Thursday, November 1, 2007

In process...

This month I decided to participate in the Art Everyday Challenge. You can find out more about through the link on the sidebar.

While it would be great to have a finished product everyday I've decided that's not what is important to me. For me working on something everyday is more important. Enjoying the process and learning are my focus.

So today I started a little wooden project and continued working on a canvas.

The wooden project is a reverse shadow box, so not a shadow box but a raised wooden box with the work on the outside. Clear as mud!? It's made out of bass and balsa wood that I have cut myself.

The front measures 4x13.5.
I painted it brown to start. I set it aside to dry.
Then I cut the side pieces which are 1 1/4" wide.
Then I chose the papers I would use for the letters going on the front. I also applied a coat of crackle medium to the board and set that aside to dry.
I cut the letters out of the pattern papers.
After the crackle medium dried I applied a coat of light green paint and then it crackled. I love watching that!
While the green was drying I stitched the letters with the sewing machine. All of the above steps took place while my son was sleeping and the washer was washing. I love multi-tasking. The green took awhile to dry though so I stopped there.
After I got home from work I assembled the sides and set those to dry over night with a little weight on them. Bass and balsa wood are not the straightest material to work with so a little weight was needed to keep things in place. I don't have C-clamps that are both large and delicate to keep the pieces together. Maybe I need to work with some bigger and sturdier lumber!
Oh, after the stitching of the letters I applied a coat of crackle medium to a canvas that has been waiting. After I assembled the box above I painted white over the crackle medium. Now it's ready for something else. But I don't know what. So it will sit and wait for more ideas. I'm okay with that.

All in all I think it was a good art day!

2 comments:

Leah said...

this is fantastic! i loved seeing your process. i totally agree that a whole piece doesn't need to be finished in one day. sometimes you need more time to get the creation done the way you want. no need to rush as long as you keep working on it consistently. i did some larger pieces this way last november and it was great.

i love how the stitching came out on the letters. i need to learn how to use my sewing machine well enough to do this!

megan said...

When you share the steps as they're happening, it's like being able to watch over your shoulder. Thanks for doing that! Will be back to see more.