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 :)

Re-emergence and Journaling

Hello again, it has been a while (ages, more like it…). I hadn’t planned for such a long break, but well – life happened, you know how it is… But here I am, stretching my creative mind\fingers again and hoping to share some of my ideas with you.

I usually don’t share things from my shop, but lately my mixed media experiments made their way there and I thought some of you might be interested in the process, so here we are!

Today I’m sharing my latest launch: journals.

They are basically altered notebooks and I just LOVE making them! There are endless possibilities and each one comes out completely different.

There’s Night Shimmer, that has a lot of texture and dimension and a dreamy quality thanks to the metallic gleam and sleepy moon.

The cat lover in me (oh, about 120%...) melts before this curious kitty, and I do love the colourful background, makes me think of the Cheshire Cat, even if it looks completely different from the familiar imagery.

The Golden Mandala journal has lovely texture and metallic sheen. Though it may not seem so, all the elements on the cover are paper, it’s amazing what die cutting and paint can do.

Vintage Rust is… well, rusty. I love the texture on this one, and the colours, there are so many layers I’m not sure I remember them all... It was so much fun making the little closure belt, it went through a LOT to get that used look... LOL

And finally – Faery Dance. I’m not a glitter girl, but a magic journal needs some glimmer, it’s the rules. The background texture was created with a mixture of glitter paste and paints, and I have to admit I really love the result. It subdues the glitter a bit, giving it a dreamy quality, but there’s still enough shine coming through and it catches the light beautifully, changing colour in different angles. I tried to catch it on camera a million times, but no luck… The leafy frame is a die cut and I like the fact that the shape can be understood as an opening in the greenery or a magical mirror showing the little fairies enjoying the night.

I used a whole selection of products: Distress Oxide inks, Finnabair waxes and molds, Nuvo pastes, dies from Tonic, Tim Holtz and Birch Press Design, some stamps from Visible Image and Hero Arts, among others. The list is quite long, but I’d be happy to give more details if you’d like.

One of my favorite things about making these journals is thinking how people would fill them: notes from lectures? Bullet journal? Art journal? Poems? Dreams? Recipes? Memories? 

I do love a pretty notebook. It gives a special air to whatever you write inside, even if some of it are shopping lists... ;)

Till next time 

xx

Interlude: Tiny Books and Were to Find Them (around your neck)

I had soooo many plans, I even started up a couple of projects, but the pre-holiday-season is definitely one of those ‘expect the unexpected’ times of year… In the last couple of weeks, instead of finishing some project or other, I found myself spending every free moment making tiny books. There is no complaint in that statement, I love making these tiny treasures and I LOVE when they make others smile, so I thought I’d share some of them here too.

As a lifelong (and proud) nerd and lover of stories, it’s no surprise books have always been a great love of mine. I love gigantic old books, but let’s face it – who doesn’t love a tiny book? And I mean tiny, the books I make are 2-2.5cm tall, and I’m always surprised and how much detail they have.

 

Once I had the books though, I started thinking what to do with them and jewellery seemed like a good idea. I started with necklaces and continued to earrings.

Then I thought - why settle for one book? I definitely don't with reading books! And so the stacked-book necklace was born. 

Lately I started thinking of making more specialized designs and started with my new grimoires, I must admit - I adore them 🖤

It’s not exactly hard to make tiny books, but it does take time and a LOT of patience, and they don’t always come out right – a scratch, a paint stain… I make vintage style books (old books are the best!), but there’s a limit to what I can pass as shabby. In every batch there’s a couple of books that don’t pass my ‘pendant quality’ test and I ended up with a small pile of sad books with no purpose – clearly that could not stand! So I found them new purposes. You may have noticed a few of them in “The Witch’s Son” Tale-ing Fragment. I also use them when I make witch’s cabinets. A scratch on the cover of the book was covered nicely by a grinning skull. 

For the Wiccan cabinet I used a couple of damaged books, but also made a spell book that can open – way too much fun there

I hope you enjoyed this tiny-book interlude (with lots of photos), did you like how I used the books? What would you make with tiny books? 

I’ll be back soon (hopefully) with a new project!