Starfish For Eyes

Hello everyone!

It's time for a new challenge at Fun With ATCs, and this time we're heading Underwater...  

Do hop over and have a look at what my fantastic team-mates have been up to, and we're looking forward to seeing how you tackle the Underwater theme on your 2.5 x 3.5 inch ATCs.

Here's what I came up with.  

I'm afraid this is a photo-heavy post, as this project is one thing when you have it in your hands and can turn it and move it to see all around, but hellishly difficult to capture in a photograph!

It all came about from the idea of a really trying to get under some water, and from a song.    

The song behind this ATC is the Little Water Song, written by Nick Cave and sung by the fabulous Ute Lemper in the version I've linked to.  If you don't know it, I highly recommend a listen. 

(Apologies to those in Germany - I already know you won't be able to activate that link... I tried on my way back from the Czech Republic, having made this several weeks ago.)

It's a really eerie song, with a play on the love cliché  "you take my breath away".  

It appears at first, to be a love song, and a celebration of being underwater, with "starfish for eyes", but gradually it becomes apparent that, in fact, the singer is being drowned by her lover.  

What's not to love about that?! 

So I started with the idea of a layer of alcohol inked acetate, which would be my "water", so that I could then create something underneath it.  I wanted to have a border around the edge where the water really showed up by itself, so it's the acetate that measures 2.5 x 3.5, larger than the "seabed" underneath.

Apologies for the blurry appearance.  I promise it's not the photo - it's the shadow of the inks on the paper underneath creating the double-vision!












It was an added bonus by the time I'd finished, as when the sun shines through it you get a wonderful full-colour shadow effect!

The "seabed" - some watery spritz and flick technique on Distress Inks - is a little smaller than ATC sized, so that you get that watery border over the top. 

Because she's "dead", or at least dying, in the song, I wanted the woman in my ATC to be almost subliminal - barely there.

  




I used an Artistic Stamper image from the Seaside #1 plate - at a bargain price as Stamp of the Week this week - but wiped the ink from around her, so that it was just the woman and no background.  

I stamped her in Versamark and clear embossed her, so she has a real "now-you-see-her-now-you-don't" quality.  I love that she's somewhere in between waving and drowning (Stevie Smith, anyone?!).

I toyed with the idea of giving her "starfish for eyes" as the song lyric says, but decided they'd be too tiny to make an impact.  

So, instead, I used the large starfish from the same Artistic Stamper set, and embossed him in copper with a hint of Antique Linen Distress embossing powder sprinkled in for texture.

I also used the Antique Distress powder to give myself some underwater sandbanks around the corners of my "seabed". 

At this point, I hadn't really worked out how to get my layer of water (a.k.a. acetate) to hover over the top of the scene I was building.  I thought, at first, of using the sponge pads out of the Texture Fades packaging (as I've done on a couple of projects to create dimension).

But the brainwave came out of the blue - shells!  If I used some tiny shells, perhaps the water would sit on them without needing any extra support.

The positioning was obviously key, as was finding several shells of roughly equal size, so that the acetate would sit level not at some bizarre angle. 

But amongst the hoarded bits and bobs in the dollshouse museum there was a whole collection of tiny shells and stones.  

The father of the family in the large Edwardian house is a collector of shells and fossils, so most of them were originally collected for him, I think - but he already has plenty, so these were just leftovers. 

I arranged my selected pieces on my sandbanks, and used Glossy Accents to glue the "water" on top, sealing my almost invisible woman into her watery tomb.

In bright sunlight, she almost disappears in the shimmering water... but she's there alright, in the murky depths beneath.  

I can't wait to see what the Underwater theme inspires you to create - do come and play along. You have a whole fortnight starting from today!

Under here, you just take my breath away.
Under here, the water flows over my head.
I can feel the little fishes. 

Under here, whispering your most terrible name. 
Under here, they've given me starfish for eyes
and your head is a big, red balloon.

Under here, your huge hand is heavy on my chest
and under here, Sir, your lovely voice retreats.
And yes, you take my breath away...






Look at my hair as it waves and waves.
Sir, under here I have such pretty hair. 
Silver it is and filled with silver bubbles. 

Under here my blood will be a cloud
and under here my dreams are made of water.
And Sir, you just take my breath away... 

For under here, my pretty breasts are piled high
with stones and I cannot breathe. 
And tiny little fishes enter me. 

Under here, I'm made ready
and under here, I am washed clean. 
And I glow with the greatness of my hate for you.

Little Water Song, lyrics by Nick Cave

I'd like to enter this in the following:
At Simon Says Stamp and Show they're playing with the Letter S - I have Starfish, Sea, Shells, Stones and Song for you.  Oh, and Stamping, of course!
And the Stampotique Designers Challenge would like to see something Transparent
The shells have been around for over 25 years, so I hope that counts as Dusting Off My Old Supplies for Anything But A Card
And as a second entry into the Anything Goes at Simon Says Stamp