2021 Topic 4 Free to Fly with TS {by Helen Chilton}

  2021 Topic 4: Free to Fly

Stamping with spices is definitely a new technique, but I'd love to see (and smell) it in real life! Helen has created a piece with real movement drawing on a myriad of techniques (and happy accidents) that bring this beautiful bird to life.

~ Keren

Hi everyone, it's Helen with you today with a very large tag using some of Tracy's fabulous new stamps. That bird is so full of movement it looks like it's about to take off and fly away.

Unusually for me, I haven't used any inkpads for this project but have stamped everything in paint. I wasn't sure how the bird would come out as it's very detailed, but the density of the black paint gives an almost lino cut effect which I really liked. 

I looked at set TS051 and decided to make a nest out of the half mandala. To give it a bit of extra texture I stamped it in paint then sprinkled it with some ground nutmeg - smells nice too!

 

Then it's on to the background and I decided to build up layers of leaves using Sara's stencil PS218.

 Starting with the lightest  of the blue-green Fresco colours first.

and just keep going - it's to build up depth.

I hadn't planned on lots of cutting out, but this stencilled leaf is very quick to snip and I like having lots of interlocking layers.

As I was cutting out I noticed I'd been practicing stamping the bird (TS053) on the back - I really liked the effect of the black wing pattern - a happy accident....

 

...so I stamped some of the pattern onto my greeny-blue leaves as well - love them.

Then it's just a question of planning the layout. The nest is slightly off-centre and the leaves are growing up towards the top right corner. I've tucked in some of the white and black leaves as well.

For the bird I just daubed on little bits of paint leaving lots of white spaces - very unusual for me - I'm not great with white spaces! I always have to fill them in!

But when you've stamped the bird in black paint, it just works.

Hold it over the background and you'll see what I mean.

I've wound a tiny scrap of wool round the leaves top left and bottom right - the yellow ties in with the colour of the bird's body and draws the eye diagonally down the tag.

I layered the bird up on several foam pads and curled the wings to give even more dimension.

The nest sits among the leaves - I'm amazed at the detail that showed up.

The nest is also raised and many of the leaves are not stuck down - just a tiny bit of glue on the stem to anchor them - as I like the sense of movement this creates.

This project was surprisingly quick to make - it sort of just flowed along, probably because the bird image is perfect for the theme of flying - it looks like it's about to launch itself into the air.

I really enjoyed making up the background using different shades of greens and blues - the PaperArtsy Frescos are brilliant for this as they're all neatly divided into families so if you're not sure what to use, just go back to the colour charts, all the work's been done for you. 

Although this tag is very detailed, I surprised myself by deliberately leaving white spaces! Have a go and see what you can create - you never know what you'll end up with.

Helen

Blog: A Splash of Colour