Authentic - Vintage, Rust and my Creative Gear...

Hi again my dear ones!
It's been a while since I was showing my project on the blog - those of you who follow me on social media could notice I've had some health issues I had to take care of in the last weeks and I'm not only far away from home but also simply not able to be up-to-date with everything. I'm sorry for this, but I'm sure you can understand!

This project I've made a few weeks ago, just when I got new 7 Dots Studio collection - "Nothern Lights" in my hands. I loved everything about it: colour palette, design, details. When I took a closer look at one of the papers I noticed that the pattern on it resembled the background of one of my family photos... that was it: perfect inspiration for a heavy, grungy and masculine project - with a touch of creative madness!

If you will take a closer look at the details here you may notice I didn't really use many "branded" embellishments here. All the layers are made with broken or torn leftovers, strips, found elements and      "junk" I could find on my table. There are rusty nails, Christmas tree candle-holder, an old watch, wire, broken frame, some metal mesh and many many more... can you see scraps of lace and cotton thread too?

I found a tiny piece of ephemera - mini-calendar page dated 1937 - and I had to use it of course! It is another great "personal touch" on this project. It goes perfectly with my rusty paper clip, pieces of old paper, strips of canvas and cotton band-aid. Seriously - I had so much fun putting it all toghether!

My colour palette is not very rich this time - I focused mostly on following the tones of background paper and shades of rust. I used my favourite brown stain - very strong tea infuse I make at home myself and added a bit of Lindy's Moon Shadow Mists in corresponding colours. There is a coat of Art Basics Clear Gesso on the entire background paper - it was important to "impregnate" it a bit when I was planning to pour so much te and spray on it, right?
I've also added some Art Basics White Heavy Gesso to lighten up the pattern of the paper in the place I was planning to put my composition - that helped me work on the rich and dimensional composition without losing the focal point.
The final look is heavily inspired by the rusty elements of my project - and I used Art Extravagance Rust Effect Paste to add the final touches. I simply love how beautifully it is diluted by water, creating natural, vintage-industrial look! Perfect match!

My point here is you DON'T NEED tons of expensive supplies and materials to create art. Just look at my choice here - only 2 elements here are "branded embellishments" (well 2 and a bit - a small piece of resin frame had to be an embellishment too - sometime in the past). What really counts is the design, idea, imagination - and finding a way to make it all work. This is my creative drive, my biggest joy - using elements and pieces which are usually thrown away and putting them together, painting, decorating - until I'm happy with the result. With proper adhesives, a bit of primers (Gesso), good paints and special effects you can create amazing, beautiful work - on a budget. Let yourself be inspired by the things around you - and create!

Here are the supplies I was using for my project - all linked to Mixed Media Place Store:

Sending you hugs and all my love

Enchanted Forest - collage

Hi, it's me again.
Many times before I was mentioning my collages and journal pages are short visual stories, which I create when an image or idea will show up in my mind. Quite often the result I'm getting is quite far from the one I'd imagined - but I accept this as a part of the process. This is how the creative ways go.
Today I'm leaving you with my latest collage (and a short tale in one). Enjoy (and click to enlarge)!

"Enchanted Forest" - mixed-media collage/assemblage on canvas. 50x70 cm (about 19.5'' x 27.5'')

It's been a while since I created something of this size and it took me a longer while to get to the results I was happy with. As you can always see my moods and emotions shining through the project of this kind I took my time to make the things just right... It was not only the matter of size but also my experiment with more flat and painted version of collage. With my love for layers, details and small bits it was quite a challenge to put it all together and stay quite flat!

This composition of paper, lace, metal elements and all possible small bits and pieces from my quite impressive collection was glued using a set of my Art Basics products - Soft Gel and Heavy Body Gel were my choices.  Later I started playing with colours: I've used 3 versions of gesso (white, black and clear - on the printed image) and later starting adding sprays, Art Alchemy Impasto paints (omg, those rich colours!!!!!) and finally water soluble pastels and pencils. It was quite a ride, but I loved it!

A big part of the project is covered in my Art Alchemy Waxes - details of the leaves and almost all of the robes (or armour maybe?). They were layered many times together with Impasto and some Soft Gel for more transparency of the paint.

You can see I didn't restrict myself with ideas and added some stamping with permanent inks and tons of ink and paint splatters too. I love the dynamic look you can get this way - in my opinion, it really adds a lot to the project!

I can't even recall how many times I was thinking this will never end well. That I'm moving too far from the original idea I had. That maybe my way of putting things together won't work... I'm sure you can relate! But  - as I always say to my students - most of mixed-media projects have to go through many ugly stages to get finally to the beautiful results. The point is not to stop to early and push it through... I'm so glad I did!

If you'd like to see what products I was using - here is the supply list - I hope it helps!
All linked to Mixed Media Place Store!

Now, I'm putting this project in your hands now, hoping you will get inspired or maybe just simply enjoy looking at it. My job is done.
I can't guess what kind of emotions it is going to bring or what will you see in it - but if you decide to tell me, I'll be very happy to read!
Have a great creative week. I'm so happy you are here with me...