2020 Topic #17 Simmer Dim with ESN (by Jennie Atkinson)

                                                  2020 Topic 17: Day & Night

I won't spoil the surprise and reveal what Simmer Dim is, but it was awesome to learn about it and how Jennie recreated it with her gel plate. Her palette isn't one that you might automatically pull, but it perfectly matches her muse. She's created a workbook we'd all love to use.

~ Keren.

Hi everyone, it's Jennie (Live the Dream) here with you today with a rather colourful (for me!) interpretation of Shetland skies. 

In mid summer here in the north, the sun sets late and rises almost immediately - day becomes night and night becomes day. In Shetland dialect it is known as the Simmer Dim (Summer Twilight). I wanted to try and create the colours of this amazing twilight using my Gelli Plate and Fresco's and actually surprised myself with the result! I used the papers to make an A5 workbook. 

I used Sara Naumann's fabulous Dreamer stamps released back in the summer.

ESN44

I started with the Gelli Plate and a number of Fresco Acrylics. I had this photograph in mind and tried to match the colours as best I could. The photograph was taken from the house here at midnight around midsummer.

I have used Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics in: Inky Pool, Venice Blue, Autumn Fire, Peach Nectar, Pumpkin Soup and Cheesecake.

And these were the resulting sheets. I used the colour in strips and very carefully brayered them sometimes allowing the colours to mix. The little white spots were the result of a couple of pieces of dried paint on my brayer! Unfortunately I picked them off so the lovely "stars" effect unfortunately didn't transfer to the second sheet!

I cut the sheets down to fit my cardstock (an A4 black sheet folded in half to make an A5 book) and stamped with Black Archival Ink.

I had some pieces left over from cutting the main sheets so used them to make small pockets for the inside of the notebook and a couple of tiny books for the inside.

I really love how well the colours blend into each other but still retain their brightness. I think this was due to using translucent colours along with the opaque. For example the Inky Pool sits on top of the Venice Blue rather than blend into it. I don't think I could have achieved this array of colours without using the Gelli Plate - one of my most favourite tools! I am no artist but I love that I can use a photograph and a collection of Fresco's to create something really quite artistic! 

As always, thank you for joining me and I hope like me you have enjoyed this fabulous theme and all the wonderful projects created by the PaperArtsy Designers.

Jennie x

Blog: Live the Dream