lara

This month Gauche Alchemy's mood board was about February and the month of love and stuff. The project i made for the challenge showed my personal take on my journey of teaching myself to love myself.




Read about my process and see more photos over at Gauche Alchemy!

I created this piece for my brother for his birthday and yes, he is a huge fan of cats.

I am really really getting off with this combination of texture and found object collage lately. And now that i have a better collection of tools it's really starting to come together!




The kitty silhouette is made with a whole assortment of objects I have collected throughout the years. Some are from garage sales, some from Scrapbox in Ann Arbor (my mecca), some from Gauche Alchemy, some from junk drawers and some from sidewalks and streets.

The cat is outlined with hot glue to give me a good area view and then i used Golden's heavy gel to adhere everything since it dries clear. After that i painted white gesso over everything to make the colors a little obvious and then sprayed the crap out of it with Orange/Yellow/Pink Dylusions Ink Sprays. These work so much better then what i had been using previously with other pieces (Glimmer Mist or Homemade pigment sprays).



Finally, the background is made of two layers of texture - molding paste through stencil and masking fluid. I couldnt tell you how many layers of paint and sprays - i kinda went crazy on that until i just had to stop.

This month's gauche alchemy's mixed media challenge was sort of a shabby chic theme.



I've been wanting to explore more mixed media sewing - i.e. what kind of fabric and non-fabric materials can be sewn together and how, and while i'm still obviously quite the novice, this little piece i put together does make me feel fuzzy.

My lace collection has grown really out of control so i was curious what lace sewn together would look like, especially when put on top of other things since it would be somewhat transparent still. I also decided to use some punchinella as it is so much like lace, just made out of plastic not fabric. And it sews delightfully!

I think sewed the whole piece onto a printed shopping bad and cut it would into some hearts. The edges are lightly gesso'd and washi taped to make them a little more prominant. Then to put on the finishing touches to make it more like a mixed media quilt, I suppose.



I used staples and floss for highlights, buttons, a few little scraps of lace, then the letter beads to make it a little more meditative for me, and i have hung it up over my bed.