German Glass Glitter and another WELCOME!

First off, a hearty Welcome to another follower and fellow artist, Marianne, and you need to visit her blog, marianne's art blog and see the lovely things she is doing! Super use of mediums!
Second, off to my experiments with the collaged background I did during the tutorial a while back and also something I discovered quite by accident about German Glass Glitter.

Here is where I am with the piece---things are coming along; you probably need to click for a larger image so it shows up well enough. Now, the problem was I wanted the glass glitter for the halo, but as you can see below.......

....this stuff was TOO BIG. There are a couple of sizes available but at the time I ordered the gold, only the larger was in stock. And don't get me wrong--the large works great for a more textural application, but this needed more finesse.

So my little brain pondered, "What can I do with this too-big glitter?" All the time, somewhere in the deep curves and recesses of my cerebellum, there is a single synapse firing.......

......"It's GLASS Anne. GLASS BREAKS. Wrap it in something and take a hammer to it!" So I folded down a sheet of waxed paper (which I cannot function without, period) until each side had four layers. I put a small amount of the glitter in the waxed paper and........

......wailed away with a tack hammer! Make sure and hold the sides down so the glitter does not escape. You can't do that and take a photo at the same time......you understand.

When I say hammer, whack it until it is stuck in the paper, because it is a bit resistant. I tried a ballpein hammer and that did not do well at all....it was too heavy and cumbersome. A cobbler's hammer would work well too.

When you are done, you should have something that looks like the side by side below.......

...the soft, powdery glitter on the left and the original on the right. Word of caution: this can get in your fingers twice as fast as the regular glass glitter!!! Use a brush to clean the excess from waxed paper and table, NOT your fingers! (don't ask........)

The final photo gives an idea of how much better the small size works in comparison to the coarse size. Plus, you can purchase only the larger size, then reduce it to what you need. I stored my extra in a glass jar with a tight fitting lid.

I am hoping, in between all the work that MUST be done, to wrap this project up soon and have a completed photo along with a pic of the background before anything other than paper was applied. Should be fun to look at!

Hope this has sparked some ideas---I see this tiny stuff on all sorts of decorations for the holidays; just make sure to use a good heavy glue and don't have small children or pets around when using it, because it sort of resembles colored sugar.

Now---GO MAKE ART!!!!

I bid you,

Pax.

The Box Canvas---FINISHED!!!!!

Well folks, you've been quite patient, and today I have all the photos of the box canvas posted; you get to see the sum of all the little parts and tidbits you've been teased with! I have to admit I am more than happy with it---in fact, I really don't want to give it away but go it must.

I'd also like to add that the photos that are the lighter yellow reflect the real color of the piece. It was one of those shades that just went weird every time I would go for a close up and I am far to lazy to readjust color each time...... ;)

The cross was built up with layer after layer of rice paper and gel medium. This allowed a slow but manageable shaping of the piece. What surprised me when I painted it was the fact that it really looked like wood! A nice surprise!

This is, of course, a liberal interpretation of a Jerusalem Cross, which usually has four small crosses in the corners representing the four gospels. Well, why not put the evangelists there instead? So right to left, top then bottom; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are secured in the bottle caps, as small gilded frames, with a bit of superfine glitter acting as halos around the edges.

This is a very BAD close up of poor Matthew.....he's really not that orange.....
Then on each side of the canvas, I picked an appropriate Latin verse.

On the left side: "Be mindful, O Lord, of Thy servants."

On the top: "By the words of the Gospel may our sins be blotted out."

On the right side: "May Almighty God bless you: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

And obviously, on the bottom, as all prayers are ended; "Amen"

The worst part of the text was going through font after font after font to find something that looked very much like the old fonts used in prayer books, and then remembering that the first initial of each phrase was a decorative cap, in *that* red, and the rest of the verse in a plain font. The text was probably the worst to put together in the sense of imitating an old missal.

But the back......ah......it was glorious to work on! Again, the first photo is the most accurate for color and I can't help the quality of the close up...it's better than it was when I first uploaded it.

I did a tremendous amount of searching for the right icon image to put in the cavity--most were far too stylized and stern for my liking. Then I came across this one, but only a tiny JPEG, so I kept looking and lucked out, finding a very large photo. It was printed, applied with gel, painted over with fluid acrylics, metallic gold paint and German glass glitter around the edge of the halo. I sealed the glitter with Triple Thick Glaze, because I was NOT sure it would stay in place due to the nature of a canvas to expand and contract with weather.

The skin tone on the piece is actually a very natural color, but again, I kept getting RED. So you have to use your generous imaginations on this one!

After taking the photos, I finished with different varnishes; matte, satin and gloss. The background is satin, the body of the paper, matte, and the face and halo, gloss. It is very effective. I intend to experiment more with the combination of finishes, as it allows things to be pushed forward or back, as desired. Tonight we have our Artists Co-Op meeting and I am taking this to show.

So thanks for sticking with me on this piece, and a very big WELCOME to a new follower! While I am glad this is done, it is with sadness, too, because it truly brings to reality the fact that our minister will be moving on. Steve is a great man, has put up with me like a saint (the patience of Job, we're talking...), endured my raucous and unfit jokes I have been compelled to e-mail him, and has been a pillar within our community.

Reverend Steve Ailes, you will be missed. Sorely. This is a very small gift to remind you of your community and home in Peru.

To the rest of you, take advantage of each day, try new things, cherish those about you.

And make ART!!!!!!

Moving Along.....

It's been a rather frustrating morning so far; once again no e-mail and also I find out the *new* company doesn't have tech support on weekends! WOW. What service. NOT!!!!
So I'll just make art instead. Below, are two items in the cadre for the canvas. The first is a dressmakers tissue stamped with Staz-On ink. The second is glass glitter suggested by Tristan over at Enchanted Revelry. (sigh.......) He knows all these places that are hard on the pocketbook but great for supplies! Luv ya Tristan! ;)

As seen in the photo below, the stamped paper was used in the corners on the back of the canvas support. As much as I liked (and I really do mean LIKED) all that gold, I felt it needed a little something to break it up for this project. The stamped dressmakers tissue is perfect because it shows up the design but still allows the gold to show through. You can also see that there has been a bit of glaze added to the interior edge of the gold---a red mixed with GAC 200 to warm it up a bit. Then, as a subtle counterpoint, I used one of the cool interference colors to put along the outer edge, applied with a very sophisticated tool---my finger! (I'm not sure if it shows up in the photo, maybe just on the very corner of the piece...just a hint)

It helps the eye recover from the dominant red all around the inner opening. It is not in-your-face-obvious. This is, again, a play with the eye. Sending the line of vision where you want it to be.

The final photo is of the whole canvas with some paper stuck in the middle so I would not make a mess or drip glaze inside. I have not used the glitter yet; that will be for the inner cavity, possibly. And maybe it won't appear on this piece at all, but that is how I work. I like having the tools I need and might need in place so once I start, I'm not having to run all over trying to procure something.

One note on the bottom pic---with the existing lighting it looks redder here. It is not that red; I was too lazy and in too much of a hurry to fiddle with anything in the photo program this morning.......

All in all, this is proceeding nicely, considering the lack of time I have had to work on it and the amount of drying time between each step at this point. Hopefully, by next week, I will have this DONE and ready to unveil the whole!!!

In the meantime, go be creative!

I plan to!