Stencil a Concrete Counter with Guest Artist Jen Cushman

Some days I think the place I spend the most time other than my studio is my kitchen! My husband and I enjoy trying out and taste-testing new recipes together.

I couldn't ask for a better partner when it comes time to remodel. He gets me. 

A concrete kitchen counter has been my dream for the past 15 years. I love concrete floors too.

Shortly before mixing the concrete the contractor we were working with said, "You could stencil the countertop," I knew I wanted to take the remodel to the next level.

I chose the Maltese Mix Stencil because I wanted a geometric design.

I placed the stencil on my outgoing countertop and realized I would need to cut the edges off of the stencil to achieve a random look.

Impressing the stencil into the concrete had to happen on Goldilocks time!

Concrete heats up as it is curing and it must be soft enough to take the stencil impression but not so soft that I would smoosh the design.

We poured the concrete counter into 3 sections that took about 10 minutes each.

Pour the concrete. Level the concrete. And, my most favorite part, stencil in the Goldilocks moment towards the end.

Timing-wise, as I was done stenciling the first section the contractor was leveling the third section.

Making a concrete kitchen counter is not for the faint of heart, but I am thrilled with the end result. It was certainly worth it for me!

Next steps after stenciling: Sand. Polish. Add highlights.

Here are close-ups of the finished countertop:

Thanks for allowing me a few minutes to inspire you!

Jen Cushman

JenCushman.com

Mary Beth Shaw's VLOG: December 2021

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Mary Beth's VLOG.

Stay tuned!

Mary Beth Shaw will be back again next month with another new VLOG post!

Custom Notebooks with Natalie May

Every now and again I take on a little commission work for a few select few and was recently asked to create covers for a couple of Hard Cover Notebooks for a friend to give as Christmas gifts.

The brief was simple - one in blues and teals with dragonflies and butterflies and the other in pinks with florals.

I went out and purchased a couple of hardcover books, gave them a generous coat of white gesso to seal the covers and cover the black of the original design, and then using acrylic paint, added the bright & vibrant color.

For the blue notebook, I used a baby wipe to add on the blue paint through the Fade Horizontal Stencil to give a soft layer in the background. 

   

Then using a blending tool, I added the Curvy Stems Stencil over the top to add another soft layer.

 

Keeping the cover simple, I added a few simple stamps from my new stamp set in archival ink and then a couple of black die cuts to add the dragonflies.

The pink journal was just as easy. 
I used a blending tool with the Tall Flowers Stencil to add shades of pink over the top of the painted background.  

 

When dry, I used a stamp by Pinkfresh Designs stamp and black archival ink to add the image to finish off the design.

The Notebooks were then sealed with Gel Medium, wrapped in beautiful tissue paper, and posted off to the other side of the country where they are gifted this Christmas!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you and happy, healthy, and enjoying life!

Natalie May

PRODUCTS USED
Curvy Stems Stencil designed by Terri Stegmiller 

Fade Horizontal Stencil designed by Michelle Ward

Tall Flowers Stencil designed by Margaret Peot

Crosshatched Ink Portrait with StencilGirl® Products

                           

Self-portrait (at 13) by Albrecht Durer, using hatching to establish values

               There are a lot of elements that go into making a portrait come alive, and perhaps one of the most important is modeling - making the face appear dimensional.  The human face is a complex arrangement of shapes and forms - curving, casting shadows, jutting forward or dipping in - and it takes a lot of practice to get comfortable with how to use tone, line, and color, to recreate those three-dimensional contours on a two-dimensional surface.  If you also have to work on getting the proportions right, it can feel like a pretty daunting job.  Fortunately, the face stencils from StencilGirl® provide a wonderful framework for establishing the features of the face.  They are great templates for practicing shading and modeling.

                One of my favorite techniques for adding depth and dimension in a sketchy portrait is hatching (patches of lines in one direction) and crosshatching (patches of lines crossing one another).  It's almost magical to watch the build-up of parallel and crossed lines bringing a face to life by building up the values from light to dark.  It can be tedious to do, however, and can be very tiring to the hand.  Enter this clever makeup hack I learned from illustrator Henrik Drescher.  The Tattoo Studio Brow Tint Pen has a soft, flexible nib that draws four parallel lines.  It's not hard at all to remove the nib with a pair of pliers, and remove the makeup inside (there isn't much, anyway - according to the package, this pen contains only .037 ounces of product.)

    I managed (with a dropper) to add bit of a beautiful ink from Noodler's called American Aristocracy.  It's a deep purplish brown that I find really great for portraiture - I use it in a fountain pen and with dip pens, usually.  It's water soluble, and can be diluted and brushed to beautiful effect.  (At the end of this blog post I have added another portrait using one of Pam Carriker's face stencils.  It was done entirely in American Aristocracy, using both brush and dip pen, plus a bit of white pastel.  The pinkish and brown tones have a tendency to separate, which is lovely. )

    Whatever color ink you choose to put into the eyebrow pen, it's a good idea to practice drawing lines with it.  Press too hard and you'll get a solid line, but with a light touch, you will get the parallel lines.  It's also a good idea to practice simply to accustom your hand to drawing lines consistently and steadily. Fountain pen ink is very fluid, and will not dry out or gum up the nib.

 

            Using Pam Carriker's Create Face stencil (S646) I established the base layer of the features with the brow pen.  You'll see that I have cut away pieces of the stencil so I don't have a hard, square border.  I also penciled in a hair line as well as the cheek and jawline on the left side of the face use as guidelines during the hatching process.

