Art break - Birthday Gift for S

S appreciates money for her birthday, so I went with another creative spin. S also loves dragons.

Dragon + gold (money) = Smaug!

I started with a black box in which I put tissue paper to build up the mountains of gold. Modelling paste was then used to make it solid, provide a paint-able surface, and fill in any gaps.

The backdrop was the next to be painted with gold, grey, bronze and gold glitter.

Then it was time to paint the mountains of gold! I used rose gold paint, gold paint, gold glitter paint, and bronze glitter paint. I then topped it of with tiny gold stars for extra sparkle.

I also drew some cobblestones on the base to extend out the theme and make a nice area for the money to go.

We needed an Atkenstone, so I went to Lovisa and picked up a Swarovski necklace.

Unfortunately it blends in really well and is a bit hard to see, but I'm not changing it now! It is a really pretty necklace! I hid the chain in the paper by way of poking a hole in it and using blu-tack to hold it in place.

Where did it go?!

Then I popped in Smaug (a dragon figurine I've been waiting to give to S).

Finally, the money!

For the outside, I spruced up the outside with instructions on how to get into the mountain castle (in Moon Runes of course) and the key.

Verdict: She loved it! :D

Art break -  The World's Creepiest Art Project

I unfortunately started this before I was blogging, so I don't have a lot of early photos.
This is an acrylic/ watercolour paint on recycled board.

This was inspired by a documentary I was where someone had preserved a lock of Beethoven's hair, which was then used to show he was exposed to high levels of lead during his life, possibly leading/contributing to his illness.

So I thought, what could I create that would use part of my body? Something with my hair, my DNA. 
I don't care that it is creepy.
That adds to its interest.

I painted a image of myself as a mermaid, on a rock.
The hair is my hair.
Her eyelashes are hairs from my leg (bulb attached).
Her tail is my skin (from my feet - don't worry, I didn't hurt myself harvesting this).
Her scales are my nails.
The seaweed next to her is also some of my leg hair (bulb attached).

The nails took a while to collect up.
Here is the painting before the scale adding began:

Here are the nails:

Let's remove that nail polish:

And paint them in a uniform colour:

Blu-tack helps a lot!

1207 Tinseltown

785 Matte Pearl Glaze

Avon Opal top coat

Done!

And we start gluing them on slowly, a few each day:

I had some left over nails so I made a flower and a oyster.

I even put a tiny pearl in it!

And the final piece:

*I have something in mind to take the place of the oyster (a human pearl of huge sentimental value, generated by a dear friend) but I have to wait to see if I am ever the lucky owner of this particularly precious piece.
If I acquire it, the oyster will simply be moved to the rock.