Clean Grunge and Wabi Sabi.

Clean Grunge and Wabi Sabi.

Hi there

Thanks for popping in. Want to shine a little light on the new and very arty grunge stamps I shall be showcasing on The Craftstore TV this coming Friday at 9am and 1pm. There are so many fabulous elements in these sets! You don’t realise until you start playing with them. Lucy, one of our clever in-house artists, designed these beauties. She’s definitely got the eye for what works well!

And we will also be launching new backdrop stamps : The Heart and the Oval.

Here is one of the demos I have prepped for Friday. It uses both the new grunge stamps and the backdrop stamps…

The sticker stamps which are included in the new sets blow me away. You would really think that I have used a sticker here, wouldn’t you? Magic.

So join me at 9am on Friday in the CraftStore.com (was Hochanda) and let me show you how this grungy artcard was made. Looks like I cut and mounted several layers, right? Nope. Did I have to use masks? Nope. All on one layer. Flat as a pancake. In fact, piece-a-cake!

I do love that kind of distressed, grungy art. These stamps make it very achievable, but without all the mess. Paul calls my kind of card-art Clean Grunge. A splendid contradiction in terms. An oxymoron if ever I heard one! (I can hear Paul now, saying, “Oi! Who are you calling a moron?!”

Time to go potter for an hour. I’ve got several things in process, and ought to do some finishing. It’s all very well throwing and building, but you do have to stay on top of clay projects. There’s quite some discipline required actually. And it all takes time.

I’ve also got a repair job to do. One of my pots from Raku on Saturday had a massive crack in it. And whilst Raku is supposed to crack, there’s crack, and then there’s C R A C K. So I took the bull by the horns and decided to help it by breaking it completely. Gulp.

This evening I shall perform Kintsugi on it, also known as Golden repair.

The philosophy behind kintsugi is to value an object’s beauty as well as its imperfections, focusing on them equally as something to celebrate, not disguise

So I shall rejoin the pieces using gold paste and glue, and turn it into a more beautiful whole again, complete WITH imperfection.

You see? Even my pottery is grungy! It’s a Wabi-Sabi kindathing!

Love always,

Barb xxx

13 thoughts on “Clean Grunge and Wabi Sabi.

  1. Oh, no. I feel another shopping trip coming on and I won’t even need to leave the house! Not sure when I did that last! Lol. I like clean grunge but I love those background stamps. If I stuck that pot together, it would look as if I had stuck it together but your pot will look amazing, I bet! The join will be a work of art in itself! I had just written to have a great weekend but we’re not there yet!! Just as well I don’t need to go for an assessment at the moment! I’d fail as soon as they asked me what day it was!! Lol. Take care. Lots of love. Hxx

  2. Oh dear I am going to want those new stamps and I can’t wait to see your Kintsugi pot! It’s such a beautiful and wonderful technique x

  3. I know I can’t afford all the stamps but won’t be able to resist having some, but which? The oval background is a must for me and there’s something I favour about the happy plate. But that now a lot can change especially when I watch your demos.
    Wabi sabi seems a good concept for all things in life.

  4. I do like the new stamps but will have to limit myself to a couple to start with, so I’m looking forward to the demos on Friday to help me decide (probably will make me even more confused how to choose just two!) . I still can’t get used to calling Hochanda by it’s new name. I find it rather ordinary whereas Hochanda stood out, but I understand that new customers will find it more understandable. I’ve seen pots repeaired with the gold paste and they look fantastic -better than plain in most cases. I hope you’ll show us when you’ve mended your lovely pot. The inner colour is wonderful and the gold will go with inside and outside. Does it also show inside ?

  5. Looking forward to seeing you create some wonderful samples on Friday. I’m sure your pot will be beautiful after it’s repair – par of the learning curve. xx

  6. That was definitely a crack – I hope you enjoy the process of repair. It will be even better when it is complete. I do so like the colour.
    I am not sure how much I can watch on Friday as I am on duty for school runs. Thank goodness for rewind.

  7. Oh Barbara, I had made up my mind not to spend any more money this week/month but it looks like those background stamps will fall into my basket. I am not really into grunge albeit clean or scruffy but I do like to see what you do with it. Will have to watch on catchup as I am going for my first hair cut since December 2019. Yippee!!! I have never had hair this long in my life (it grows like a weed) and it is a pain to look after and gets in the way.
    Your poor broken pot will look great with a golden repair as it will complement those lovely colours. To quote Bob Ross “there are no mistakes just happy accidents” and I am sure this accident will turn out fine.
    Will miss you in the Shac shack next week but you gotta do what you gotta do. Hope all goes well.
    Stay safe.🍒

  8. Wow what a beautiful break in your pot, so crisp and clean you will have to show it off when you’ve worked you magic on it! I’m so in love with its colour my fav! Happy shows to look forward to Friday. I will be watching. 😍Have a lovely week off relax and have a bit of Barb time doing what you love. We all need a bit or RnR sometimes and you certainly deserve it. Thank you for my trip back home to Kent, it surely is the Garden of England.Lots of love and hugs. T.x

  9. am sorely tempted by those new stamps, but think it will have to wait a little while to let my funds recover! Really looking forward to seeing how your kintsugi pot turns out – I love the effect that’s achieved with the gold in the cracks. It always reminds me of Leonard Cohen’s lyrics – ‘there’s a crack in everything, that’s where the light gets in’

  10. I am really looking forward to Friday’s shows. Use my backdrop stamps all the time. Love the effect. Your pot is fab and will look great with the Kintsukgi effect. Raku and Kintsugi go so well together. I have a raku plaque which shattered. Stuck it together with pva glue and it has been on a garden wall for 15 years. Good luck and please show the finished pot.

  11. Hello Barb, Oooh new stamps and especially new background stamps, love them all, but it will become a bit of a priority order as to which I get first. Will have to record the shows, as have a really busy day at work on Friday. Can’t wait to watch what you show us though. Also cannot wait to see how you fix that piece of Raku pottery, saw a 5minute hack on you tube the other day. Take care and stay safe everyone. Bx

  12. Fabulous stamps will look forward to watching you work with them xx
    I have seen the golden repairs done before and they do look special and add some history to the item good luck with it
    Enjoy your time off ( although not really off ) see you in a week xx

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