My Granddaughter has arrived!

Are we there yet?

The one thing I have discovered about taking classes with Jean Bernard is that "Baby, it ain't over 'til it's over". Each project goes through so many incarnations, and each look is a complete and total change from the one before... it's enough to leave one dizzy!

Anyway...

I spent yesterday painting. Dibs here... dabs there... My *intention* was to work in shades of blue over a silver base to give a pewter-y fantasy effect. Sigh... I simply couldn't keep my brush out of the gold paint. Or the gold microbeads. (I LOVE those little beggars!!) I learned that putting gold metallic and copper metallic paint side by side on the pallette and using them together makes an utterly rich and delicious blend. Topped off with a highlight of interference gold... well, as you can see, my "pewter" chair... isn't!


This is what I have so far. I am much more satisfied with it this morning than I was when I quit working last night. I'm not sure it's finished yet though. I guess I will just have to let it percolate for a while.


I really REALLY love the colors on the underside of the wings. So... what do you think? Is it finished?

Whew...! I've been at it all day (don't you love weekends?!) The only reason I quit working on the chair is because there is a bunch of stuff that has to dry before I do any more. It's a good thing I have a loving a supportive family that also likes takeout -- notice the pizza boxes on the table behind the chair?

I'm sorry for the lack of contrast in these photos. I layered a piece of stockinette knit left over from a previous project to the wings. It was dyed BRIGHT fuschia, so while it gave a marvelous web-y texture to the surface of the wings, it was also horribly distracting. To tone it down I gave the whole thing a coat of metallic silver paint, which creates a horrible glare in the flash. Unfortunately it's too wet to move down in to my light tent, and I want to post this update tonight, sooooo... I hope you can see enough detail to make it worth the look.

Front view -- notice the smidge of fuschia left on the right wing. It's too bad I didn't take a photo before painting over all that color. It was seriously wild! The bits of white around the edges are new apoxy added after the coat of paint, and some coarse texture medium which will eventually dry clear. I'll give the whole thing a remedial coat of paint tomorrow, and then I can begin adding color. Making progress... woo hoo!


Here's the back view -- it has as much going on behind as ahead. I can NOT wait until tomorrow to play some more.

And finally, I know that hard winter still has a lot of the country in a tight grip, but this popped up in my garden yesterday. Take heart everybody -- spring is coming!