Linda Walsh Originals Blog Pages

Monday, October 14, 2019

My Winter Seasonal Mixed Media Paper Flowers and Collage Embellished Vases



As you know, I have been having a delightful time experimenting with wood, glass, and paper-clay crafts for the past few months. 

Some of the vases I decided to embellish were a large clear glass flower vase I had from one of the birthday flower arrangements my husband gave me, an odd shaped clear glass vase that reminds me of Aladdin's lamp, and a forty-five year old Pfaltzgraff  blue and white stoneware vase I had been given.

I wanted to try something a little different with all three.


I decided to start with the Pfaltzgraff  blue and white stoneware vase which is shown above and which is 4" tall.


I don't know if you're familiar with Pfaltzgraff  blue and white stoneware dishes but they are primitive in design and started out as blue and white colors with a motif type flower pattern to them, like the plate shown in the picture above.  At one point in time I had a complete dish set of this stoneware and accessory pieces.  Some I still have.  Some I've given away over the years.

When looking at the vase above and a large one I have I'm always reminded of the large old white Victorian water holder and basin for washing that my great aunt had.

So, I wanted to keep the little vase still Victorian in nature while adding mixed media embellishments to it.


First I added old book page collage papers to it.  Then I painted it with black acrylic paint and added a sponge paint combination of metallic green teal paint, metallic royal blue paint, metallic festive green paint, and white acrylic paint.

In keeping with the Victorian theme I decided to add three paper-clay evenly spaced  thin oval shapes that I could stamp with a Victorian flower motif.  After the paper-clay was added, stamped and dried I painted it with a metallic teal blue paint and then brushed it with white acrylic paint.


I also wanted to add a paper-clay stamped embellishment to the bottom of the vase.  To do this I shaped the paper-clay into a long, thin roll and pressed it to the bottom of the vase until I was happy with the shape.  Then I stamped it with a small floral stamp and let it dry.  Once it was dry I painted it with metallic teal blue paint and sealed the whole vase with a glazing medium.

I had wanted to add paper clay to the handle and along the rim of the top but decided against it as I thought it would crack and break over time.

This vase will either house embellished paper flowers or be left alone.  I haven't decided which as of yet.


The second vase in this group was an odd shaped clear glass bottle that reminds me of Aladdin's lamp.  I don't know why but it's shape intrigued me.


For this vase first I added old book page collage papers to it.  Then I painted it with black acrylic paint and added a sponge paint combination of metallic royal blue paint, metallic silver paint, metallic dark blue paint, and white acrylic paint.


Since it was so different I decided to add an embellished texture in several areas with paper-clay smeared shapes that I could stamp and then paint.


So, I added sections of paper-clay and stamped them with a Victorian design.  Once the paper-clay was dried I painted it with metallic white paint and then sealed the whole bottle with a glazing medium.

I was really happy with the way this unique bottle turned out and will either add embellished paper flowers to it or just leave it alone.  It's beautiful in it's uniqueness all  by itself.  Don't you think?


The  last clear glass vase was saved from a beautiful birthday flower arrangement my husband had given me years ago.  I thought it might be pretty as a mixed media type of vase so I first I added old book page collage papers to it.  Then I painted it with black acrylic paint and added a sponge paint combination of metallic dark teal paint, metallic light teal paint, metallic royal blue paint, metallic green paint, and white acrylic paint.


Like the odd shaped bottle above I decided to add an embellished texture in several areas with paper-clay smeared shapes that I could stamp and then paint.

So, I added sections of paper-clay and then stamped them with a winter snowflake design.  Once the paper-clay was dried I painted it with metallic white paint and then sealed the whole vase with a glazing medium.

I wanted this vase to look like a wild winter snowstorm as I intended to add winter color themed embellished paper flowers or silk floral to it.  It's such a large vase I know I'll either be creating a lot of paper flowers or adding a lot of silk floral to it.

I'm thinking of adding a wide wired ribbon along the tip rim tied in a bow but might change my mind after the floral arrangement is made.  We'll see.....

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