Another OOPS!!

I found a beautiful image at The Sum of All Crafts (always very cool photos there) and, as I mentioned in my rambling post yesterday, decided I was going to try transfering it to beeswax.

Well, it didn't work (guess I could go pull out some of my art books and verify the instructions) but I ended up with this beautiful image. This is the back-side of the paper; after melting the wax, the picture printed on the other side came thru.

When I saw this beautiful, ethereal image I decided to do an art journal page, the first in a long time, about how in art and in life our mistakes lead to interesting discoveries, happiness and great achievements.

Using photographers' black-out tape and tiny staples, I attached her to the page. Then I painted around her with some metallic acrylic paint I was using in another project, added dots and words with Sharpies Poster Pens (they write on wax easily - actually they write on just about anything) and applied a little PanPastel to the edges. Finished off by writing OOPS! at the top with some of that glitter fabric paint that comes in a tiny squeeze bottle.

Here's to us all having great results whether they're the results we expect or not.
In our art.
In our lives.

linked to the beeswax challenge at LOTS TO DO

Hope

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

~ Emily Dickinson

I apparently can only come up with one word names for my art these days:

Hope, Rest, Peace.

I have another work in process that I almost named CREATE but decided to give it a longer name in order to break the habit. I'll show you that one in a few days.

Anyway, back to this piece, HOPE. Before I show you some of the various steps, I have to say I like this piece now - but at least twice in the process I messed something up and had to change direction entirely.

So, do you remember the boards I made in my Obscured Text Background How-To? Well this piece started with the music covered board in the upper left:


Then I added a CitraSolv page, gold paint and some lavender hand-made paper:


Next, some more paint:


Then I tried a photo transfer and it didn't work (at this point, I decided NOT to turn it in to the CitraSolv contest becuz I wouldn't finish in time & when I did, it wouldn't show any of the CitraSolv page):


More paint. Then I tried another image transfer - the bird and it worked. Next I added some spray paint (I did NOT get the look I was going for, probably becuz I'm too used to using spray paint on furniture, going for solid coverage):


I used colored pencil on the bird, added pattern tissue and wrote the first verse of the poem in pencil:


Then beeswax, pearl ex and melted crayon and here it is again completed:


It is so great to be creating again. Thank you for continuing to visit even tho I wasn't around much. I love blogland ~ Sherry

linked to the week 23 challenge at Lots To Do,
challenge #94 at Everybody Art-Challenge and
the June challenge at Alter It Monthly

Needing Spring

This has been the worst winter I can remember. Now that's not saying a lot cuz I've got that middle-aged-memory problem going on. But really, there has been way too much snow and ice. Not to mention the ugly gray skies. We humans require SUNLIGHT and it has been in short supply lately.

As a matter of fact, Tuesday when I got up and stumbled to the kitchen for a Diet Coke, I saw this purpley-pink line across the window and it actually took me awhile to realize it was the SUNRISE.

I hope it does a repeat performance today!

This is a piece I finished (?) late last month. I started this last summer (when there was LOTS of sunshine) with several different floral photos cut and adhered to a piece of MDF along with some tissue paper. I did a little bit of painting then packed it away looking like this: When I pulled it out last month it seemed just too flat and bright. The flowers were all so in focus that it didn't have any depth. So I added a wash of gray-blue paint over the background images. Next came some gold dots applied with tiny bubble wrap. Then some color on the edges and a great quote.Next came a print of a photo I took of gerber daisies and some pattern tissue that I applied with beeswax. OOPS!! That made the quote disappear and that just wouldn't do. So I incised it in the wax with the intention of rubbing color into the incisions. Well, I tried two different ways of trying that but it didn't work very well (I think my wax may not have been thick enough). And when I tried to remove the color, the piece got quite a bit darker. Guess I got rid of that "too bright" problem, huh? I'm looking for new ideas to get the quote to show up because it's a great one:

"and the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." - Anais Nin

Oh, I'm also looking for ideas on the title. Right now I'm calling it RISK BLOSSOMING from the quote but...

Thanks for stopping by - feel free to give me some ideas to make that quote more prominent ~ Sherry

linked to the beeswax challenge at LOTS TO DO

Peace

When peace, like a river,
attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot,
Thou has taught me to say,
It is well,
it is well,
with my soul.

- Horatio G. Spafford

A friend of mine is going thru something right now that is incredibly emotionally draining. I want her to experience the "peace that passes all understanding" and I really don't feel like I have the words to inspire that. So instead, I'm hoping this canvas will remind her that she's loved - not just by her family and friends, but by her savior.


I started by covering the canvas board in a dictionary page (the old dictionary was given to me by her). I removed part of the page with masking tape, a technique I learned from Beverly Seymour several years ago. Then I glued down a print of the heart from the piece I posted a few days ago. Other ingredients include

pattern tissue,

white gesso & clear gesso,

swirl stamps w/ brilliance ink,

portfolio oil pastel (water soluable),

pan pastel,

graphite pencil & prismacolor,

glass bead gel,

my favorite part (haha) -

an image transfer of the word peace BACKWARDS

(see the note on yesterday's page about checking the print BEFORE using it)

and of course, a polished coat of beeswax on top of it all.

Experiments Gone Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad

Last nite I wrote about the fun day I had experimenting with my new glass kiln. Now let me tell you what happened AFTER I wrote.

Well, first I went to bed. But being "of a certain age" (ie, middle) I was having a restless night. The fact that all three stooges were snoring in my bed added to my sleeplessness. So I got up. Checked blogger. Checked facebook. Checked my email. Checked messenger even. Hmmmm. Now what? Oh, I know, that one piece of glass was just about perfect but not quite shiny enough. Now here's where I made my mistakes.
.....(1) Check the internet for instructions on shining up the fused glass BEFORE trying to fix it.
.....(2) No matter how wide awake I think I may be, I am NOT functioning at optimum performance levels at 3 am.

But early this morning, those things didn't occur to me. So I put the piece in the kiln with some clear glass balancing on top and set the microwave for way too long. When I opened the kiln, the clear glass had slipped off the fused glass and both pieces had become a big glumpy puddle - some of which was stuck to the kiln wall.

I have these magic heat proof gloves for taking the kiln out of the microwave (you should all totally buy them and keep them instead of those bulky kitchen mitts). But apparently there are limits to how heat proof they are. So when I saw the molten glass on the inside of the kiln wall, I tried to pull it off with the magic gloves.

Dumb!!! The gloves sizzled and turned brown and my fingers felt burned. I set down the kiln (amazing that I didn't drop it), took off the gloves and immediately iced my fingers.

Apparently the gloves were magic enough to keep my fingertips from blistering. But when I got up at a NORMAL time today, I noticed they had little brown marks on them that matched the weave of the gloves where they turned brown.

So buy the cool mesh magic heat proof gloves for your kitchen or kiln. But, for goodness sake, don't put them to the test in the middle of the nite unless you're pouring yourself some warm milk.

lol ~ Sherry