Tando Creative: Stencils Week

'ello 'ello,

How are you all doing?

I’ve also chosen to play in the Stencils theme week, only I stumbled at the first hurdle! I created the background on a Tando greyboard square, with the stencil and some modelling paste, painted it with a very dark grey (slightly metalic) acrylic paint, black antiqued it, wiped it back, and used an orangey/gold guilding wax, stood back and loved it. Only then did I realise that I didn't like the idea of the Egyptian feel I had intended to do. But the piece wasn't speaking to me and I'd done my normal of creating at the last minute... a quick message to Fiona got us swapping our blog dates round... Thanks Fiona, I owe you one lovey 💓

I'd made up some of the new release bugs, they are such fun to decorate and look great on most backgrounds, but they looked lonely on the 4”x4” square! The foamiran flowers and then the little frame started to bring the piece together but what on earth was it saying to me? I sat with it while I looked through my stash of words...then walked away from it for a little while...

Like most people I had a little wobble of uncertainty over the last couple of weeks, and the thing that really helps me is getting out in to nature and I'm lucky to live in a small town with the countryside right on my doorstep. This make was leaning towards that... I'm also a big fan of languages, especially ancient ones. Runes hold mystery and each letter of the alphabet also has meaning, so I worked out how to spell 'peace' and 'healing'. And it was done.

Sometimes letting the piece guide you instead of not enjoying either the process or the finished article is the right thing to do.