Bits and Birds

New sign for my studio door!

The background is the inky layers techniques from Bernie Berlin's book, "Artist Trading card Workshop". It starts by gluing small scraps of paper - some old and some new to vary the way the scraps absorb ink. Then I randomly applied die-based ink for some color and over that, a wash of yellow oxide glaze. Next, dabbed on just a little pigment ink . Bernie then adds some iridescent ink, but I omitted it as I thought it might be too much for the vintage look I wanted. I'm going to try this technique again, but maybe wash some diluted acrylic paint to unify it more. I hate to cover up all those wonderful paper bits, though!

Once that was done, I was stuck! I liked the collage as it was and it seemed busy enough without adding more. Charging on, I stamped on the birdcages and added a couple of birds cut from corrugated cardboard and used fabric leaves for wings. I stamped the words on scraps of the perforations from a journal .

I love the crown hook and now it has found a home and a job!