Pausing The Past

Ok ... this one has my soul invested in it

Clearing the loft at daddy's we found the old tape recorder

not that I had ever forgotten it

I have had the smell of it in my head forever

and can clearly hear a little bit of our voices recorded on it

smells and sounds that have never left me

There is still a faint whiff of the smell there

but I did not want to hear the voices again

I know my voice is there but didn't want to risk hearing the voices of  
mommy & daddy

so I have used the tapes as they are - without playing them 

Pausing the Past .... get it ?

Huge dilemma about what to do with the machine

put it in our loft for the boys to deal with eventually?

send it to the charity shop where it would become just another item selling for a few pounds?

I couldn't bear to do that so took a deep breath and decided to make it into art and so preserve it

for my lifetime anyway

So here it is - a very fond memory from my childhood

I used just the top deck part and as many bits from inside as I could -but had to add some extra cogs as it was looking a bit bare

Then, of course, you paint it all black

I used only Finnabair's waxes for the colour and then dry-brushed the highlights with her acrylic paint

One slight change of mind along the way

painted the tape from it's original brown colour to black

didn't like it

so peeled some off the reels to paint it red

didn't like that either

so repainted it gold ... so now it looks like the original brown again

but with a bit of sparkle!

And then I finally felt it was finished ... know when to stop!

Very much The Past ... Paused

Stuff used:

Heavy Body Gel

Art Basics Heavy Black Gesso

Art Alchemy Opal Magic Wax : Green Brocade / Vintage Silk / Blue Velvet / Turquoise Satin

Art Alchemy Antique Brilliance Wax : Red Amber / Mystic Turquoise

Art Alchemy Acrylic Paint : Metallique Steampunk Copper / Ancient Coin