Wood, a Word and Something Wild

...is the theme over at Creative Carte Blanche and I finally found the time to create something inspired by these three things (so I could slip in my project almost at the very last minute...phew!).
To get to their post, click HERE.

The first idea that hit my mind almost immediately when reading "something wild" was "wild wire". I guess it was sparked by my love for stave rhymes mainly...but I love working with wire too. And wild wire is even better! ;)

So here's my entry for Creative Carte Blanche's May call:

It is a fact that we often tend to keep ourselves from wandering and exploring the world by the restraints of our own thoughts and concepts. And even if our feet and will were free to go out and make new and amazing experiences, meet new people and learn new things, we forbid them to do so because of some old family beliefs that we have been carrying around with us for ages and that no longer have to be a "truth" to live by! But it is so hard to recognise them as they disguise as old friends who (pretend to) keep us safe and comfortable.

So freedom of will exists! It's there - but it is being held back or silenced by our fear of the unknown or of conflicts that might cause someone to no longer love us (which mostly turns out to not be true at all!) The rusted wire is meant to symbolize these selfmade chains.

My substrate to create this piece of mixed media art from was a small wooden house which I bought at a sale at a home decor shop.

I love to alter things and add crackle, texture, layers of paint and antiquing media to create timeworn looking objects that tell a story (which they hopefully do ;).
So to start with I gave the house a thorough coat of Raw Umber heavy body acrylic paint. Over that I added some DecoArt Media white crackle paste through a stencil and let dry naturally.

To make them look more aged the feet were given a coat of DecoArt Media Satin Varnish and then a coat of heavily diluted DecoArt Media Antiquing Creams Carbon Black and Raw Umber.

The feet fragment is a piece from one of Prima's "Milagros" sets. I simply removed the tiny loop screw it came with and inserted my rusty wire in the hole.

I applied some washes of DecoArt Media Quinacridone Gold and Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide over the stencilled flourish and front of the house shape. The base was covered with DecoArt Media Texture Sand Paste first and covered with the washes too.

Being a huge fan of Michael DeMeng's online workshops, I adapted some of his typical patterns - like the little "flames" around the house's sides.

Using DecoArt Media fluid acrylics and DecoArt "Teal" Dazzling Metallics paint I added the turquoise dots and edge and painted the little dotted flames around the house's sides. These were toned down with a wash of DecoArt Media "Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide" afterwards.

Thank you, Creative Carte Blanche, for the inspiration

- I had a wonderful time in my studio thanks to your call -
and thank you, my dear (true) visitors and friends, for stopping by!






I would also like to enter this project to the May challenge over at Mixed Media Place, as some of the colours were inspired by their lovely mood board.

Hugs and happy crafting! 

Claudia xxx