Radio Kit

Radio Kit (Ideology 2021)

 

Wet Ingredients:

Ink – Alcohol Mushroom; Distress Pumice Stone, Walnut Stain

Crayons – Distress Peacock Feathers, Tumbled Glass

Other – Collage Medium (matte); Texture Paste (crackle); Gloss Spray Paint; Matte Black Spray Paint

Paint – Distress Black Soot, Ground Espresso, Peacock Feathers, Rustic Wilderness

Dry Ingredients:

Tags –Etcetera Tags (just the reinforcers)

Foundations –Display Dome; Vignette Divided Drawer, Vignette Panels (adverts)

Paper – Backdrops (vol 1); Glassine (kraft), Kraft Stock (cool), Layers (urban)

Hardware – Factory Tags, Gadget Gears, Gauge Frames, Hardware Heads, Industrial Gears, Jump Rings, Memo Pins, Mini Marquee, Odds & Ends, Tin Tops, Tiny Clips, Vignette Hardware

Other – Remnant Rubs (specimen), Tiny Lights, Wooden Spools

Ribbon – Brass Floral Wire, White Thread

Tools/Equipment:

Other – Collage Brushers, Guillotine Cutter, Media Mat, Palette Knife, Sandpaper, Squeegee, Steel Wool, Sewing Machine, Utility Knife

I had the idea of nesting a display dome inside the divide drawer vignette tray for a while now.  I knew I could slice the wood across the back at the shelf height (you can see the cut outs where the dividers slide in and out) and cut though the glued seems with a utility knife, it took a few scores to break the seal, but the panel came out easily.

The colour of the project was completely inspired by the colour of the tin top, it took a hint of rustic wilderness mixed with peacock feathers to get a match.  The finish is created by applying a lot of layers (a crazy amount to some but I love this process)

The base wash of the paint colour mix, thinned enough to keep the wood grain visible brushed over all the vignette pieces

o   base wash of the paint colour mix, thinned enough to keep the wood grain visible brushed over all the vignette pieces

o   strips of the Kraft Stock (cool) we cut to fit the exterior panels and randomly sanded

o   this paper is torn along the narrow edges and corners and attached with matte collage medium

o   the whole thing gets a coating of matts collage medium

o   the giant numerals from urban layers are added to one side of the vignette drawer (582) and lightly sanded to expose paper edges

o   crackle texture place is applied using a palette knife, heavier in the corners and on the front panel

o   once dry the crackle paste is painted with black soot, working it into the cracks, once dry this is buffed with a little steel wool to pull back some highlights of white

o   dry brush everything with hits of peacock feathers

o   dry brush everything with hits of black soot

o   buff everything with steel wool (again)

o   this dry brush of blue and buff and black and buff goes on repeated for a while over (and over) different sections until it was ‘just right’

o   sprayed with a gloss acrylic varnish

o   buffed a little with steel wool to remove some shiny spot

o   this inside of the box is lined with a page from the new backdrops using matte collage medium I used the little squeegee to push into the inside corners of the box

o   this was coated in a layer of matte collage medium to seal it

o  tapped a very watered-down layer of ground espresso to exterior using my fingers to create splotches on the exterior and to puddle it in the interior corners

 

I coated (almost) all the ideology metal pieces with a matte black spray paint to start.  I also spray painted the tiny spools, cord, and battery compartment of the tiny lights, as well as the etcetera tag reinforcers and plastic game pieces.  The metal pieces were all scrubbed with steel wool and used the same dilute ground espresso paint to create a tarnished layer (this glaze is used on almost everything you see), and dabbed some mushroom alcohol ink to finish. 

The tiny light housing is two pieces of kraft glassine paper (one of my discontinued favourites – the stash is dwindling) that have been stitched together and then crumpled to break that pristine waxy finish.  Mini marquee letter are lightly sanded and attached to the glassine sleeve using matte medium and some tiny clips along with some torn pieces of ephemera.

The gears and token from the odds & ends were glued to memo pins for easy attaching to the cork base of the dome (this is a trick I leaned from the amazing Paula Cheney).  The vintage radio tube is from a jar of radio tubes that I have collected.

The glass dome was dabbed with mushroom alcohol ink and remnant rubs were added front and back.  I learned a trick during a class with Tim at Creativation years ago; when you adhere remnant rubs onto glass, if you take a mini pumice stone distress ink pad and rub it over the rub the ghosting/halo around the remnant rub becomes almost invisible (I think he credits this trick to Paula as well–she is amazing; I was extremely distracted by the then new distress oxide ink pads so some of that class is a blur). 

Inspiration sometimes comes from often random coincidences. When I was compiling all the pieces I was considering putting together, I had laid the gauge frame on the tin top… I had to look twice, it was just too good that they lined up, it was meant to be.

The mini marquee is just the right size to fit the gauge frame, these were glued in along the edges after gluing the gauge frame to the tin top (I love that you can still see the rays in the graphic thought the numbers). The bases of the game pieces were snipped just enough to fit them inside the reinforcers, these are in turn decorated with several hardware heads. 

Urban layers were used to create the swinging/hanging signage using hooks from the vignette hardware and a couple of jump rings.

The little wooden spools are the pegs for the radio dome tube.  Special thanks to Dr. Holtz working tirelessly in the ideology O.R. getting this ready for the YouTube live.

Special hideaway for the tiny lights battery pack

I always (my crazy compulsion) put a little distress walnut ink on everything I make so if it looks a little grungy or dingy this is where it came from, it will be too many to places to itemize individually.

This post contains affiliate links below. If you click on one of them,  and make a purchase I’ll receive a commission.