La Scapigliata (or Bad Hair Day)

What a sensational challenge set by Anita Houston over at Frilly and Funkie - to pay homage to any one of four great "Renaissance Men" - Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello or Raphael (not the mutant turtles, as she points out).  Talk about setting a benchmark!  Well, I can't allow my week to be dominated by one gender only... so I decided to see if I could even out the balance by combining the Renaissance Men with the challenge over at Simon Says Stamp and Show, which this week is "Hey, Girl!" (Or, to redress the balance more fully, you could make that 'woman', of course.)

I did a Google image search for some inspiration, starting with Leonardo da Vinci.  I've always loved the bare bones of his notebooks and preparatory sketches, preferring them to the full oil paintings (hmm, just realising that this is probably connected to the fact that I love the projects I see in monochromatic browns), so that's what I looked for.  Almost immediately I found this beauty, and fell in love...

Nobody is quite sure whether this was ever developed into a painting, or who the model might have been.  She's known as La Scapigliata, which translates as 'the dishevelled hair girl'.  When I discovered that, it was a foregone conclusion - we were made for each other!

One of things I find so extraordinary and so beautiful about the sketches is the amazing three dimensionality achieved with just some white highlighting over the area, so that tonality was part of what I wanted to play with.


All I had to do now was create something based on this drawing that wouldn't let her down.  And here is where I ended up...

With this project I really tried to listen and let the work develop (as I've done several times recently, with results which give me pleasure).  I tried to allow La Scapigliata to dictate what grew up around her.

I often allowed the piece to just sit on my craft table, and would stop by to gaze every now and then, to see what wanted to happen next.  So, for instance, when there seemed to be a need for some more dimension, I'd look for a charm or accent that would fill the space; when I started to get an itch to work up the background, I would set to work on that.

This is a real change in process, even from just a month ago, when I would pretty much have things planned out in my head before starting.  I'm astonished by the changes in what I make and how I make it, even in these few short weeks.  What a journey this stuff takes you on...

Really, I would have loved to work on a canvas - what more appropriate tribute to the Renaissance masters could there be?! - but I didn't have one, so I decided to pretend... making a 12x12 piece of Kraft cardstock into my "canvas".

From very early on, I had the three separate colour-fading twinchies (not quite 2 inches square, but very close) as well as the large version.  I was only messing around with the colour on the computer, and suddenly there were these three, gradually fading, versions.  I felt quite strongly that they should all be part of the work.

And the mesh also put in an early appearance, and established its position overlaying the three smaller pictures.  Somehow, it just felt right and interesting visually.

I think that that's related to a political layer of meaning for me.  I feel there's something quite provocative and interesting in having them 'caged' in a society which still tries to define and constrict women's roles and behaviours.

I sometimes worry about my beloved niece, Anya, growing up surrounded by the pink, fluffy 'girliness' relentlessly marketed to her, and on the other hand by the reworking of the 'raunch' culture, where oversexualised images, especially of women, pervade our society.

How and where do you look for the female role models which compare to the great Renaissance men that the other challenge asks us to celebrate?

Of course, the women are out there too - but you often have to work a little harder to find them and their stories.  That's why I loved hopping round the SSSaS Design Team projects with the strength and life and power of the female being celebrated both in general terms and in very specific personal projects.

So the quote and the words are just as vital a part of the project for me...  (and I guess that's a key part of what I'm really about - combining the verbal and the visual - it wasn't just a random blog title!)... the whole piece holds a message for Anya, and for all girls/women to be as magnificent and extraordinary as you are.  Dream, fly!



The quote had been buzzing around my head for a while.  I read the Diary of Anne Frank when I was her age (at writing), and a more remarkable and yet, at the same time, ordinary girl is hard to imagine.





I caught a radio programme about her a few weeks ago, and went online to remind myself of some of her writing - and this quote was one of the things I found.  It bobbed back to the surface when the 'Hey Girl' challenge came up, and seemed also to complement La Scapigliata perfectly - when you look at her face, I think you see an immensity of soul shining out of her.

It's stamped on to a piece of the Tim Holtz Crowded Attic paper with the architectural drawings, in a nod to the Leonardo notebooks with all their engineering and architectural plans and sketches.

Then for some rugged texture, it's backed on to a piece of rough brown textured card, ripped out of one of the seedling pots I've found so useful in crafting!




The engineering also makes an appearance in the gears - a girl can choose any path in life - and the pen nib is an obvious nod to poetry and words as part of the teeming soul.  The music darting around is another part of what's going on inside...



I gave the music a coating of the wonderful Rock Candy Crackle Glaze. Another great product from Tim Holtz and Ranger - I love it!  One drawback though: I did at one point try crackle glazing La Scapigliata, thinking it might look like an old painting that way.  Unfortunately, the printer ink is not 'fast' and started seeping yellows and purples.  I suppose really the drawback is with the printer ink not the crackle glaze - I take it all back, Tim!

I liked the metal accents of the jump rings - circles of life if you like, or just some pretty dimensionality! 

The mesh ribbon started to play a larger part in the piece, providing accents as an element in itself, but also as a stencil to add texture to the background and papers.

As the piece progressed, it became clear to me that it was crying out for a frame... but I was using the whole 12x12 sheet, so it would have to be large and square - not that easy to get hold of.  So I made it myself! 

I'm very pleased with how it came out, especially that lustrous gold gleam. You can find out more about what it's really made of in the "Making Of" section below!

