Harvinaisen Kaunis Elämä: January 2022

Wednesday, 19 January 2022

Awakening - Art Journaling for Finnabair

Hello friends,

January is obviously the month of new beginnings, hope, and grace. It’s also my birth month, so it’s a special month of new beginnings to me anyway. I started a new Hope Journal at the beginning of the year, and somehow it chose to be very light coloured, very subtle and otherworldly white, grey, and light blue, with a hint of gold. Also, it wanted to be abstract and very airy, in a way that leaves room for imagination and interpretation.

I made a new set of pages to it and here’s how I did it.

I ripped some scrapbook paper into a suitable size and stitched a bit darker paper as frames to it. I chose only a few elements for the pages, from (ordinary) tissue paper to leftovers from die cut pieces. I also decided the focal point to be a dragonfly (stamped on to ordinary transparency film, using white ink). Mostly it was to be playing with textures, though.

First, I secured the middle part of the pages with tissue paper and Soft Matte Gel, then added some vintage paper and more tissue paper, on the pages, and primed everything with white Heavy Gesso. I also used Laurels Stencil with Modeling Paste, some White Sand Texture Paste, and Mini Art Stones, to create interesting textures.

Next, I painted the pages with Impastos Snow White, Dark Chocolate, Pitch Black, and Manor Blue. (The colour theme of the journal.) I made a very, very watery mixture, and used also spray bottle to make sure the paint spreads everywhere, and wiped most off with baby wipes, to get a lightly coloured pages. This watery way of painting made all the different textures standing out beautifully.

After painting, I added some finishing touches: White Gold Icing Paste, sprinkled white acrylic paint, some linen cord, and a few die-cut flowery bits and pieces. I also stamped word awakening into the page, and the art journal pages were ready.

Here’s the link to the video: https://youtu.be/jfNfM1X744Y

I wish you the gentlest month, filled with hope and grace.

Emilia xx

MATERIALS USED:

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-heavy-gesso-white

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-heavy-gesso-clear

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-soft-matte-gel

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-modeling-paste

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-dark-chocolate

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-pitch-black

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-snow-white

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-manor-blue

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-ingredients-art-stones-mini

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-finnabair-stencil-laurels

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-extravagance-texture-paste-white-sand-tube

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-extravagance-icing-paste-white-gold

Friday, 7 January 2022

Art Daily Cafe - January 2022

Hello, Art Daily Cafe friends,

It’s January, the month of new beginnings, and it was my privilege to choose the theme for this month’s Art Daily Café.

I wanted it to be about swans, as they symbolise so many beautiful things that are perfect reminders to start a new year. Swans are often associated with Apollo, who (as an artsy person, you well know) is the god of arts. Swans also remind us to accept ourselves as we are, to embrace that inner beauty and grace that shines in there somewhere, and to trust our instincts. For me, these are what art is all about.

There’s a story I want to share with you about the swan feathers you see in the project photos. They are the reason I picked up the January theme. Last autumn, I visited my favourite beach with my family, on a day that had been particularly difficult for me, as I had been diagnosed with yet another heart thingy. There were swan feathers everywhere in the beach and I must confess I shed a tear or two from sheer gratitude and joy. For me, swans are the most beautiful, meaningful, favourite thing in the whole wide world (followed by lilies of the valley and lighthouses), and swan feathers on one of the hardest days of my life… It was so full of meaning for me, to collect the white feathers and think that this too, shall pass. (Well, heart conditions don’t tend to pass, but you know. How I react to them, how I decide to deal with it, is another thing entirely.)

Then I sat there, in the silent beach, thinking and reflecting, and suddenly, from nowhere, there were eleven (yes, correct, 11) swans gliding towards me. I sat there, barely daring to breathe. Four more appeared, but stayed further away, when these eleven swans swam right towards me, silently and gracefully. The whole family witnessed how the 11 swans halted before me in the water, faced me, and bowed their beautiful, graceful heads. And as silently as they had appeared, they glided away, and disappeared again. This memory has carried me throughout the harsh autumn and winter, reminding me that hope is, indeed, the thing with feathers, as Emily Dickinson wrote.

