Plaster Craft Reindeer by Little Miss Celebration
Happy Friday, everyone! Welcome to Emme’s Flashback Fridays, where we revisit, refashion or re-love (don’t think this is actually a word, but it conveys my meaning perfectly!) great crafts, recipes, traditions, beauty tips and more from our past! Today, I’m sharing a holiday craft flashback inspiration – Plaster Craft!
If you think back, you probably have had stages in your life where you had your “thing” – be it clothes, decorating, crafts – this is, until something else came along and grabbed your attention! Creatively, I have had a lot of “stages!” It wasn’t until I starting unpacking the (many) bins of holiday decorations that I flashed back to my Plaster Craft stage and knew I wanted to share this with you!
Many years ago, (more than I want to admit!) I lived in a neighborhood that had a lovely craft store totally devoted to Plaster Craft. A wonderful husband and wife team owned the store, taught painting classes and encouraged customers to develop their creativity. I decided to try a class and it wasn’t long before I was completely smitten with painting and Plaster Craft! Many happy hours on Saturdays were spent painting away and it was not long before I had more painted items than places to put them! Everyone in my family probably has at least one reindeer!
The top of the music box winds up and rotates.
Plaster Craft is exactly what the name suggests! Items made from plaster. Unlike porcelain or bisque, the painted items do not need to be fired, but simply finished with an acrylic spray coating. Any rough areas of the plaster piece are first sanded and smoothed, and a base coating is applied. Permanent, acrylic paints are used, as well as many of the same techniques used in other types of decorative painting, such as dry brushing. I also used a lot of chalks to give depth to the “quilted” look of the reindeer and sleigh.
No surprise, during my Plaster Craft stage, I painted a lot of Christmas items! Every year, when I unpack the holiday décor and see the sweet little face of the reindeer, the funny “reindeer pieces” candy holder or the bursting-with-personality penguin, I’m reminded of how much I loved painting Plaster Craft and vow to start again. Then…the holiday decorations get packed up and I forget about it until the next year.
I actually think that craft store, so much a part of my life during the “painting” stage, is still there. Perhaps I will revisit it someday!
Your local craft stores often carry plaster, and I have found a number of online sources for great, plaster pieces. Maybe we can do a piece together in 2013!
Any Christmas craft you make today will be a special, cherished flashback for you or someone you love at some future Christmas. Which of these Christmas pieces is your favorite?
Thanks to those of you who emailed me with great holiday flashbacks! I want to hear more!!
Whether it is a craft, a recipe, a tradition, (an ugly Christmas sweater?!) or something else, what will create a flashback for you this holiday season? What is your most cherished holiday flashback?
