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 :)

Tale-ing Fragments #5: I Persist

Hi everyone, 

I’m back with a new Tale-ing Fragment but this time - it’s a book! Small one, but still, a handmade, handbound little book. As always, the story is incomplete, the text and images only fragments of a larger tale so that every time you return to look through the pages a different story can emerge.

This tale is a ghost story, told by a ghost. 

I love ghost stories. Not because they’re scary, but because they are fragments of the past that linger in the presence. At least that’s how I see them :) 

If you think of the word ‘haunting' it’s not just related to ghostly manifestations, it’s also used for beauty, a thought that lingers, an image that keeps popping in your head. That’s what I had in mind when making this. 

Our ghostly storyteller has been around for a while, her consciousness flickers. It comes through words, images, textures… I used a book format because it gave me more space, but also because different pages can have a completely different feel to them, uncover a different aspects of the story and of our heroine. And because it’s a book and I love making books – best reason, right?

And because it’s a book, I’m doing a first here and uploading not only photos but also a video (!!) of the work. It’s mostly just me reading you a story while flipping through the pages, but I hope you enjoy it ^^

As you can see in the video, I combined a lot of materials and images in this work. The images are all vintage photos and ephemera I got either in Tim Holtz Idea-ology sets or online (check out thegraphicsfairy.com for AMAZING selections of vintage imagery. They have gorgeous themed kits, but also a lot of great free images). I didn’t upload photos of all the pages, just a selection and  details I thought would be interesting.
 

The front cover was made from a couple of Tim Holtz' Worn Wallpapers, they have such great texture... I bound the pages with a ribbon and added some vintage lace and a key (also by Tim Holtz) that a rusted thoroughly with Finnabair paints. 

The first page (pages?) uses transparency vellum and lace to create layers. I used a lot of transparencies throughout because I thought it fit with the the ghostly theme, and specifically with the cloudy mind of this ghost. She shifts between remembrance and forgetfulness and time doesn't really flow for her anymore. The main image you see here is two vintage photos I superimposed and printed on vellum, then layered it on background images (a house, handwriting) that peek through. I like that she remains unidentified, because who's to say it's the story of one ghost? Maybe more of them hide between the pages.

In these pages I used vellum to create layers of photos that hang\were hung on the walls in the house. Because our ghost doesn't sense time like we do, the photos sometime cover each other, as new people come to live in the house and place their photos where other photos were displayed before. These are all vintage photos, but I tinged some of them a bit more to give the feel of something that was loved and looked at often.

These are from a moment in the story our ghost thinks about the dreams she had. I say think, because she doesn't describe them, saying only that she must have had some. The first layout has another transparency vellum and a little envelope with photos inside that I thought could reflect dreams: actress portraits, a house, a wedding... The background is a beautiful foiled paper by Tonic, dreams need some sparkle, right? In the second layout I gilded a damask pattern on one page to echo the gold foil. There are several details in these pages that echo each other and other pages in the book, it was really fun to make :)

This is another layering play with a beautiful image of a girl that was printed on vellum. I love how she continues to follow you with her stare as you flip the page and if it's a bit creepy, well, this is the beginning of the creepy part of the story...

The last image of the book is the one that opened it, but this time I printed it on photo paper to give it more solidity, it's a strong moment for our ghost, with some self recognition, so it felt right. 

In case you were wondering: the background papers are a combination of cardstock I inked and lots of patterned papers from Tim Holtz idea-ology, Tonic Studios Craft Perfect and papers by the Victoria and Albert museum. I used a lot of materials and techniques throughout so I won't go into it (this post is pretty long as is...), but please feel free to ask anything.

Aaaand that's it! 

Hope you found it interesting, I'd love to hear what you think :)

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!