Yep that’s a stamp I carved! I’ve actually carved three stamps now–all hearts! Hardly surprising since I’ve rarely met a heart I didn’t love. My first two hearts are about an inch big and did them during a Julie Fei Fan Balzer stamp carving online tutorial. This latest heart was done at the ReMe art retreat on Ocracoke Island in May, 2015. I enjoyed the process and have enjoyed being able to use my own stamp but I haven’t carved any more. I have all the things I need to do more but my creative attention span is short. I’m always on to the next thing. And the next thing. and the next thing.
That may explain why I have an obscene amount of art supplies. When I embrace a new technique or supply I have the habit of buying every color or every tool or every whatever it is. I recently saw a Youtube video by Sarah at MySerenityCrafts from March 4, 2016, where she vlogs about her experience of buying art supplies. I had already decided at the beginning of this year to USE WHAT I HAVE and I’ve been contributing to a huge bag things I am ready to pass along to other artists. Seeing Sarah’s vlog just confirmed my belief that I need to pare down.
But I digress….I’m supposed to be writing about things I’ve branched out into in my art.
I’ve been really stretching my comfort zone and painting and doing more mixed media than ever and making a point of using what I have. Here are a few new things–
This one I used a canvas panel with Silks acrylic paints and Staz-On ink pads for the background. The dragonfly is made of resin. I made it!! I first stenciled the dragonfly using modeling paste and then made a mold of it. I then poured resin and it worked. Yep I’ve been through a major mold-making and casting phase. For awhile there I would slap mold putty on anything that didn’t move for a minute…
One interesting and unexpected (at least to me) occurrance happened when I used a Silks acrylic glaze to stencil the cherry blossom branch in the left background. The original color was a bright pink but when I put a layer of gloss medium over the top of the piece to seal it it caused a major color change to the Silks glaze and also slightly blurred the image. I liked the effect so I’m calling it a happy accident. I haven’t yet tried to recreate the phenomenon again. If any of you have used this technique on purpose I’d love to hear about it.
The piece below that I called “Transform” is on a canvas panel and then mounted on a recycled backing panel from a frameless glass frame. This experiment involved glass bead gel and a gorgeous stencil by Patti Tolley Parrish (available at iStencils.com)–it is called Dangles. I also used some chipboard pieces that echoed the dangle idea but I cannot remember who made them because I had them unwrapped in my stash. I also used acrylic paints, Silks, Gelatos, Izink pigment ink, alcohol inks, and a partridge in a pear tree–lol Maybe I should list the things I didn’t use….
My final share for today is another piece on a canvas panel. This one used stenciled texture paste, embossed deli paper, and wipe off pieces of baby wipes and paper towels. I used lots of bright colors with acrylic paints, acrylic inks, and some paint pens. This piece is posed with Hula Girl my desk mascot and it makes me happy!
Part Two is coming soon! Thanks for visiting today and I love to read comments and have new followers!
ArtOutWithYourHeARTOut
ArtOutWithYourHeArtOut 