Coastal Bohemian: Rusty Metal Art #Starfish #DollarTree

Patina Patina Patina. I love Rust. I love the rusty, old, vintage look of statues and crusty metal and if you like it too you'll be able to recreate a piece of rusty metal art. Just keep reading.

I started with this starfish from the #dollartree and some junk and old jewelry and old metal odds and ends from around the studio. #destash

Using a hot glue gun I get everything attached . This is really a very free style, of puzzling things together, meaning there is no laying out of the goodies. It's glue and go and eventually everything pretty much works it's way into the art. Trust yourself to create this way. It's very freeing.

Once everyone is stuck, I give the entire piece a coat of Gesso. This will act as a primer for my paints.

Give the entire piece a coat of brown paint . After the piece is coated, create a little batch of brown paint mixed with some sawdust .

Need sawdust you say? Home Depot and Lowes should have some laying around in their cutting area. Bring a container!

Use this textured paint to add a rusty faux finish to the metal in the artwork.

Next coat, is a drippy, bit of orange paint. Just add a few drops of water to create a free flowing version of your orange paint. We are wanting to create the look of how water would run down a piece and start to oxidize the metal. Now, you can get that paint on there using a a paint brush and then hit it with a spray of water to get it dripping down the starfish.

Repeat this process with the black paint.
Repeat the process with the verdigre aka know as aqua colored paint.

Here's the video.
And then it's complete. I think the #DollarTree has different shapes that you can choose from including a pineapple, so you can tweak this project to your own tastes.

Thanks for reading along and stop by and visit more #dollarstore craft ideas by visiting