Squidoo is now a piece of S*%$%t!

I have been writting on squidoo for nearly 15 months. I like to write about the tools and  techniques I use in my art.  I was only getting $2 monthly but I only had got up to 70 lenses.  It was something I believed that if I just wrote 200 or 300 more lenses, I could get a decent part time check.  Recently, that all changed.  They announced they will be scanning lenses for spam and keyword stuffing.  At first I said that is a good idea.  That was until they l locked down 8 of my perfectly OK lenses for NO REASON!  I saw the writing on the wall and knew that I will be  spending much more time editing than writing new content. Therefore I will be stuck making $2 FOREVER!  Not going to happen.  My content will just have to sit and rot in cyberspace.  I did the same with Hubpages.  I am just waiting until next year when my earnings reach $50 which is their
minimum payout. I will delete all the hubs and save the good stuff  on my external hard drive. I just have to vent but I needed to face reality that it was never going work out.

Update:  Over the years it just came to my realization that it’s only good if you generate your own content and own it!  Not subsidizing it so some entity can earn the spoils from your well researched work.  After I moved content to Hubpages I eventually reached a steady passive income of $100 but that would last.  Fast forward a few years and now I’m make less than a $1 a month!  I’m moving content to my personal blog! Better to use it to direct traffic to my shop!

Coming Out of the Blue: Acrylic Skins

Just found this wonderful blog about acrylic skins.  The artist here likes to weave the skins.  Really, there is no end to what you can do with acrylic paint skins.



Coming Out of the Blue: Acrylic Skins

Acrylic Paint Skins on Glass Substrate

 

Getting Ready to Make Acrylic Skins

 

When you are using a piece of glass as a non-stick surface to create acrylic paint skins, you need just a few supplies.  Obviously, you will need some acrylic paints and a medium.  You will need a glass plate and some tools to apply and smooth the paint.  I found a clear glass panel by a dumpster and cleaned it with some hot water and a little Dawn dish soap followed by denatured alcohol so it would be spotless.  I picked up this set of spackling knives at Walmart for $1.97:

 

 

 

 

 

The smallest one is great for getting paint out the jars and dispensing on the glass.

 

 

 

While the larger one is best for smoothing and smearing the paint colors together

 







Another way to approach this would be to spread your medium or main paint color out on the glass  and then decorate the top with various paints.  That is basically what I did in the photos below.

 

Modern Table Top Sculpture

Modern Table Sculpture

Table Sculpture at is finest.



I had some odd bits of metal and decided it was time to upcycle them into a new work of art. The steel balls where kind of hard to weld to the rods with out a support jig but they turned out OK.  I also have a couple pieces of perforated metal with some dimensional qualities to it.  It is probably stair type tread material.  I cut a small triangle of this material to make an accent that will be a main focal point. 

 

As you can well imagine, this accent piece was just screaming at me for metallic paint.  With a touch of copper paint it came out great!  This scukpture is available in my Etsy shop.



 





 

Interference Acrylic Paints Add Iridescence

Interference Acrylics

 

 

Interference paints are paints based on mica pigments where the mica platelets are coated with titanium dioxide of various thickness.  The  colors produced depend on the thickness of this coating.  The paint appears white with a pearlescence of the hue as seen below.  For this reason, the iridescent colors show up best against a black or dark base coat.

 

 

The iridescence is very hard to photograph.  Trust me it is there though.  I was originally only aware of interference acrylic paints being offered by Golden paints.  A little pricey for a beginner trying to learn.  So I resorted to using cosmetic grade interference pigments mixed with mediums and metallic paints.  Recently though, I have discovered two vendors online that sell mural paints,   Nova Color Paints and Innovative Acrylics.  As far as I can tell, these are durable paints with substantial pigment loads at a price thats only a little higher than student grade acrylics.  More importantly, both vendors have a line of interference colors.

 



 



Mixing Interference Acrylics With Metallic Acrylics

 

One activity I like to engage in with interence paints is to mix them with metallic acrylics.  This seems to add more of a pearlescent sheen to metallics.  Whats more is that ,especially if a dark color, the interference paint can significantly alter the shade or even the hue of the metallic paint.  So, If you are making blue-violet metallic and add to much blue then adding interference violet can reverse this somewhat while dramatically adding depth to the paint mix in question.  Below is an example of a sculpture that I used this technique on.  I like to refer to it as Cosmic Perspective.

 



Pyrrole Red

 

 

Pyrrole Red

 

 

Pyrrole red is a recent development in artist pigment courtesy of the researchers from the automotive industry.  They need a bright, warm, and lightfast red that did not depend on highly toxic cadmium based pigments.  Pyrrole red is an organic pigment that was developed and used for expensive sports cars like Ferrari.  It is lightfast and has a orange shade to it.  For more information about this bold red, consult this comprehensive squidoo article

 

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Pyrrole red on 3D art

 

One way to appreciate pyrrole red is to see it in 3D.  More specifically, this dimensional geometric sculpture made from 1/4" square steel bar will do nicely. The simple yet sophicated design is so much more bold with the firery red of pyrrole red.

 

 

Stainless Steel Shield

Stainless Steel art

 

I had some 3/8 inch round stainless round and I wanted to incorporate it into sculpture.  I have also wanted to make a wall mounted shield for a long time.  Then, in a moment of sporadic inspiration, I put it all together.  I decided to "hammer out" the details on some 16 gauge steel that I cut in the shape of a shield.  This shield was measured out from a shield shaped frame made from the stainless steel rod.  I welded in some mild steel crossbars to make mounting and welding the shield to the frame easier.  I then primed and painted the shield in an iridescent finish that accentuates the dimensional quality of the sculpture. The dimensional arc welded shield comes with two mounting fixtures built in and it is signed and dates.



Stainless Steel In Metal Art

 Mid century sculpture with stainless steel accents

Sometime in July 2011, I encountered some stainless steel stick welding electrodes on ebay.  They where at a price I could not pass up so i bought them.  I had purchase (4) 5 pound cans of electrodes total for $100!  Normally, stainless steel electrodes would be $90 for 10 pounds.  Two of the cans where E308-15 which means they are for welding stainless to stainless and are DC+.  As an experiment, I decided to weld some strips of 304 stainless together until I had square frames.  I was impressed how well the electrodes worked.  I left the squares sit for six months until I had an idea.  After aquiring two oval pieces I imagined a small yet very interesting mid century space age sculpture come to mind.  The photo above shows how my idea came to life.

Abstract Stainless Tree

The most appealing aspect of stainless steel is its natural silver color.  It makes for elegant contrast with painted metal.  In the composition featured in the photos "Tree of Knowledge"