The Crow Girls

This is my first journal entry for the 2010 Circle of Friends Journal Rotation and I had a blast with the theme. Cheryl's journal is all about phrases and how they inspire us...and let me tell you she has some crazy phrases to pick from. I went through all of them, pulling out some that struck me and then, when I pulled out the very last slip of paper I knew I had struck gold...or shall I say black. The phrase I selected was "The Crow Girls" This is an image of some of my Great Great Great...Grandmothers. My own Grandmother told me the story of this photo a few years ago and I have been enamored with it ever since. Back when this photo was taken it was considered "making it" if you owned a black silk dress, could get dressed up and have your photo taken. Well, that is what these women did and when the photo was developed someone said they looked like "Three Black Crows". So I twisted the journal phrase and the family phrase and came up with this piece. I knew automatically that I wanted to do a "spinner" I've never done one of these before and the geometry and mechanism behind it had me stumped, but only because I was too focused on the art. As soon as I stepped back and thought out the spinner portion the rest came easily. I didn't want people to have to spin the actual photo, so I wired the image and spinner stuff and had an opening on the back so you could spin a button but I used a glue that was really strong and when I went to twist the wire through the button it broke (the wire, where it was not attached to the glue, so the wire is glued all the way through). I am keeping my fingers crossed that the hole piece doesn't fall... To start I crackled the paper, old fashion style with crackling medium. Then I added the black "dots" using a stencil and black paint. While all this was drying I created the crows stamped it twice on grungboard, cutting them out, then painting them with black paint and covering them with Modge Podge to get it nice and shinny. I covered the Dress Form Die Cut with black glitter but first I painted it black. I did this in case the glitter did not cover completely, you can't see any holes this way. After all this it is finally time to put it together. I affixed the photo using my newest toy, wax! I painted some extra wax around the edges of the image and then dribbled some all over the page. I also used the wax to affix the crow girls names. With the photo in place I affixed the spinner on the back and then attached all the other bits and pieces. Finally the front was done. To allow for easy spinning I placed spacers (small pieces of wood) on the back of the front sheet before attaching the back paper. On the back I printed out on transparency the "Three Black Crows" story. I layered this over a corresponding paper from the front (where I attached the phrase I used. Attaching the phrase is one of the "rules" of this journal. I used a Tim Holtz plaque to make it stand out and covered it with diamond glaze). The lace is some that my grandmother handed down to me I'm very stingy with it but thought it went well with this piece and it is symbolic (to me at least). As a finishing touch on the back I added some black flowers that I received in a Paula's Kit Club. They are fabulously detailed, the picture does not do them justice! Well, I am very pleased with my first Journal entry for 2010. I hope Cheryl likes what I have done and that all the other members of Circle of Friends get as much enjoyment (and learning) out of this journal as I did. I am entering this into the Darkness Inspiration Challenge Blog, this week it is Dark Birds, last week it was Dark Ladies...I didn't make that cut off.