As the project, I ended up creating covers for my Journal of Hope, which felt fitting to this concept. Here’s how I created it…

First, I cut a suitable sized chipboard piece and as I wanted the wonderful Grungy Frame to literally frame something, I also cut a hole into the cover, to get the text from the first page of my journal to be visible.

Next, I covered the whole thing with Finnabair tissue scraps and Soft Matte Gel, primed it twice with white Heavy Gesso, and then painted with Impasto Snow White acrylic paint. With Laurels stencil and Modeling Paste I created some willowy background effect and attached my simple collage into place with Heavy Body Gel.

After adding some Mini Art Stones here and there, I primed everything with gesso once again. I know it is recommended to use waxes as the final touch, as they resist paint, so I counted on that one, and applied Faded Denim, White Pearl, and Old Silver wax over the whole thing. Only then I painted the cover with a very diluted mixture of Impastos Pitch Black, Dark Chocolate, and Manor Blue, and wiped most paint off with a baby wipe. And it worked just the way I liked. The waxes resisted most of the paint, and only a merest hint of colour was left in the cover.

This was what I wanted not only because of the Art Daily Café theme of purest whote and softest of blue, but also because these are the exact colours that are inside the whole art journal. There’s only a hint of gold inside, there, hence I added a tiny amount of Vintage Silk wax, to get a warm glow into the cover, and to get a an understatedly elegant look, I added silver micro beads here and there, too, and sprinkled some white paint all over the cover. And the cover was ready!

Inspiring, graceful new year wishes,

Emilia

P.S. For the Finnish reader. Don’t panic, the swan feathers in the photos are loose mute swan feathers (Cygnus olor) collected from a beach. They are NOT from the protected whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus), as I know it would be VERY, VERY illegal to collect their loose feathers from nature.

MATERIALS USED:

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-heavy-gesso-white

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-soft-matte-gel

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-modeling-paste

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-basics-heavy-body-gel

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-dark-chocolate

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-pitch-black

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-snow-white

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-impasto-paint-manor-blue

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-ingredients-art-stones-mini

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-metallique-wax-white-pearl

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-opal-magic-wax-vintage-silk

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-metallique-wax-old-silver

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-alchemy-matte-wax-faded-denim

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-art-ingredients-micro-beads-set

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-finnabair-stencil-laurels

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-finnabair-mould-grungy-frames

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-finnabair-tissue-paper-flutter

https://mixedmediaplace.com/prima-mechanicals-desert-flowers

Finnabair Art Recipe December 2021 - Winter Forest Tray

Hello dear Finnabair friends,

This December Art Recipe includes some colours that I love to use in my crafting: light blue and browns. I created a winter themed altered tray for a candle. I found a terribly ugly melamine plate from a flea market and bought it because it had such a beautiful shape that I knew would work perfectly in some project. And it did! Here’s how I did it.

First, I layered the tray with some scraps of Finnabair tissue paper, to make sure gesso or paints won’t start peeling off at some point. I attached the tissue paper with Soft Matte Gel, and then primed the tray with white Heavy Gesso. Then I added a layer of Texture Paste Clear Crackle and let it dry overnight.

I wanted the tray to look like a winter forest on a plate, so created a composition with all kinds of Mechanicals and Mini and Mega Art Stones and glued them with Heavy Body Gel. Then I primed everything with white gesso.

I tried to get a faded driftwood look for the tray, and used Impastos Snow White, Manor Blue, and a hint of Pitch Black and Dark Chocolate to get the shades right. To get a bit more contrast, I mixed Liquid Acrylics Ink Black, and Burnt Sienna and added some here and there.

Then I wanted some golden, warm glow on the tray, and used Effect Paste Golden Dragon and Vintage Metallic Flakes.

As the finishing touch I added a hint of Matte Wax Old White, Ochre, and Stained Wood and Opal Magic Wax Vintage Silk all over the tray and sprinkled some white Impasto paint on it.