Freedom is Fragile

Freedom really is fragile. 

The gorgeous NEW range by Andy Skinner is now in my possession! I had so much fun with them!

Loved the Gypsy Queen moth stamp, so had to use that first, but I in the end I used a ton of his new stuff and loved it. Among the extra elements I used on this piece were a rusty nail I found buried in a field with my metal detector (birthday pressy!), a closure from a broken box, beautiful feathers I gathered in Richmond Park, ribbon cut from clothing and the cardboard backing from an old notebook.

 

I stamped and embossed the moth with the Raspberry Ice Cream powder. Masked off the moth then stamped with my next fav stamp, Enigma, using Satin Sunset embossing powder.

At this point I hadn't really decided where this piece was going, I was just having fun playing with the new products. It was the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day landings that week, we went to London and visited the Imperial War Museum. After seeing the Holocaust exhibition I knew I wanted to do something to commemorate all those victims who had their freedom and for so many, their lives taken from them. So 'Freedom is Fragile' became my theme. 

I dabbed white paint through the Let It Rain stencil. 

 Then defined the shapes with a black fine liner. The rectangular card was too plain, so I tore 

around it to get tatty edges and dabbed all the way around with red paint.

 On a piece of card, I stamped out another of Andy's new stamps Distressed Wallpaper.

Went in with Distress Inks - but these kind of obliterated the stamping. 

So I went back in with the dark brown ink and it showed up beautifully. 

Next I added a few paint splatters using diluted white paint. 

Tore some parchment strips and added a scrap of ribbon.

 I heat embossed a wooden heart with the Satin Sunrise powder and stamped in to it while it was still molten,with the wallpaper stamp. .

To give the moth a floaty feel, I smudged white charcoal pencil all the way around it. Then Using the black pen, I drew back around the moth to make it stand out. 

I used one of Andy's new transfers. Again I was a bit clumsy, but non of this was supposed to look perfect or crisp, so I wasn't worried. 

A rusted metal flower, chain, rusty wire twisted into spirals, the heart I embossed earlier (then added paint to) and a few other elements.

Then I made some barbed wire! 

 Twisted the wire into a heart shape to fit over the moth.

 For the base layer I used the cardboard from an old notepad. 

 Glued down some torn book pages and washed over with red and quin gold.

 Washed over with very diluted Prussian Blue Hue (love that colour!).

 Heat embossed the wallpaper stamp in the background (this stamp is also going to get a lot of use!).

 I laid the focal piece on the back board and worked out where to put my feathers. I just used the scraggiest as I wasn't sure how they would react once I covered them with hot wax! 

 Melted some wax in my melt pot. 

 Brushed it on...

 It was a bit thick so I used my heat gun to re-melt it and brush some away. This looked much better

 Then out came the AMAZING LAVA PASTE!!!

 Applied with a palette knife, then brushed up with my fingers.

 Back to the first layer - edged with metallic lustre.

 And the last step before layering up, was to add red then brown paint across the Lava Paste, then edge with the Prussian Blue!

 A few close ups...

 Products used:

There is a lot of symbolism in this piece. 

Read on for all the products used - and if you'd like to know more about the thoughts and meaning behind things.....  

Our trip to the IWM was very powerful, especially the Holocaust section.The numbers under the moth reminded me of the tattoos prisoners were made to have. Prisoners were not allowed to be called by their names. Because of all the awful things I read, raindrops on the day I used them, looked like tears, (just a reflection of what I'd seen - they will look like raindrops another time!). The barbed wire represents confinement. The box clasp represented things taken from victims in life and death. And the feathers, these can represent so many things, but commonly freedom, valour, and angels.  Those awful events should never have happened, and it struck me just how fragile freedom really is. And how quickly it can be taken away.

Andy's Gypsy Queen, Enigma and Distressed Wallpaper Stamps (find them along with most of the products I used here), Poe Diversity Media Transfers, Rain stencil, Lava Paste, Raspberry Ice Cream and Satin Sunset embossing powders. For a detailed list of the products used, take a look at my post on Andy Skinners blog Here!