Carey Burns

So this piece is 'done' but I'm just not in love with the nails on the top. I think they should be rusty and taller. Might be rooting through the nail jar this weekend... Wrath started with the vintage Japanese bisque doll. I thought the little fella was holding two machetes in front of him (honest mistake!) so he became my Wrath. After researching the figure, he's holding an airplane, which is funny, because I had selected the war planes to be in my background. Maybe my subconscious mind knew it was really a plane? Speaking of planes, I found these plastic toys at an antique shop and snatched them up. I knew they'd look great with a coat of rust and some paint. The antique cheese box was painted red and had some great staining so I cleaned it up and cleaned the planes too. Once the planes were nice and rusty, I glued them to the back of the box. They're odd sizes so it was a bit of a dance to get them to fit. When I added the doll, ...

March is here and I'm hoping that means spring is just about here. I'm tired of being cold all the time! I sure do miss those warm Arizona days ... and the smell of orange blossoms. Right now, I've got three projects going on my work table and am really enjoying my progress and the process. 'Secondhand Angel' is a broken bisque doll with brass wings, a monocle frame for a halo and a brass candle holder as a base. She's the antithesis of my ' Handsome Devil ' and I love her for her simplicity. 'Pride' is another of my 'Seven Deadly Sins' pieces and he's a wee bisque doll who wears a base metal crown to show his importance but he isn't big enough to fit his ornate pedestal, a brass vase. He's done, except for maybe a clear coat of paint. The last is an untitled piece and it's another Halloween clock assemblage. This one will feature an unconventional seating arrangement ... I don...

It's taken a bit of time, but I finally completed Lust my first Seven Deadly Sins assemblage. I started this project back in September and kind of stalled out after I had torn the Titian artwork and bits of inspiration hit and missed. I had used Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Walnut Stain to color the edges of the paper and then glued it in place with Ranger Glossy Accents.  First, I added some Aves Apoxie Clay as a base and added some Tim Holtz Heirloom Roses into the clay. After it cured, I colored the whole shebang with Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink in Poppy Field.  It took weeks and several scouting trips to antique stores to find a simple all-white vintage handkerchief but I finally found one! I cut it down to size and aged it by getting the fabric wet and adding drops of Tim Holtz Distress ink in Antique Linen. I used my heat tool to dry the fabric and then wrapped the toga around the doll. To keep it in place, I added a bit of Glossy Accents. I had a bit of unused gold-to...

Now that my wreath is complete and my Halloween cards are done, I can get back to those pesky Seven Deadly Sins! I rooted through my bin of odds and ends and found a rusty old drawer. It will be perfect for a little backdrop for the sin of Lust. The bisque doll to represent Lust has a sassy bow in her hair and I'm going to add a wash of red paint to it and maybe paint her mouth. I'm thinking either a pale blue was of paint on her body or just painting a black stripe over her eyes. She'll have a very shabby fabric toga of some sort eventually as well. I pondered a background and remembered an old, musty art book that I found at a book sale years ago. I flipped through the pages and found a page with "Bacchus and Ariadne" by Titian. I loved the weathered look of the paper and darkness of the image so I eyeballed the page and tore it. I dry-fitted it into the drawer with the bisque doll and it is fantastic! Next up is aging the torn edges and deciding i...

Since I completed my Creepy Charlottes, I'm moving back to some assemblage pieces with one bisque doll representing one of the Seven Deadly Sins. I've been picking up these bisque dolls for a while because when rusted, they become mighty creepy! These dolls have been rusted with Modern Options Sophisticated Finishes and I added a wash of white paint to them. Next up, I'll be figuring out a wash of color for each and putting the dolls in vintage wooden boxes or on some sort of stand. I hope you'll stick around to watch the progress unfold! Lust Pride Sloth Wrath Envy Gluttony Greed