                 

            When that's all done, this is the result.  As you can see, my lines sometimes wobbled, sometimes went out of parallel.  However, the beauty of this technique is that there will be so many additional layers of hatching that the imperfections of the first layer will disappear.  But you can pretty quickly establish the start of the crosshatch this way.  To be honest I think there is probably still some brown eyebrow makeup in the pen mixing with the ink, but that's why I chose a purplish brown - and I don't think it matters if I'm drawing with makeup at this point!

                Now the magic begins.  This stencil (in this orientation) clearly indicates the light source from the upper right.  This means that all parts of the left side of the face will be darker than the right side.  Wherever the contours of the face curve away (into the eye socket, down the side of the nose, the corners of the eyeballs, the side of the jaw, etc. ), it should appear darker; wherever contours bring a feature forward (cheekbone, brow bone, tip of the nose, etc.) the values should be lighter.  With a variety of colors, line widths, and by varying the spacing of the lines, you can begin hatching to create these contours and changes in value.  Hatch perpendicular to your first set of lines, then switch colors and hatch straight up and down, then hatch straight across.  Use the typical palette of skin tones, or get more dramatic with some unexpected colors, keeping the lines in each layer as parallel as possible.  Experiment to see which direction is most comfortable for you and turn the paper or journal if it's easier to switch direction that way.  Take your time, keep checking where the shadows should be, and have fun!  Remember, it is the nature of stencils to have quite a few broken lines as a way of preventing whole chunks of Mylar falling out.  Where there are interrupted lines (for example, around the eyes) feel free to complete them with hatch lines.

        As you can see, I filled in the background with a wash of the American Aristocracy ink, and then hatched over that with a white gel pen.  To be honest, I may have gone too far and too dark, but I had gotten into the hatching rhythm, I was listening to a good podcast, and I just didn't want to stop!  It's a wonderfully meditative process.  I've used this face stencil with this technique a few times, and it really is a fun technique for practicing the modeling of the face.  

        And here, as promised, is the ink wash (not cross-hatched) portrait in American Aristocracy with Pam Carriker's Strength Face S653.  Using water soluble fountain pen inks with stencils always turns out great - especially with a gorgeous color like this.

 

stencils used: 

Create Face, by Pam Carriker

Strength Face, by Pam Carriker

Merry Christmas from StencilGirl!

from all of us at StencilGirl...

Wishing
you a
VERY
Merry Christmas!

Stenciled Wisdom Doll by Linda Edkins Wyatt

Hi! Linda Edkins Wyatt here, with my first EVER rag doll! The doll-making bug bit me exactly 10 years ago—but for two-dimensional paper dolls—I was a little intimidated by the stitched and stuffed three-dimensional dolls.

But, after 10 years, I decided it was time to kick my doll-making up a notch and try my hand at creating a stuffed doll. I had a vision in my head of what she would look like…sort of a soft, young, fairy-type rag doll…but she had a will of her own and morphed into more of a kind, gentle, wise-woman.

To start, I pulled out a bunch of StencilGirl® stencils that I thought would be useful for making the face, body, and clothes. I also referred to a childhood treasure—my Mexican folk-art doll—for design inspiration.

I began by stenciling one of Jennifer Evans’s Faces in the Crowd images on some scraps of rusted cloth. I made two, using one for the front and one for the back, pinned it, stitched, turned it, and stuffed with polyfil.

My original idea was to use Judy Wise’s Judy Judy stencil for the legs, and arms, and dress.  I did use the Judy Judy legs, but the arms weren’t quite the right size, so I designed my own. I cut a simple rectangle for the body, stuffed it, and cinched it in the middle.

Next, it was time for hair. I wanted her to be magical, and I thought rainbow hair would work well. I used dyed wool roving, hand needle felted it to a piece of wool fabric, then stitched the felted fabric “hair” to the top of my doll’s head.

The stenciled face needed some details, and some “foundation” to cover up the rusty spots. I mixed up some flesh-tone acrylic paint and dabbed it on. She went through an ugly phase until I toned down the look with some soft pinks. Still, she didn’t look like a young, carefree fairy…she looked like an old lady. I decided to embrace the mature look and create a doll that reflected the wisdom of an older woman.

I was saddened to see that once I had stitched and stuffed the doll, the JudyJudy dress didn’t fit! So, I set about stenciling on fabric to design another dress. I experimented with my own Lemurian Garden stencils on both white and colored fabrics. While they looked good, the scale was too large for my doll. After much thought and many test prints, I hit on the idea of using a regal, wine-colored cloth with gold Lumiere paint, and utilized smaller-scale stencils. The color combination looked very magical, making me think of medieval castles, royalty, and Merlin the Magician.

For her long, dirndl skirt, I used two of Laurie Mika’s ATC Mix-Up Sacred Hearts.

To coordinating with the skirt fabric, I set about printing more wine and gold designs. I loved the look of Nathalie Kalbach’s New Orleans 4, which I carefully repeated until I had printed a 6” square.

I draped the wine and gold fabrics around my wise woman to see which ones would work best with the skirt for a top and sash. Once I made my selection, I carefully cut and stitched those pieces.

The New Orleans 4 blouse needed a collar, so I cut a section from stenciled fabric done with Laurie Mika’s Pilgrimage to Mexico. That small detail was a perfect finishing touch on the blouse. For a sash, I used a favorite stencil: Leafy Doodle Verge by Valerie Sjodin.

My wise woman was almost done, but her hair needed tweaking. The rainbow hair was not quite right with the gold and wine colors of her ensemble. By adding a few strands of a red/gold/orange fuzzy yarn in the front and sides, the hair’s color scheme worked better. The final touch was painting her feet gold to suggest little magical boots.

Now I’ve really got the doll-making bug. Be on the lookout for a whole collection of my stenciled rag dolls!