Guardian of Lost Souls

Between this world and the next they hover aimlessly, lost but not alone. Some carry the sadness of their departure, others harbor hate and foster wrath over their unjust end. In that fine membrane between worlds they hover under the guardian's watchful eye.
But who is he guarding? Us or them?

Those of you that follow my Instagram or Facebook already know this work, but I felt like sharing it here where I can get a bit crazy with detail shots ;)

This piece is definitely one of those 'a simple idea that escalated' cases.
It started with the skull, I wanted to see how dimensional I can get this paper die-cut, and I was really happy with the results. It's pretty amazing what some forming and ink can get out of flat paper!

I knew this skull deserved to be the center of something special, and from the beginning had the idea to have it's eyes glimmering wickedly  (muwahahaha), so I decided to use LED lights. If you're familiar with these light strings, you know that they are pretty long, so I started thinking how I can use the rest of the lights in the background and it came to me - ghosts!
I dug through my stash of Tim Holtz Paper Dolls and found all the 'disfigured' ones - they come cut out in detail, and every now and then the cutting isn't exact and something get cut off, you can see the girl and man in the photo bellow have part of their head missing. It's very rare to find a Paper Doll this off so it's lucky I have quite a stash ;)

 

 For the lighting to work the background has to be translucent, but not clear so the light is diffused. I used Tim Holtz's alcohol inks and pearls on acetate. The mica in the pearls makes them more opaque, so when the lights are off it kinda looks like shimmery dirt lol

 I twined the lights behind the "ghosts" and used hot glue to make sure they stay in place.

I wanted the frame to continue the vibe of the work, so I used some texture paste with stencils in different places to get interesting patterns and dimensions. Once dried I covered the paste with black acrylic paint and finally added some of Finnabair's metallic waxes for color and shine. 

I really like how it all came together in creepy-cool goodness. Finishing with lights-on-lights-off shots, hope you like this guy as much as I do :)

A Valentine’s Tale-ing Fragment (#3): My Sweetheart

Hello everyone,

I know – it’s been AGES… Things got really crazy around the turn of the year. I had plans for a ‘time flies’ sort of post at the beginning of the month, I even started working on it (if you follow my Instagram you may have caught a glimpse of it), but then I blinked and it was mid-February, and Valentine’s kicked my broody time contemplations out of the way – love has a way of demanding attention. 

To be fair, this Fragment has been in my plans for a while, ever since I laid eyes on this sweetheart in one of Tim Holtz's ephemera collections. The expectant look in his eyes and the almost-there-but-not-quite-yet smile made me smile back and he whispered his story in my ear.

                                         his heart full of bright hopes

                                         he waited.

                                         My Sweetheart.

As in all my fragments, the story is for you to complete.

Who is the sweetheart? Is it this young man or the one he awaits?

Who is it he is waiting for? Will they come?

And who is the figure in the window?

I have entered My Sweetheart to this week’s Wednesday Simon Says Stamp Challenge that is themed ‘It Must be Love.’ In my head it fits perfectly with this story, because, well - it must be love, no? I didn’t really use their exclusive products this time around, but felt like sharing this anyway (Sorry! Hope you don’t mind...). 

I went a bit crazy with the details on this one (well, crazy for me), building layer upon layer to create more depth. I originally planned the have text in the background, but then this floral stamp arrived in the post and I could not resist – can you blame me? I swear, after stamping it I just stared at it for a few minutes – so beautiful! And perfect for this dream-ish tale. The house is 3D with textured walls and I sort of let the vines run wild. I ended up raising the frame to create a diorama (I do love dioramas) so I can accommodate everything. To be honest, I did not plan on using all these things (I had a big pile of optional elements/embellishments to choose from and ended up using almost all of it... oops haha), but I rather like the result. What do you think?

The best thing about having lots of details is that they open up new story options. 

I hope you enjoy imagining this story, and maybe come back now and then to give it different ending – that’s half the fun!

Oh and - Happy Valentine’s Day ^^ 💕