Final Treatment of Heart And Daggers

Final treatment......happy Anne!

I did not realize, as I have been in way too much of a rush lately, that I had not posted the photo of the completed "Heart and Daggers". I finally mounted it on a birch cradled panel, rounding the edges with my handy dandy bench grinder and then had a ball with techniques I learned in Michal deMeng's class.
I had to jump out of the box, and this is from a girl who seldom is IN a box, let alone knows whether she owns one to stand in! LOL! I went for my hardware drawer in my table upstairs and one in the cellar and pulled any likely suspects out. There spread before me were insulated staples, tacks, wires, washers.....you name it. I was treading into uncharted territory! I was on a MISSION!
I didn't really have a clue what I was doing......
I knew I wanted a specific feel for the background, so painting that wasn't too hard. 

"New Orleans Tomb" color combo....neutral, effective.....

And I had treated some of the insulated staples and washers with molding paste, so that seemed okay.
I just had to put it all together....
Normally my work consists of everything being held together with Golden gels, but this piece had a bit of heft, so I thought, well, if I use the washers, I need another *industrial feel* piece to accent them, and the insulated staples did the trick. Series of washes had brought them up to the nice *Crypt Corrosion* color and when I had the piece drilled, hammered, swathed in paint and all together, I liked very much.

*Crypt Corrosion*~~doing it's thing! Left panel shows the layers of color washes

It's okay, but just not quiet there......not tied together enough.

But it still needed a hanger and if there was something sticking out of the TOP, then there had to be something to balance out on the bottom.
I had changed out an old chandelier in the living room before the holidays, and still had the monster sitting around because I wasn't sure what to do with it. But the clear gold wire was perfect to take paint with the help of some heat, and it became the hanger on top.

I knew that butt-ugly chandelier was good for something....WIRE!!!

I had rooted around and found (while looking for other things...oy!) some cool Fleurs that I had bought with the intention of jewelry, but I grabbed one of those and went to work on it, aging and corroding.

Insulated staples *holding* things together; lovely, aged Fleur.....Oooooo! Too good!

What destructive fun! :-D This is right up my alley!
So, the final piece is greater than the small work I had originally. I was hoping to not overpower it, and by keeping colors somewhat neutral, it worked. Everything fell into place.
I was also hoping to not hammer the wrong thing while putting the corner staples in; I did NOT know how I would replace a broken plastic sword.....
The gods of industrial tools were smiling on me......
(except that one that rules the heat gun, and he is a little STINKER......)
Now go make art! Have fun~~get outta the box!


Pax....

My New Heart........♥♥♥

I hate admitting I cannot remember what day it was or what was going wrong when I decided to reward myself for not going completely nuclear with a bit of Etsy shopping. (on second thought, I think the day involved the throwing of the telephone.....let's stop THERE!)

Anyway, off I went to Marie Segal's Etsy store and what do I find but something that made my heart go completely pitter-patter; a Zippered Heart with a Sacred Heart inside!!!

I immediately heard the words "Take me home....." to which I replied, "Just let me get that wallet of mine!" and I ran as quick as I could.

Marie and I had e-mailed back and forth about ideas, finishes, projects we were working on, etc but I just had not made it over to her store. Boy, am I glad I did! Let me describe how this little gem came in the mail to me.

That black organza bag held a delightfully wrapped package, with a sacred heart sticker holding it shut. I opened it slowly (although every part of me wanted to rip it to pieces quickly!) and there inside was this amazing pendant. It is larger than what I expected, at approximately 2 1/2" long by 2" wide. But the detail in that little space! Please click the photo below......see what a gem this is.

I just sat, holding it and turning it over and over and then got on e-mail and demanded to know EVERYTHING about it! (poor Marie...having friends like me.....) It is just perfect.......perfect. So much care and skill and love in this!
For those of you who have not seen Marie's Blog, click HERE.
For her Etsy store, click HERE.
I can assure you, your time will not be wasted visiting one of the most talented clay artists I have had the pleasure of meeting!
Of course, it's also fun getting those lovely packages in the mail......  ;-)
As to my work, my leaf count for the large commission is up to 97 with the machine still running, if not groaning about it! And I went to order the canvas for the background and it is temporarily out of stock! HA! *Anne-Luck* strikes again! Oh well, I can start the other samples to see how they will work.......
And how has your day been???

Pax...