And even though I wanted a 'proper' frame, I also wanted the elements to be breaking out of it, since there is 'so much' going on in the young girl's soul; so the mesh, the music, and the woven ropes (my disintegrating doormat again - how's that for a metaphor for breaking out of domesticity?!) flood over the sides of the frame.

I played with these positions for ages before I found out where they should be... in this splayed relationship with one another, echoing the angle of the torn backing paper.

So that's my Leonardo tribute, with a strong focus on the female.  If the technical stuff doesn't interest you, you're welcome to scroll straight to the quotes now... the next bit is mainly for the craft obsessives!

I'd like - just quickly - to show the background to you in a bit more detail, as so much of it is now - hah! - background, and therefore barely visible in the finished piece.  I layered lots of techniques, essentially just playing, and allowing it to build up.


There's some stamping with Distress Inks: you can see Kaisercraft Script and Music but mainly flourishes, brick and woodwork from the Tattered Angels Architectural set.  


I was using mainly Walnut Stain and Archival Sepia blended onto the stamp.  (I know, I know, shouldn't really mix probably - but so far I haven't vanished in a puff of smoke...)

There's also some stamping using thick acrylics, white and a very dark brown, dabbed onto the stamp with paper towel, to give a really dimensional effect.  




On some you can still see the bricks quite clearly; others are more impressionistic - and yes, I know that's the wrong artistic era for the great masters.  What can I say? -  I'm a 21st century gal - I like to mix and match!











I stamped the flourishes in Versamark Watermark and clear embossed them to give me a home-made Kraft resist effect.







There's some stencilling (using the mesh ribbon which had migrated onto the project from the windowsill, and was being pretty insistent about being included).

And the TH flicking technique, splashing water onto the Distress Inks which are reactive with water, and so give you great effects when the drops hit - you can let them run, or dab them up with kitchen roll.




For some of the solid colour, and to work around the resist areas, I used Distress Inks in Walnut Stain and Vintage Photo with a blending tool, and in other places I brushed on (and wiped off!) some gesso, to get those white highlights I mentioned right at the start.


So you end up with what Douglas Adams would call a WSOGMM (Whole Sort of General MishMash), to provide, I hope, layers of texture and depth to the overall project.





The need for a frame provided a whole fresh challenge.

At first, I thought I'd just stick it on a larger piece of card and paint/tissue tape/cover the edges.  Fortunately, I had ordered some 12x12 paper by post whilst staying here, so there was some packaging large enough to do the job.

But then I decided I really didn't want the 'canvas' standing proud of the frame... I wanted the frame to enclose the canvas, and therefore it needed to have some depth and substance.



Hurrah for Grungeboard, say I!  Who makes it?  Need you ask...?  The genius Tim Holtz has come up with the crafting material from heaven.  It's easy to cut; it's flexible; it can withstand any amount of painting, inking, distressing, embossing without losing its cool; it's made from recycled materials; it even smells delicious!  I'm not kidding - it's kind of marzipanny...

In any case, I had a packet of the Striped sheets, to which I gave a coat of my very dark brown acrylic.  Paint goes on to Grungeboard like a dream... great coverage.



Left like that, it was a bit too slick and dark, though, so I took an emery board to it once the paint was dry, and distressed the strips I'd cut it into, getting plenty of rough, light patches on the raised sections. I then used a blending tool to apply Tea Dye Distress Ink to those places, so that it got a lighter, rusty tone into the mix.  Final step was some very light spritzes of the Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls Mist... gives it a great vintage lustre, just lifting the colour again, but with a lovely aged look, I think.

Here it is still at the background stage... I was pretty reluctant to start covering it up I must say!  But once my (Leonardo's) lovely La Scapigliata took her place, I was happy to go right ahead!

A long post today... but probably my last bit of crafting here in the Czech Republic for now, so I had to make the most of it!  I now have to brave the journey across Europe (taking several days, stopping with friends on the way) and, following advice from other addicts - sorry, I mean crafters - I think I will pack a small bag of emergency stash supplies in case the itch strikes en route!

I can't believe quite how the last few weeks have changed me and the work I'm creating.  I'm entering this not only in the Renaissance Men at Frilly and Funkie, and in Hey, Girl! at Simon Says Stamp and Show, The Fashionable Stamping Challenge who want us to 'Get Messy and Inky', but also as a second entry over at La-De-Dah, for Sarah Engels-Greer's My Mojo Monthly.  The July task/inspiration/prompt there was to try to show 'My Style', and I launched straight in at the beginning of the month (even though I'd only been going a couple of weeks with the blog by then) with a card which, at the time, I loved.

I still like it as a piece - and at the time it was a big step forward -  but while shabby chic still attracts me, it's certainly not where I want to live full-time.  And I seem to have taken so many more big steps since then.  I suppose the truth is that I'm still right at the beginning of my crafting explorations, and it's probably still too soon to be trying to claim that I know what 'My Style' is - but I think this project comes a good deal closer to somewhere I'd like to explore in more depth at this stage of the journey!  And, most importantly, I absolutely loved creating it.

I do hope you've enjoyed your visit today.  Thank you so much for your support; your lovely comments are so wonderful to receive, and to have such loyal and lovely followers is an honour and a joy.  It really makes the journey special...

It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey which matters in the end.
Ursula K. Le Guin

One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.
Henry Miller