Tuesday's Play Day!

mixed media collage on wood~j N-L

Today's theme for Tuesday's Play Day is "New Year's Hopes/Dreams"!

As you can see, I pray and dream of a New Year filled with creating art, love, and hope!

This mixed media collage was created using a four inch by four inch by 7/8 inch piece of wood that I had salvaged a few years ago when the neighbor erected his new fence. I believe this particular piece was originally designed to be a decorative accent on top of one of the fence posts.

At any rate, regardless of its intended purpose, it has served me well as a foundation and canvas for my Tuesday Play Day piece!

The wood was raw and required sealing, which I did and then primed. I painted yellow, green and purple accents using acrylic paint. The purple paint was actually a pearlescent acrylic and boy howdy, does it sparkle and shine!

Once my paint had dried, I drilled a hole in the center of the piece and I attached a small lampwork bead using a head pin and two part epoxy. I used the same epoxy to glue a 3 mm flat back sapphire blue swarovski crystal to hide the top of the head pin.

I decided to adhere a string of beads in one of the grooves that was carved in the wood...the beads are Czech 11/0's and goodness only knows what color they are; although to me, the color resembles an antique orange. To adhere the beads I used the same epoxy that I used to glue the lampwork bead.

Using my printer, I printed the words, "create", "art", "love" and "hope" onto a piece of tissue paper. Once that was accomplished, I carefully tore the words out and used gel medium to adhere them to the wood collage. I dabbled more paint around the torn paper edges and let the whole thing dry for a bit.

I hope to screw in a couple of up eyes later on and attach a chain so that I can hang the finished piece!

All in all, not too bad for a couple hours of play time!

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PS~I put a lampwork bead in the center of this piece for two reasons. First, it looks pretty; and secondly, because I greatly desire to improve my skills working hot glass in 2006!