Saturday, January 18, 2014

Mix-Ability - Speed Bumps

Janelle's challenge this week is to "create texture on your focal point. Add micro beads, chunky glitter, sand, or something dimensional,  mixed in with a liquid adhesive. Disguise it with color over the top or mixed in with the adhesive." 


I find that there are times that I just need to express something from my heart without documenting the steps and techniques... I do enjoy that, and I think that the ability to break down techniques and teach them is an art in itself. Sometimes, though, I give myself permission to just let the process flow, to work out a heart lesson or emotion that can't be expressed other than in color and texture. This was one of those projects for me! 


My 'one little word' this year is "present" - having a quiet heart that is present in each task and each moment... staying in the present, instead of worrying about the future. Especially with my new position at Splitcoast vying for mental space along with my other responsibilities here, teaching and family time, I want to be able to focus in each moment on the task, conversation, or issue at hand - to really bring my heart to every moment. "Bring your heart to every day" is a line from a favorite song by Jason Gray that embodies those sentiments for me. I've been wanting to put those words on a canvas for some time, and this week's challenge helped a few ideas meld for me to make that happen.



Here's a closer look at the heart and the dimension of the 'stuff' there, before and after. I just grabbed beads and pearls and whatever there was on my desk, glued it in place with PVA glue, filled in with sand around it, and then dripped in a clear varnish to hold it together.  When that was all dry, I used acrylic paint to cover it up, then painted the hands.


The stamp of the hands held in a heart shape is from Heart & Soul Rubber Stamp Co (if you look in their online pdf catalog it's on page 51).
 
 

 There are a lot of layers of colors here, some brushed, some stamped, some watered down and dribbled around - the raised areas are done with acrylic caulking scraped through a stencil.
 


Hope you'll join us for the challenge this week! I'm also adding this as a contest entry over at Creative Jump Start!
 Thanks for stopping by!

7 comments:

  1. Kapitalna praca - potrafisz w niezwykły sposób zastosować media! Tylko pozazdrościć..

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  2. Stunning, Thank you for sharing your photo with us. It was interesting to see what you used for your heart. Your background colours are beautiful.

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  3. I agree with you on the breaking the steps out. . . Sometime just doing is enough and you did a super job

    here from CJS2014 StencilGirl link page

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  4. Stunning! Love how you did the heart.

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  5. Very cool and great saying!

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  6. this is so beauiful Wow- thank you for being part of CJS 2014!

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