"Moustache Metal" - by Claudia

"We all know Heavy Metal but what on earth is Moustache Metal ?" I hear you ask...


...well, it is without any doubt the kind of metal that steampunk moustaches are made of!

In my case the whole face is made of "metal" to be precise (but I like the moustache most), so let me introduce you to Mr.....erm....honestly I haven't come up with a satisfying name yet...maybe you have an idea for the perfect name of my Metal Moustache Mister on this tag.


Calico Craft Parts used:

- Window MDF Wood Shape - Style 19 - large
- Steampunk Mechanical Clockworks Motif Style 12 - medium
- Pipework Maze MDF Craft Parts
- Sheet of Mini MDF Wood Cogs - Style 11


I love corrugated card and as my wonderful boss, Helen, always uses it to safely wrap my Calico Craft Parts I always have some at hand. And when you use black paint and metal paints or pastes on it it almost looks like corrugated metal (yay! I love that effect!).

So I started with gluing a piece of corrugated card to a flat piece of heavy card for more sturdiness. Then I browsed my stash of Calico Steampunk Parts to form the face. The beautiful Clockworks part that looks like mechanical eyes behind a pair of goggles and with mechanical hair (or a hat) on top was what sparked my idea for a steampunk face in the first place. I also had some left overs from the great Pipework Maze sheet that made a perfect nose, mouth and moustache. And to form the cheekbone I used a small cog and cut it into halves.

I just needed something as the base shape of the whole face....and found one of Helen's awesome window shapes. That was IT!

I played around a little until I found the perfect spots for all the parts and then glued them in place using matte DecoArt Decou-Page.

At that point I was still going for a rectangle format as you can see (but - as I often do - hadn't completely thought it through yet).

Once the glue was dry I fetched my spray paint box (an old large shoe box) and gave everything a thorough coat of Carbon Black DecoArt media Mister acrylic paint (which is a lot faster and more effective if you aim for even coverage in spots where a brush may not reach - just make sure you spray the paint on from different angles).

The paint dries really quick. So I was able to continue after only a few minutes of drying time. I gathered (almost all of) my DecoArt Metallic Lustre pots.

I used my fingertips to add the Metallic Lustres and also used several tones on one piece (for example a lighter tone to the left of the nose to create the illusion of depth or a bit of shading around the eyes). I also added the same tones of Metallic Lustres to the corrugated card to fuse the face with the background.

At that point I found that my guy still looked too shiny, even and "new"...

... so I added some speckles of Carbon Black Mister for a bit of a worn look:

Much better!  But then I got stuck with deciding on how to finish the piece off....the rectangle format didn't "speak to me". So I put my project to the side for a while (which sometimes is the best thing to do when you get stuck, right?) and when I returned I knew I wanted to change my panel into a steampunk tag.

I created a little loop from a small cog that I covered with Copper Kettle Metallic Lustre before I glued it behind the tag.

"Moustache Metal" (I am an alliterations junkie....who would have guessed ;) ) was stamped onto a strip of white card, cut out and covered with a wash (!) of heavily diluted Champagne Ice Metallic Lustre (so the letters would still be visible but at certain angles were almost hidden behind the metal layer on top)

 Some twirled rusty wire was added to the loop on top...

...et voilá! 

I don't know why he looks so surprised, but he definitely must have spotted something very astounding or exciting (maybe you?)...

There are a lot more fantastic steampunk parts to find at the Calico Craft Parts store to build your own steampunk people with! And it was such fun! I hope you will have a lot of fun too and can't wait to see yours!

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx