Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Friends

I have been sitting on this post waiting for the recipient to let me know she received it. This is my first ever canvas and I made it for a swap the theme being Friendship.

I really wanted to take everything I have learned from the group that I swapped with and use it on this piece. So to start with I covered the canvas in Gesso. Once that dried I added some sticky letters spelling "Friends" across and down the canvas. Then I painted over the canvas with some shimmery paint, since we all know I can't do anything that doesn't have some shimmer. To add texture to the paint I mixed in some Gesso and I stippled it on giving it a bit of a ruff surface. You can see this better in some of the close up pictures further down.

Once the initial layer of shimmery paint was dry I dry brushed on some gold shimmery paint concentrating on the edges of the canvas which I still think are a bit bare but that is the custom framer in me. I would have framed the canvas if I had had time.




With all the paint said and done I moved onto the centerpiece. The stamp I used is now discontinued which is really sad because I just love love love it. So I stamped the image three times, once on white card stock and once each on the different decorative papers. I colored the white image and cut the dresses out of the decorative paper and "dressed" the woman images.

I mounted them on a foam cut. I traced the medallion like shape onto the foam and then cut it out and painted it with the same shimmery paints used on the canvas. The color looks different because I did not add any gesso to it. When that was dry I gold embossed the swirls. The embossing isn't really raised I think it is because the foam absorbed the embossing. It also bubbled a bit but I liked the over all effect.

I set the "friends" aside and tackled what I saw as a bare canvas. This is as far as my imagination had taken the canvas but I was not happy with all the open space. So I pulled down my dictionary and a sharpie and decided to write the definition of Friends done the left hand side. I must admit that if I had not joined Sarah on the Soul Journal experience I would have never had the courage to write on the canvas and that would have been a shame. The definition adds a lot, even though my handwriting lacks the romance of a stamped sentiment.



The woman that I sent my canvas to uses lots and lots of beads, which I absolutely love. I think it adds so much texture, depth and interest to her work. So I decided to take a note from her work and attached the ribbon with the fabulous bead work. Then I mounted my center piece. I still thought it was missing something so I went digging into my long forgotten embellishment box and found the wonderful round stickers. I painted them with the same paint and stamped Friends, individual letters, on each one. Then I placed them around the woman image until I liked their placement.

When all is said and done I really really liked the outcome and i hope that the recipient done too! I had a great time making this for my friend and I learned a lot.

I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed making it.

9 comments:

Mary S. Hunt said...

lovely piece!

Janny said...

It's gorgeous!

Annapurna said...

So who is the lucky one to get this masterpiece? Lovely details and embellies.

craftyrachel said...

This is truly impressive!!! You did a wonderful job. I especially like the torquoise and gold together.

Sandy..... said...

It's beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing. I've just bought my first canvas and I've playing in my mind what I want to do with it on my first attempt.
Your recipient is a lucky chick!

Heather Robinson said...

What a fantastic piece...loved reading about the process to create it too! It has so many details that I've enlarged it a few times to have a look. Lucky duck who received it!

Anonymous said...

Oh my - you make some astounding pieces - totally beautiful.

simplyfairies said...

What a stunner, one over the moon recipeint thats for sure, how beautiful a gift and the story behind it,it truly is stunning....

Cazzy said...

Is this your bling thing? It would be perfect for it.