a recurring theme? I'm not sure how much longer it's going to be holding court here, so I guess I'll just ride it out and see where it's going. I have some other ideas floating around, but so far they're just enticing me, so I really don't know when they'll be joining the party.

So without further ado, here's today's offering!

At what Price, Liberty?

(I expect you'll want to click the image for a closer look.
There's a LOT of detail in the border!)

Plastic Dreams: A Beginning

While I have worked under the moniker of Plastic Smile for several years, I have yet to form a web presence specifically for that venture. So perhaps this can be a start.

I've spent a good portion of this past week getting an online shop up and running through Cafe Press and am very excited to see how it takes off. A lot of that time has been taken up with applying images to items and getting the layout organized. Hopefully I'll figure out quicker ways to do that, but in the meantime I've managed to make a good number of products available through this shop.

Here's a picture link to my shop: