Alchemy

Hi, All! We had a couple of reasonably warm days earlier in the week (considering it is winter in Central Oregon, so above freezing during the day!) and I played at my workbench making the kraft paper background above. It was the wrapping on a wonderful piece of hand-made paper!

I crumpled it, smoothed it out and crumpled it again, and then painted it with a wash of black coffee. I only needed a slurp so Chris was happy to oblige and drink the rest. The color wasn't strong enough so while it was still wet I sprinkled instant coffee powder -- that made the lighter brown splotches.

It was still a bit boring, so once it was dry, I stenciled burnt umber acrylic paint through sequin waste and randomly stamped with a sea sponge. Scanned it in and started to play in Photoshop.

Remember the watercolor and acrylic background I showed you in "Pixels and Paint"? I layered that with the kraft paper background, played with blending modes and got this:

Since the result was so magical, I call it "Alchemy." If you look closely, you will see bits of writing layered in -- I used a bit of text from an old alchemy manual (Wikimedia Commons) and a scrap of a letter written in a foreign language I got as a freebie somewhere along the way. How cool is that? I have printed the image several times on photofabric and want to turn it into a small art quilt. Stay tuned!