LifeBook Week 29: Dance of the Shadow

This was last week's LifeBook lesson by Mary Beth Shaw, the founder of StencilGirl. Having thoroughly enjoyed Mary Beth's first LB lesson a few months ago, I was really looking forward to her second, bonus offering this year. It involved burning paper, and boy did I get excited about that!

Here's my page at its initial stages, which clearly shows the burn marks. A word of advice: do this when your other half is NOT on the premises (as he may not approve) and make sure you're well away from the fire alarm! It also helps if you're near the kitchen sink in case you get into a pickle! This process is not for the faint hearted as the paper can well and truly catch fire! I managed to get some nice burn marks and burned edges on both my main page and the collage papers.

Next, I added some gesso, paint and stencilling and even incorporated my used matches in the design to emulate the 'bridge' in my title. The colours are Golden's Raw Umber, Quin Nickel Azo Gold and Manganese Blue Hue, which go beautifully together. Here's the finished page, a glimpse of which I let you see in my previous post.

 

I know I need to take my own advice, as I tend to burn bridges behind my back, though as I get older I realize that keeping your options open is always a good idea. I really enjoyed this lesson and will probably do more burning in the future - under strict safety precautions, of course!