Darkroom Door Archives - Mixed Media Art

This week we have Rachel Greig from Darkroom Door to tell us about her meanderings into mixed media art.

Take it away, Rachel…

Hi! My name is Rachel Greig, I am a photographer, mixed media artist and proud owner and designer of Darkroom Door, a rubber stamp company based in Australia.

My journey into the craft world began in the 90’s when I was at university studying for my Bachelor of Visual Art degree. This course covered many different visual art mediums, including book binding, sculpture, printmaking and fibre arts. Photography was my major subject and after I graduated I began my career as a professional photographer. During this time I began using rubber stamps to create handmade cards and it wasn’t long before I started thinking about using my own photos to design my own range of rubber stamps. At first I licensed the designs out for other rubber stamp companies to manufacture. A few years later, my husband and I started decided to start our own rubber stamp company called Darkroom Door. The name is inspired by my love of photography and many many years spent in black and white darkrooms!

I’ve always loved mixed media, whether its in an art journal or on canvas or other surfaces. Rubber stamps feature heavily in my artwork. I love creating textures using rubber stamps and paints.

This butterfly canvas was created using Viva Décor Ferro texture paste and Darkroom Door rubber stamps. Ferro is a metallic paste that looks amazing when stamped into to create texture. Once it’s dry, I use Precious Metal Colour to highlight the texture. It’s a wonderful combination!

I’m fortunate to be able to travel around the world to teach workshops in mixed media and rubber stamping. I love meeting other artists, sharing ideas and making new friends!

I live near the beach with my husband and business partner Stewart, our two children Ethan (12 years) and Zoe (9 years), along with Sally our cute puppy dog, our pet guinea pigs and birds.

Blog: http://www.rachelgreig.typepad.com/

Darkroom Door

Website: http://www.darkroomdoor.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darkroomdoor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/darkroom_door

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/darkroomdoor/

Flickr Group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/darkroomdoor/

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/rachelgreig
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Jewellery Elements Project; Wall Hanging

This article is written by Michelle Brown

Over the last few weeks we have covered the tools and skills you need to add jewellery elements to your Mixed Media Artwork. Here we bring all of those together to create this wall hanging.

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Materials you will need:

Background card, decorated to suit theme
Eyelets (15)
Jump rings (19)
Chain (20cm / 8″)
Head pins (5)
Beads
Ephemera, tags and images to decorate

Tools you will need:

Ruler & pencil
Stamps & ink
Hole punch & Hammer with mat
Eyelet setter
Pliers – flat nosed and pointy nosed
PVA glue
Inking sponge and brush

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1. Cut three panels of your decorated card (12cm x 9cm or 4 3/4″ x 3 1/2″). Put them in order and lightly number them 1, 2 & 3 in pencil; this will help keep them in order.

2. Lightly mark where the eyelets will go. As they need to be in pairs, I have marked them that way. The exact location will depend on the size of your eyelets and jump rings. Here I can in 2cm from the outer edge and up 0.5cm.

Across the bottom where the beads will be attached, mark 5 places; one in the middle, in 2cm from each side and in 4cm from each side

3. Punch holes using a punch and hammer or crop-o-dile

Set eyelets, taking your time. Put the three panels back into order when finished.

4. I decided to join the panel together before adding the ephemera and images. You can do it either way.

To join the panel together we need three jump rings; an odd number is needed to make sure both panels will sit parallel, as each ring will sit at 90 degrees

5. Insert the jump rings into the eyelets, in both sides of the two panels

6. Take two panels, back to back to insert the third jump ring.

Check it will sit neatly before closing it up and that you haven’t got the rings twisted. Close up jump with with pliers

Now we have the two panels joined.

Repeat with other eyelets pairs

7. Add chain arose the top of the hanging, using two jump rings to attach the chain to the eyelets

8. Now we can attached the beads across the bottom.

Prepare your beads on the headpins as shown previously. This is fiddly and frustrating, so make sure you have a few extra head pins in case you need to start again.

9. Attach the beads on headpins to the bottom panel with jump rings

10. The base of your wall hanging is complete. Now you can decorate it with ephemera, tags, stamping and images.

Here I have used:

Ephemera – music, book page and dress pattern tissue
Images from the Venetian Montage by Darkroom Door
Stamps to compliment my Venetian theme by Collections & Venezia plate by Oxford Impressions
Inks – Archival Sepia & Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Frayed Burlap

Sepia ink was used to stamp manilla tag and edge the music and book page.