Dare To Spread Your Wings

Happy Friday Everyone!

Before we give this space to lovely Sanda - it's time to reveal the winner of the first edition of our Designers' Faves challenge!

First of all, make sure you check out our facebook group gallery of some truly amazing entries sent to Marta's 'Go For The Gold' theme. It was really great to see your creativity soar. :)

My Creative Team cast their votes and the winner is...

Nadya Drozdova!

with this absolutely stunning piece!

Nadya, please send us your address so you can claim your prize. Please, email: missmoth1@gmail.com

Thank you all so much for such a warm and creative welcome of our new series of challenges

Huge thanks to all the participants for sharing your Art and we hope we'll see you soon for the second Designers' challenge February 28th! :)

And now back to our Sanda who took a magnifying glass, baby wipes, Rust Paste, paints and her incredible talent to create this breathtaking assemblage...

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Hello dear friends,

Today I’m happy to share with you a small mixed media collage/assemblage which I hold very close to my heart.

This piece is about finding the courage within our hearts to create and freely express ourselves…

...it’s about learning and seeking inspiration continuously and everywhere...

...about believing in the power of telling our stories…

...about experiment and discovery... fear and joy... love and passion...about playing and having fun and, most importantly, about giving our creative spirit the permission to grow...

The inspiration for this canvas was a small vintage magnifying glass which I found in an antique shop a couple of months ago.

And here is the story of how that small found object metamorphosed into a beautiful dragonfly…
Below you will also find a video tutorial so you will see my step by step process. 

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I started my piece on a 8 x 6 inches wooden panel by collaging one of my leftover baby wipes (I never throw them away) with 3D Matte Gel, covering the entire surface.

This is such a quick and easy way to start your project, especially for the ones of you who are intimidated by the “blank page”. Stick your painted baby wipes or paper towels there and BOOM!, your canvas is no longer white and you can start building up from there. Easy-peasy! :)

It’s also a great way of not feeling guilty of wasting your lovely paints or sprays.

Now, going back to my canvas, my next step was creating some texture by collaging pieces of Finnabair's Resist Canvas, different bits of lace and more baby wipes

To bring everything together I applied a light layer of Heavy White Gesso.

When this layer was dry, I sprinkled Mica Powder here and there and spritzed it with water. It’s so lovely how the colour moves catching the texture and gives an organic feel to the canvas.

I repeated this step, this time using diluted Rust Paste and then dried everything with the heat gun.

For more visual texture I randomly stamped the background using two Finnabair clear stamps and Art Alchemy acrylic paints and Prima oil pastels.

After drying, I mixed Modeling Paste with Texture Powder (for a gritty feel) and spread the mixture through Finn’s Harlequin stencil.

Next, I glued down fragments of an air-dry clay border using 3D Matte Gel. When everything was dry, I diluted a bit of Art Alchemy paint adding some shadowing to my clay and Modeling Paste pieces and wiped the excess with a baby wipe.

I continued painting, this time using diluted Rust Paste until I was pleased with the result and then dried everything and sponged White Gesso on top.

To paint the clay pieces I used the wonderful new Finnabair Waxes. These are just pure magic in a pot, so creamy and soft with a range of gorgeous colours!

I applied the wax with an old brush, pushing the wax into the crevices and then rubbed just the top of the clay border with a baby wipe to reveal some of the original colour.

For my focal point, I created a dragonfly using a lovely photo from Finn’s Ephemera, a rusty Mechanical Barn Star, my magnifying glass and Prima wire.

I attached all the elements using 3D Matte Gel and covered the magnifying glass with a layer of Heavy Black Gesso.
When this was dry, I painted the body of my dragonfly alternating the Rust and Patina pastes, building texture and adding colour at the same time. I also added more rust to the background.

To finish my canvas I added a few highlights with the new Art Alchemy Sparks which, I must tell you, are just spectacular, my friends!

I also stamped the words on some tissue paper that I glued down with Soft Matte Gel.

Here is my video where you can watch my creative process and see all the products I used.
Enjoy and have fun!

I hope you enjoyed and got inspired by my new project.

Feeling tempted to spread your own wings? ;)

Wishing you all a lovely day and a creative weekend! 
xx
Sanda












Products used: