Steampunk Willow

The Artistic Outpost October Referral Challenge inspired me to do this project: the Steampunk Willow.

 

A look at it from the back.

As I love working with wire AND steampunk AND things being shown under a bell jar, I enter Simon Says Stamp and Show's "Your Favorite" challenge again with this project. ;)

Well, I know the "Whomping Willow" from Harry Potter,and its' true nature is obviously a mugwump's and a rogue's. My Steampunk willow's nature is one of tenderness and playfulness. When freed from the bell jar it will wait for the wind to play gently with all those "passengers" attached to its' branches.

This time it was really hard to take good pictures because of artificial light reflecting from the bell jar. But I finally managed to show you some pictures with bell jar and many more without.

All of the stamps used for this project are from http://www.artisticoutpost.com/ - the "French Flight" stamp set was a must-have for me, as I sooo love "L 'homme Aille" or the wonderful balloon driver. Well, to be honest - I love the whole stamp set and the "Anything Goes" challenge was just perfect to use them all!!!!

Inks used were Archival ink "sepia" and "Celadon" from Encore.
For the base I also used Frantage "aged copper embossing enamel".

The willow is made of five pieces of black matt wire, which I entwined around themselves, just leaving the ends and the beginnings to form roots (to give the tree a base to stand on, which I hid under the corrugated card platform) and branches with hooks for the single images.

The three men are the spectators who have to stay on the ground. ;)

The images were stamped in "sepia" and the edges blended with "vintage photo" first and after distressing the edges I gave them a finish with "celadon", which I applied with a rough kitchen sponge piece.

The tiny gears were attached with transparent crafting glue, which dries very quickly, so they stay in various angles after holding them for a few secs only.

I also added some embossing enamel to the branches, to give them a worn patina look.

For the bell jar I made a thin banner running around the base with the "Creme de la Creme" quote from the stamp set. And the backsides of the hanging images were covered with the script stamp from the same set, to add some texture.

Here some more close-ups:

Hope, you like it.
Hugs,

die amelie xxx