Inspired by Seth Apter

I love the work of Seth Apter, a fabulous artist from New York and when he offered an online workshop through Stencil Girl I was quick to sign up.  I have been collecting the supplies for the project he demonstrates in the workshop but until I have everything on hand, I decided to tackle a background using things from my stash but following his instructions.  This is my first attempt and I thought I would turn it into a butterfly canvas.

Since I was doing this just for fun, I didn't take any process photos but will try to describe what I did - hope I remember since I did this a couple months ago.

I started by covering a 6" square canvas board with black gesso and then added a variety of marks with acrylic paints through stencils.  Splashes of colour were added with Gelatos but the board was so rough, I found it didn't blend out as it would have on a smooth card or paper surface.  Seth's Patina Oxide Baked Texture embossing powder was added in random spots by using an embossing pen to make something for the powder to adhere to.  Some Aquamarine gilding wax was also rubbed here and there.

Next I created a couple frames for my butterfly by die cutting two elements from Seth's Drip Dry die set.  They were thickly coated with black gesso and then rubbed with some purple gilding wax.  The butterfly is a Tim Holtz die cut and I painted it with some metallic paints and then used a fine Micron pen to draw in the lines before I added it to the canvas.

The body of the butterfly is a turn screw from an old computer that I wrapped with embroidery floss, wire and a torn strip of fabric.  This wrapping technique is something Seth demonstrated on a craft segment on YouTube.

I haven't entered any challenges for a while so I thought for a change I might enter these ones:

Creative Artiste Challenge #50 - Anything Mixed Media Goes
More Mixed Media Challenge - Anything Goes + Optional Colour Purple