* A Visit with My Muse ...

Even though I am in the land of awry, even though I am well out of balance and the teeter totter nearly gave me whiplash bouncing me off when it hit the ground, my muse was lovely enough to come for a visit.  She is such a delightful muse, able to take me to another place 'far from the madding crowd'.

Not long ago I was playing around with a long strip of muslin ... making those lovely twisted flowers.   The kind that have the frayed edges and look oh so charming.  A fabric cuff with a flower on it was whirring in my head.  In the mean time, I have been looking at and holding beautiful small molded faces,  asking them what they wanted to be when they grew up.  DONNA (drop into her blog, it's FAB) had sent them to me some time ago, and although I absolutely adore them (they make my heart go pity pat), I really had no idea what they wanted me to do for them.  Suddenly, a few days ago, they announced they wanted to be 'flower girls'.  I agreed and thought of my cuff bracelet with the little faces in the middle of the muslin flower.

Yesterday I picked up a magazine and low and behold, there were my girls ... blooming beautifully in a visual journal.  They had beads for centers, but I knew this was my inspiration to get on with the project.  The background in the piece which inspired me was not to my liking, so I invented my own.  Layers upon layers.  No stretched canvas on hand.  I cut a piece off my roll and went to work.

I began with some very old vintage paper from a catalogue.  It was almost too dark. Out of my paint box I thinned some light green metallic paint with water, washed it over the top of the canvas and allowed it to run where ever it wished.  After that dried, I wanted a richer background.  Into my napkin stash I dove (thank you Carolyn), and chose a couple I thought would create the next layer.  Next,  a strip of torn vellum with dragon flies on it and some mixed copper/gold leaf dotted down the right hand side of the page.  I used rubons for 'Once Upon a Time' at the top, stamped the quote on some tissue paper, used golden mat gel medium to stick the layers together and this was the result.

The muslin was sprayed with glimmer mist which I made myself.  I am a little disappointed with the colour of the pink flower.  I simply didn't have the deep rich colour of ink I desired.  Then I added the stems, made of ribbon layered with a row of sequins.  Velvet leaves, red wire and small flowers finished the piece.  I painted the little faces with my water colour crayons and sealed them with with a gloss fixative.  Added the small metal roses to complete the look.

Look at those little faces.  Aren't they gorgeous?  Thank You Donna!

The process for this piece was amazing.  So smooth.   Everything I wanted, was available to me without leaving the studio. That's when I know it's working.  The piece of lace on the left is an old piece, however, I did add some glimmer mist in coffee, olive and yellow just to tie it in with the background.

Thanks for dropping over.  Wish you could stay for coffee.  :o)

“The most potent muse of all is our own inner child.”  Stephen Nachmanovitch