Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze Mermaid

Hello again, and happy Sunday!

The hot weather and mahoosive pollen count continues! Even the squirrels in the garden have given up scampering...they're all on their little recliners with their long cool glasses of Pimms, being fanned by sweaty mouse slaves...not sure where they found the palm leaves for the job....or the grass skirts..... or the mini coconut shell bras. Mystery...

Anyhoo - after the last postie-post I thought it might be a good idea to highlight a product wot I rambled about (and will undoubtedly do again): Glimmer Glaze from the sparkly loveliness that is "Tattered Angels". Most crafters and mixed media types are familiar with the glimmer sprays and chalk sprays that Tattered Angels make, which give a shimmering delicate colour to your project, or a more textured, brighter colour in the case of the chalks. It seems to me that many people are a tad tentative when it comes to playing about with the Glam or Glaze ranges....I think, not least of all, because the prices can seem a little prohibitive - especially outside America. Here in the UK, Glimmer Glam ranges from £4 to £6 a pot, and the Glimmer Glaze is a little pricier at £5.50 - £8 a pot, depending on where you source supplies. Personally, I haunt the sale sections of MANY a crafting website as well as auction listing on trusty old ebay. I mentioned in my last post that I (awesomely) picked up a whole lovely heap of Glimmer Glazes for roughly £1 each on ebay auction - that was a spectacularly good deal!

Here's a bit of 'fo about them.

Glimmer Glazes are a glaze medium, which adds a sealing topcoat to a project whilst also adding a tint. Depending on which colour you buy, you either get a delicate - almost transparent - overlay, or a heavier translucent or even semi-opaque vibrant shade.

They're incredibly versatile. Not only will they act as a sealed top coat, but also as a medium in their own right. Excellent effects can be had from splattering them, blending them, adding them to Ranger's Glossy Accents (or other brands of) wet, pre-set enamel, heating and burning them with a heat-tool, using them as a permanent tinted resist or even just as a 'paint'. The best way to see how useful they are is to buy a couple and just play. They're colour-compatible with other Tattered Angels products so you can combine them to great effect. Have a look at the Tattered Angels site, or Youtube for suggestions too. Try them with different brands as you often achieve varying results with similar products...weird but true.  Each pot contains 1 fluid ounce of glaze, which you have to shake to disperse the mica element that gives them their gentle shimmer. If you don't want the shimmer - don't shake 'em!

The Glimmer Glams are similar in that they act as a glaze and sealant on projects. The key difference is that they contain much larger pieces of glitter which add a more textured sparkle and finish. I find them useful for adding heavy texture on some pieces and to add a bolder light-reflective surface on others.

Again, the transparency of the product changes from colour to colour. Each pot contains 1.35 fluid ounces and needs to be shaken to activate the glitter element.

With both products I find I can achieve excellent definition with a brush, although you should remember to wash the brush out immediately as, being a glaze, it'll set the darned thing rigid if you don't. Here are a few sample colour tests (laid on medium thick!) -

Sorry it's not clearer - I think I'll have to scan this in rather than use the camera (still gippy!) but I hope it gives an idea. You can see the sheen that you achieve by using them.

So....when that lovely ebay order arrived I did have a play. The last entry shows the journal pages made from colour testing the Glazes and the memo pad holder where they'd been used to add texture, but I also had a painty faff-about with the colours, ending up with a mermaid. Mermaids are my default setting for drawing a thing. It's an addiction. There should be a Mermaid-aholics Anonymous somewhere. (My next blog post will prove this!!)  I'd not intended to KEEP anything I faff-painted so I used my chippy (newsprint-esque) paper as a surface. It has a tendency to wrinkle a LOT, but I quite like that. I just used the brushes that are pre-attached to the insides of the lids on the Glaze pots and smooshed about the glazes with my fingers.

NEATNESS ALERT!! - if you get this stuff on your fingers and in your fingernails it's a devil to get off! Also, if it ends up on your clothes or soft furnishings it's pretty much staying there, so watch out!!

Splodgy, splodgy, faffy, faffy.

See the pretty lovelies? Ooooo I does likes me Glazes....YUM!

So - having made a mermaid shape I decided to further faff, seeing how much shade or depth I could add ONLY with glaze and ONLY with the brushes provided and now already mucky, glazey fingers.

See how that chippy paper goes wrinkly? Actually works REALLY well when you paste it to a page or canvas....Anyway, I added glaze swirls, more splatters and some darker glaze colours. The shades are all pretty clean and vibrant, and they don't really 'muddy' if they mix, which is nice. I added a bit of guideline definition with a gel pen.

At this point I thought I'd finish her and pop her in an art journal - as reference apart from anything else! I added definition with Uni Ball Signo Gel Impact pens, outlining her basic shape and hair in black, with white gel pen to add further detail. The The only other medium used was a blue Derwent Art Bar for her eyes, and for the 'sea' background, which was painted over entirely and then dabbed with a piece of kitchen roll to mop up the excess from the glazed areas, which acted as a superb resist and retained their true colour excellently well! I did give the mermaid a quick spray of lacquer to ensure the gel pen ink stayed in place once it was dry. It's worth remembering that the glaze base allows you to rectify a multiplicity of mistakes as it creates a basically wipe-clean surface. Test products yourself to see which media this works with.

Mermaid finished -

...Can't decide - is she sultry? Smug? Bored? Hey - that's how she turned out.... So - see how the glaze gives a GORGEOUS shine and shimmer? It's REALLY pretty and ideal for highlighting specific parts of your design. Here's some detail:

You might just be able to make out a little blue glitter on her tail from the Glimmer Glam....portentiously called "Mermaid". Once she was done (and was staring at me somwhat judgementally!) I glued her into one of my art journals with the glory that is Mod Podge and added some 7 Gypsies rub-ons and a couple of collage images for a bit of detail and journallyness:

....and voila! Bob's your auntie's live-in lover! One journaled mermaid.

I'm really glad I finished my moody mermaid, a) because it created a chance for me to tell you about the Glam/Glaze products which I find so useful and b) because it ALSO affords the opportunity to remind you that art doesn't always have to start off as a well-defined project, you can ceate something almost from nothing...so the next time you doodle or test some new product, try and figure out a way of making something from it that pleases you. Challenge is good for the creative brain - it sparks inventiveness and enthusiasm. Without that we would all just sit in front of a canvas or sketch book and just STARE at it through a fog of frustration and doubt. Go for it. BE SPONTANEOUS! Make sand sculptures on the beach...a doodle on your work pad...ANYTHING, but don't just throw it away - make something from it, "a hat, a brooch, a pterodactyl" (to paraphrase Airplane!), photograph it and journal it...however you choose to record your creative side. It will act as a handy stepping stone to your next project. 

I hope this has been useful. If you want to check out Tattered Angels products you can find them here:

For anyone who's concerned - I'm not PAID by them in any way to endorse their products. They don't know I exist!! I will ONLY recommend products that I've tried and tested and will only give an honest account of my experiences.   ....That sounds like I'll blog something like "The Day Mod Podge And I Climbed Mount Everest!"...... but you know what I mean.

So I'll be back soon with part two of that 'What's In A Journal' post - if you like mermaids then it's one for you. Solidarity, mermaid obsessives, solidarity. Peace out....as is the popular phrase! MWAH! - Shroo:)