What Is On Your Work Desk Wednesday (WOYWW) - RUST!

Yep, I have a rusty desk today, well to be honest I have had a rusty desk for the last few days as I'm rusting a few things in batches.

I thought it would make a good WOYWW so don't forget to pop on over to Julia's blog to join in the fun!

If you want to know how I do it then read on, if not than just whiz on down to the comments to say WOYWW 'Hi'.

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A couple of folks asked how I do my rusting after posting this make from last week:

I've rusted the fabric - the key was an already rusted find.

If any of you have seen my 'The Machinist' make in the September 2011 issue of the Craft Stamper you would have spotted a clue as to how I rust stuff but here are some more details...

You will need:

Rusting Powder 

White vinegar

Water

Things to rust

Bowl/tray/old newpaper/plastic sheets

Glue stick/Acrylic wax (Optional)

I set myself up a space to rust and layer up some plastic sheets and newspaper to protect the surface of my desk or tray or whatever you are rusting in/on - this is going to be messy!

Fabric - If you are rusting fabric give it a soak in a solution made from one part water - a little bit more than one part white vinegar. You can happily use 100% vinegar but I'm a cheap skate!  The more evenly saturated the fabric the more even the rust covering will be so if you want some areas more rusted than others experiment with the length of time you saturate the fabrics, where you put the rusting powder or only saturate parts of the fabric. You can play with rubber bands wrapped roughly around the fabric to get 'tie-dye' like patterns too.

Sprinkle on the rusting powder and allow the rust to develop as the fabric dries.

TIP - I also add bits of metal or previously rusted items to my rusting and rust layers of soaked fabrics in a bundle. You get some interesting intensities and patterns. If you are lucky you might have a bit of copper in the metal and you will get some lovely greens developing too. You can keep adding soaked fabric to the original rusted fabric to rust more pieces, you might need to add a little more vinegar solution each time. 

When you are finished let the fabric dry completely and then brush off the rusty bits you no longer want.

Card/Paper - There are a couple of ways of rusting card and paper. I often cover bits of the paper and card with a glue stick and add the powder to the glue then sprinkle with the vinegar solution. Let the rust develop as the card/paper dries.

You can then use this piece as a base to rust other card or paper by soaking a new piece of card/paper in the vinegar solution and layering it on top of the original rusted piece and let it dry again.

Plastic - You can rust all sorts of things and I have had fun rusting non-rustable items such as plastic buttons or metal that won't rust etc. Add glue stick to the plastic to be rusted, sprinkle on the rusting powder and some vinegar solution and let it dry. If you are worried the rust will fall off then seal the object with a little bit of gel medium or a layer of polymer medium which dries clear. I think this is where the acrylic wax comes in to it's own, but as I don't have any I use the glue stick and a sealant!

Heavy gel medium is great for attaching the heavy rusted elements to your work, I've been using the one from Golden.

So you can use your rusted items in your work such as with these rusted cogs in this altered sardine tin make:

Or use your fabric to stamp on and stitch into:

Yumsk!

Have fun with this one and I would love to see what you do with it, so don't forget to leave a link to any makes.

Kim

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