A Shrine to Rust

A competition and fundraiser for Hospice, to decorate a mannequin in whatever way you want, inspired me to make "Our Lady of the Divine Rusty Junk".

Our Lady of the Divine Rusty Junk

The body has been rusted using the technique outlined here. The elements used to embellish her were all salvaged from the Hospice rubbish pile. One man's trash ....... as Macklemore says......

Our Lady is rife with symbolism of fertility and re-birth. She is a shrine to honour the beauty that can be found in aging and decay. Rust is a beautiful mark that time leaves behind, a symbol of a good life. The repurposed junk reminds us that 'useless' is a subjective term and that everything continues to have value.

The mannequins are on display at a local shop window, and people are invited to vote. Then they will go to auction and all proceeds donated to the local hospice. Where I work. Another example of recycling I guess. 

When I made her, I had trouble getting the rust to stick to the mannequin. In the end, I painted her with gesso mixed with binder medium, then a second coat of gesso, then the rusting chemical. Finally I sprayed it with fixative spray.

 I'm not a catholic but I love the iconography of catholicism. The virgin Mary is a favourite of mine.

Not all Mums would spend their weekends drilling holes in boobs, my daughter says that's because I'm wacky, not like the other Mums. Thank goodness for that.

Going insane about rust...

Today I had the privilege of learning a rusting technique from one of my creative book artist colleagues, Zona. The results were amazing and I'm sure I will be doing this again and again on different mediums to incorporate into my book making and mixed media shrines.

To do this rusting you need 3 spray bottles. The size of the bottle, and hence the nozzle, makes a difference to the result so it pays to experiment. First bottle - a concentrated solution made of tea, we used regular gumboot but I will be experimenting with herbal teas later. Second bottle - solution of ferrous sulphate. Third bottle - weak solution of caustic soda. The second two ingredients come from the hardware store, those blokes at Mitre 10 will be looking at me sideways yet again..... "what, a woman wants to buy men's stuff???".

Peg your paper on a rack over the lawn, or surface where drips don't matter. Spray your paper with each of these solutions, starting with the tea, following with the ferrous and lastly the caustic. Don't wait for the layers to dry, drips running down the paper adds to the effect. Drips are your friend. If after the first go your paper isn't quite what you want, then keep going with layers of each solution until you have something gobsmackingly fabulous. Once the paper is dry you can rinse it with plain water to remove the caustic.

Experiment with different papers, we found that the cheap ungessoed book cloth absorbed the liquids better than the one with gesso. Papers that are coloured or printed give wonderful results.

Thank you Zona for sharing your amazing knowledge. Days like this bring nourishment to the soul.