The Music of Silence

Time for the last sample using EAB03 Music and Silence (click to catch Rainbow Serenity and/or the Singing Zinskis if you missed them).  I wanted this one to go out on a Sunday as this triptych seemed just right for a day of contemplation.

These tags were very simple to make and I hope that in that simplicity they offer peace and serenity.  This was a lovely project to make, marrying my new quotes with older PaperArtsy images, and finding that those images take on new life and meaning for me.





I started with a trusty favourite - the PaperArtsy Crackle Glaze.  It's a two step process, so you choose your background paint colour, then apply the glaze and then your top coat of paint goes over that.

I'm working with the gentlest of palettes, so there's French Roast in the background with a thin coat of glaze applied with a palette knife... the thinner, the better. 









Once the glaze is dry (which you can speed along with a heat tool), you can apply the top coat of paint.  You have to do it fairly efficiently as the crackle magic starts happening pretty much immediately, so it's no good going over an area twice once you've started. 












That top layer of paint has to be left to dry and crackle by itself.  Depending on glaze and paint thicknesses, you'll get lovely variegation in your weathered crackle.















Once it was ready, I did some simple dip and smoosh into Stormy Sky Distress Ink on my craft mat - don't seem to have any photos of this step, but you can see the effect on most of these photos.
















When I work with a triptych I like to find a balance across all three panels, so I juggled a little with the positioning of the quotes and the image placement so that there would be a harmony to the set.















I was thrilled to find that by splitting the Victor Hugo quote... 













... the second half fitted completely perfectly into the bookplate in the collage stamp from Hot Picks 1006.













This Music and Silence plate includes some of my favourite quotes of all time.  In fact, these Pythagoras words accompany my Skype identity. 














As a (mostly) former insomniac, I know the value of a quiet mind.  There are still occasional nights where it won't shut up, but I know how to work with it now.









Apart from the Hot Picks birds-in-grasses collage in the middle, the other stamps are all from the Urban Snapshots Nature series.  (Remember you can click on the photos to see a larger version.)

I've always loved the statue (and thankfully it has remained free of the Doctor Who "Blink" horrors), and now, paired with my favourite words, I love it even more!

A couple of leafy branches provide useful balancing of the composition on each tag.
















I've done some subtle background stamping also using the quotes.  I think it's Archival French Ultramarine, if memory serves.  And obviously each tag has the echo of its own words going on.

I used some inked white card to mat and frame the tags (they're going on the display boards, so I think the framing is good to define and draw the eye in.













And simple rustic twine tops them off - no need for anything extravagant here... we're all about the tranquillity today.






So, we've finally reached the end of the Music and Silence samples... a little more Autumn and Winter to come and we'll soon be done!  Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I hope you're enjoying a wonderful Sunday, whatever you're up to.

It is neither wealth nor splendour, but tranquillity and occupation which give you happiness.
Thomas Jefferson