2015 #20 ...thrice blasted, thrice infected... {by Alison Bomber}

 2015 Topic 20: Triptychs

Hello all, Alison here from Words and Pictures.  I've got a triptych of frosted glass bottles for you today, together with the plants from which their contents have been distilled.  I very often seem to end up working in triplicate, sometimes by accident, but also sometimes by design.  I like panels that have an element or two in common, and then variations on a theme as the eye moves across them.  

This one all started from an idea of trying to recreate those lovely vintage chemists' bottles you find, with embossed writing; so each panel has a bottle, but then the labels and flowers vary.

I wanted to use the Hot Picks Halloween 05 labels (HPHW05EZ) for my bottles...

...and I knew I wanted the flowers in the background, as a reminder of where so many potions and poisons come from.

So I added in Hot Picks 1505 (HP1505EZ)

Hot Picks 1507 (HP1507EZ)

and Hot Picks 1009 (HP1009EZ).

The perfect quote popped in to my head from Hamlet: "thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected" -  all about potions made from plants collected at midnight, and then - get this for a triptych - "thrice blasted, thrice infected" !!

I created a brayered background with my Fresco Chalk Acrylic Paints, rather than a crackled one for once - layering up Purple Rain, Lavender, Wisteria, Taupe, Stone, Chalk and Snowflake - and then used Distress Inks with the Clocks stencil to deepen the midnight blues.

I used leftover acetate packaging for my bottles.  I used the DANGER stamp from HPHW05 release, stamping it in Versamark and then clear embossing it.  I draped the bottles over shallow oval bottle as I heated them (some hair stuff, don't ask me what!) so that I could get the same curvature on all of them.

Once the embossing was done, I gave the bottles two coats of the new Frosting Glaze, allowing them to dry in between.  To make the bottles tall enough to make the most of the Hot Picks Halloween labels, I had to hand cut them, based on the Tim Holtz Apothecary Bottles die - but I made sure I left the necks of the bottles the same width, so that I could use the die for the stoppers at least!  I painted the labels very simply with washes of Stone and Brown Shed, and I shaded the edges of the bottle with some Cobalt Archival to give them even more dimension.

I stamped my flowers and used Purple Rain, Stone and Snowflake to shade them.  The Brown Shed made its way onto the bluesy backgrounds too, giving some colour to the foliage, and I added misty book page clouds drifting across the moonlit sky, as well as some lid-stamping for accents and highlights.  Of course there's another clock telling the time in the gorgeous tulip stamp, making sure it's midnight so that the plants are at full potency when they're collected.

I've created some rusty, leathery hinges to hold the whole thing together at the back (Brown Shed with shadings of Purple Rain straight on to Grungeboard so they’re flexible, and then some Distress Embossing Powders in Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain), but I'm guessing nobody will really be looking at that side, so I didn't do much else...

I'm really pleased with my frosted embossed wording - it's got real dimension... though it's nigh on impossible to get a good photo of!  A slight shame that the central bottle covers the butterflies, but they wouldn't be out and about at midnight anyway.  And if you peer very closely in the right lighting, maybe you can see them inside, their essence captured and distilled as an extra ingredient in the poison!

Oh, and speaking of the right lighting, this is another triptych which responds rather well to candlelight.  Now you might catch a glimpse of the butterflies in the bottle...

And the shadows finally allow that frosted embossed writing to pop a little more.  Loud applause for the Frosted Glaze... I love it!

I hope you like my poison triptych, and that you'll be inspired to come up with some three-parters of your own!  As I say, the formula for me is to have at least one element which is present on each of the three panels (whatever shape or size they may be) and then to ring the changes around that element to create a triptych which "belongs" together.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I'll see you again soon, or drop in to see me at Words and Pictures too!

Alison (butterfly) xx

There's always something visually pleasing to the eye with a Triptych design. I love how the quote expresses your design Alison and the use of the Frosted Glaze on your bottles was an inspired choice, it adds an "eery" dimension to your theme. Fab start to the new theme Alison, thanks for sharing your creativity.  ~Gillian

We would love you to join in with Challenge #20: Triptychs. If you are inspired by any of our guests who blog with us over the fortnight, then please join in and link up your creativity HERE. 

All links go in the draw to win a voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store. The Triptychs link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, Nov 8th winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.