The Railway Children

Hello all!  I'm so happy you've found the time to stop by - and an especially big welcome to the new followers... it's wonderful to have your company!



I've been so enjoying playing with the Artistic Outpost Steampunk stamps - the images delight me.  I did warn you, if you saw this piece, that you'd be seeing more of them soon.  


And when I bumped into a couple of Childhood and literature challenges on my travels, it kindled a fresh spark of inspiration - my mind went straight to Edith Nesbit's The Railway Children.


So I combined the AO stamps with one of what I now think of in my own head as 'the butterfly children' from Crafty Individuals to come up with this...


It's a small collaged wall hanging inspired by a combination of the stamps and the book and, to be honest, the film of the book too - which is part of my childhood as much as the book is.










When I first got the stamp set, I stamped the images quite simply in archival black on some smooth cardstock - just trying them out.  

But then they were sitting there on one corner of my table, begging to be used... so here they are.  They are inked with Vintage Photo (what else?!), creased and torn up a little, and the edges ribbed with the Tim Holtz Paper Distresser.  

I then gave them both a coat of Rock Candy Crackle Paint, and left them to get on with crackling.






In the meantime, I got on with creating a background.  I decided to use some thick watercolour paper, and set to work with some of my favourite DIs (you can see them all lying around here).  

I put smears of Vintage Photo, Stormy Sky, Frayed Burlap etc etc straight on to the craft mat, gave them a good spritz of water and played with the lovely TH wrinkle free distress technique, building up the layers of colour.  Once dry, I also blended some inks on with a blending tool.  And there's an edging of Vintage Photo Distress Embossing Powder to frame it.



You'll see in one corner a ghostly image of the butterfly girl.  I sort of liked it, but she wasn't quite present enough, so I changed the plan, and added another touch of 'book-ness' to the piece by stamping both her and her "father" (another stamp from the AO set) onto pages torn from an old book.  (I have to own up: I'm afraid it's not a copy of The Railway Children, but rather some pages left over from this alteration of Great Expectations - sorry!)  If you look closely, you'll see her hair ribbon is part of the background - accident or deliberate positioning - you decide!!

 

The sentiment, stamped and crackle-glazed into one of the Funkie Junkie's lovely rusted bottle tops, comes straight from one of the most tear-jerking scenes... and I'm afraid here is where it's definitely the film rather than the book that I'm remembering from childhood.  

There's something in the tone of Jenny Agutter's voice as she says this line - recognising her father on the station platform after being separated from him for so long - that really strikes a wonderful note of poignant unbearable hope and relief.  (You can get a taste of what I mean here.)



And, with my Words hat on, I think it's a perfect line... it wouldn't be nearly so effective if she just said "Daddy, Daddy!" - I believe it's in the sigh of the ay sound in the "my" in between the Daddys that all the emotion really lives.

It's surrounded with TH Idea-ology gears, and there's another rusty Funkie Junkie piece in the form of the heart up by the father's face.  

It's my first use of the eyelets and eyelet tool I got for an absolute pittance in the Czech Republic over the summer, and I've used some dark brown leather thong to hang it.  

The same leather is used to adorn the lace at the foot of the piece - more CZ shopping, inked with Antique Linen and Vintage Photo to soften its rather luminous whiteness!  


The two little tickets could either be platform tickets - which you used to have to buy if you wanted to go onto the station platform just to see somebody off on the train, or perhaps they're cinema tickets to go and see a Saturday morning showing of The Railway Children in the 1970s.




And then the pen nibs are there to take us back to the written form of the story - back to Children's Literature...  By the way, I do know that my butterfly girl is really too young for the role, but there's something so right in her expression of expectation, that for me fits perfectly with that haunting cry, "Daddy, my Daddy!".

So glad you found the time to drop by (especially if you've done it twice... second post today!), and I look forward to repaying the visit as soon as I have the chance.  In the meantime, enjoy doing whatever it is you enjoy doing!





"Apple pie for breakfast - we can't be poor after all!"
From The Railway Children by E.Nesbit

I'm entering this for the following:
I'd like to add it to the Ranger competition for the new Distress colours to show what I've been doing with Distress Ink pads - the background, the inking of the lace, all the distressing - all with my favourite ever inks!  I use them on everything I make, but this is one where I think they really shine...
Crafty Boots are having a challenge theme of Children's Stories
The Craftroom Challenge want our Childhood Memories - this is very much one of mine, but I'd like to add that I didn't see it when it came out in 1970 - but a few years after that!
Vienna Impressions are looking for pieces inspired by Art, Music or Literature, with brown ribbon
The Artistic Outpost September challenge - Anything Goes using AO stamps
With the heart and the bottle top from the Funkie Junkie Boutique, I'd like to offer this up for the Sunday Share at Frilly and Funkie
The Simon Says Stamp Challenge are on an Anything Goes week