Fall Art Retreat

Saturday was a lovely sunny day that I spent at a Fall Art Retreat at Sparrows Nest Studio. I actually finished (mostly) two of the three projects. I started out taking pictures of projects in steps... lost that fairly quick! But here's the first project we worked on. I can't remember what our wild birds are called. They are plaster of paris forms with dyed paper towels as the covering and assorted embellishments including petal wings colored with water soluble oil pastels.

The second project was a Bird Stuffie which you can see in the bottom left of the above photo. We had a choice of several bird templates, and I chose the owl. I actually "beaded" the eyeballs, (okay, only two beads but it's my very first beading work!) and got the stitching done around one eye but I was sooooo slllooooowwww at hand sewing and beading that I did not finish this one.... yet.  I may do again as it was such fun, plus I have a lovely piece of fabric I "painted" left over. Since I am no longer under the pressure to finish in a time frame, it will come with me camping this week.  :D

The final project was the most in my comfort zone, Encaustic collage. Of course, I mucked it up, but had a marvelous time playing. (You'll note I included a piece of napkin) The difference with this type of encaustic is that the collage is done and sealed with gel medium before applying the wax with a brush, then "fusing" with a heat tool. While the wax is still warm you do the toner image transfer and then (when cool) add other embellishing marks. With this style of wax collage, you have to be sure the image is how you want it rather than have the beeswax meld the layers.

All in all, it was fabulously fun day with good energy folks!