2017 #13 Metallics: Weeping Over Lost Time [By Keren Baker}

2017 Topic 13: Colour Study: Metallics

I am always amazed at how Keren seems to pull something out of the bag with her innovative creative ideas. Life sure is a box of chocolates, and in this post she shares how a pick and mix of metallic products come together in a very clever arrangement!

Hi everyone, it's Keren Baker with you today, and I'd like to share with you a piece of artistic expression about lost time.

I wanted to use different types of metallic product and inserted as many as I could in this relatively small piece. It's less about technique, more about playing with products, trying to make images fit into a theme and trying watercolouring with metallic pens.

I'll explain the piece briefly so you understand what's going on! The eye (in which has numerals or time at the centre) is crying. She's weeping for lost time and wasted time (hence the numbers- be that seconds, minutes or years). The crowns are representing that fact that she thought she was in control of her life, when in fact, she was carried by circumstance and swayed by meaningless events. Now you've had a chance to digest that ;-) I'll explain what I've used and what I enjoyed! 

I began with an image from Hot Pick 1502 

and started to sketch out an eye. I wanted the numerals to be in the iris, which meant I had to make the eye be in proportion.

The 'number tears' are from a happy find in the Squiggly Ink range; Ding and Dong

The crowns are from another Squiggly Ink set- Crowns and Castles

You can just about see that the pupil has a little shimmer- I've used the Fresco Finish Metallic Glaze which when watered down slightly turns any base colour into a metallic looking one

I really enjoyed all the fussy cutting (i know, I'm strange !) and adding in as many metallic elements- from the metallic embossing powder, the Metallic Glaze, to the watered down metallic markers (Nuvo Glitter Markers) and the metal wire help tie it all together. 

I really enjoyed taking the Hot Picks image and trying to transform it into another type of image because I didn't have quite what I wanted in my stash. Linking separate elements like the numbers to create a more solid larger image was a challenge and I loved the happy accident where the crowns looked a little like false eyelashes from a distance. 

Do have a sort through your stamps and try transforming into a part of something else. Taking metallic pens and watering them down with a water-brush led to some delicate results and I really recommend you having a play. 

Thanks for bearing with me to the end- hope it's not been a 'wasted' read!!

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Isn't this fun! I really love the eyelashes too, twinkling in the light. Small numbers, big numbers, they all work so well! thanks Keren, you always throw us a great challenge!

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