Hello everyone! My name
is Melissa Johnson and I am so excited to share my first guest post for
StencilGirl Products! Today I want to share with you a mixed media project that
I created using an antique musical instrument.
This really cool old
fiddle came into my possession in a sort of interesting way. I run a house
flipping business, and come across all kinds of interesting situations, people,
and homes on a regular basis. One day we closed on a house and I went by to do
a scope of work to determine what needed to be done to get the house renovated
and up for sale. When I walked in the door I was shocked at how much stuff was
left behind. I actually called my acquisitions person to make sure the sellers
had indeed moved out! I am sort of a "picker" by nature, so of course
I started to dig through all of the things that were there, and that is when I
found the fiddle. I didn't know right away what I was going to do with
it, but it spoke to me so I threw it in my car and brought it home.
When I was contacted
about guest posting, immediately my thoughts went to the fiddle. I brought it
inside, cleaned it up, and began to plan how I was going to transform it into a
piece of art. I started by lightly sanding it to remove all of the old varnish
and stickiness from the surface, then covered it with two coats of Liquitex
Gesso.
When that completely
dried, I started to do a bit of collaging using some old tissue paper, vintage
music papers, and paper napkins.
After thinking about
what colors I wanted to use, I decided to go with a bright colored palette.
Bright pinks, magentas, oranges, and gold together are my jam and I really
wanted to give this sad broken old fiddle a whole new personality. I used
several different colored shades of pinks and reds for the base layer and to
blend the collaged elements into the background.
To add a bit of metallic
into the mix, I rubbed in some Liquitex Iridescent Gold Acrylic Ink over
several places on the instrument.
Once the base layers
were established, the fun part began. Using black acrylic paint, I stenciled on Tell Your Story. I felt like this stencil was absolutely perfect
for this project. What would this old fiddle say if it could talk? Where had it
been? Who was the owner? All of these things went through my mind while
creating. I wanted some complementary background elements, so I added the
Vintage Script and Boho Patterns with coordinating acrylic paints.
When everything had
dried, two coats of Amazing Casting Clear Resin were added to protect the paint
and add a nice shiny coating to the fiddle. I love how the resin pulls out the
bright colors. Here is the finished piece!
Melissa Johnson
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissajohnson8/
