...millinery, pearls, French ribbons ~ essential ingredients to creating something beautiful.
Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night with an idea that you cannot get out of your head?
Or, go for a walk and collect thoughts about how to create something new?
Well, I do, and this latest project is a result of all that thinking.
Lately, I have been itching to get back to painting a bit and had some blank canvases stashed in my storage closet for a while that were begging me to attack them with a brush and paint, among other things.
I got out a variety of white and parchment coloured acrylic paints, gesso, a pretty crocheted lacy cotton sweater I no longer wore {and of course saved for a project just like this},
...vintage velvet and silk millinery flowers and hand dyed French seam binding,
retro pearl clip earrings,
and began assembling them onto a twelve inch square gallery wrapped canvas.
After working with the pieces, painting, gluing and assembling, this is how the first piece turned out...my abstract version of, "Girl With A Pearl Earring."
Not satisfied with just one {she needed a companion}, I made another.
I used similar embellishments, just arranged in a different way...
...between the two pieces, there are over one hundred paper blooms with pearl bead centers ~ in all shades of soft creamy whites.
The pattern of the cotton knit dictated the flow of each piece.
This seam binding I scrunched up and dyed myself using coffee and let it dry in the sunshine.
The tone and colours of these pieces were carefully created. I also stained the lacy crochet pieces with coffee and let them dry in the sun. When they were completely dry, after painting a layer of white paint onto the canvas I set the cotton lace into place. Then I painted a layer of gesso over the entire canvas and added a third and final layer of random brush strokes of white and parchment coloured paint.
The assemblage began when the paint and gesso was dry ~ adding the millinery, ribbons, paper flowers, and pearl earrings.
Each paper flower is glued in place in three layers and cascade onto the sides of the canvas.
The edges of the lacy cotton also flow onto the sides of the canvas, so that absolutely no framing is necessary.
This is how my second piece turned out, and I think of it as the "Dancing Shoes" {just thought of a new title, "Dancing With The Stars"} for the "Girl With A Pearl Earring."
I already have more designs on larger pieces in the works and will share with you as they are completed.
For now, these pieces will be listed in my Etsy shop...just in time for some white winter wonderland decorating.
Thanks for your visit!
Ciao amici,
