Wobbly Circles

Hello all!  This weekend I will mostly be singing, so in my absence I'm leaving you with a few more details about the first of the journalling pages I shared in my Birthday Blues (and Browns and Greens!).  It's as much for me as anything - so that I have a record of what I did in case I want to create similar effects in future.


It's the only completed page so far in my Dina Wakley journal - though some of them are growing on me, and I might just decide they are finished after all, and leave them alone. 


Since it's full of finger-painted circles and meadow grasses, I thought I'd squeeze this one in under the wire for the April themes at That's Crafty Challenges where they are Going Round in Circles, and at Stamps and Stencils where they are In the Meadow this month - I couldn't miss that one!















There are so many layers here, and it was all done some weeks ago while I was still in New York, so I'm not sure that I can remember exactly what I used for all of it, but there are a couple of progress photos which will guide us through at least some of the elements.














I know I started with some Idea-ology tissue wrap in the background, the Postale version, stuck on in scraps.  Over that, I added some torn book page scraps, gesso, and Distress Paints in (probably) Broken China/Tumbled Glass and Pumice Stone.














And I also remember very clearly deciding to do some finger painting.  That's how the gesso circles appeared... the larger ones swept around and the smaller ones simple dabbed on in one movement and lifted away to leave some dimension.














Next I added some teabag scraps and some charcoal pencil, smudged with my fingers...















... to add a touch of shading to the large circles and around some of the paper scraps.













Then my lovely walnut ink came into play - partly applied with the dipping pen, sometimes allowed to dribble and drip, and sometimes splattered on from the pen nib.

And I also used some of my much loved Indigo and Indanthrone Blue watercolours by Daniel Smith.  They are perfect for creating melancholy shadows.












I scribbled on some journalling with white pen - look closely, it's mostly over the teabag scraps - and then decided everything needed softening a little...















... so I applied Picket Fence Distress Crayon over all the texture, sometimes smudging it, and sometimes just leaving it in its natural state.















I love the combination of colour-softening and texture-highlighting that this achieved.















I couldn't resist adding some meadow grasses and flowers.  These are from Rubber Dance's Weed Love plate, and stamped in Archival ink.















They're such delightfully delicate and intricate images.
















I wanted the Queen Anne's Lace to have a touch more presence...















... so I added first of all some dark pen work...















... and then some highlights with white pen to those flower heads.















Finally, I sought out some Clippings fragments which fitted the thoughts underlying the page.













The phrases are linked in some cases by words added with the dipping pen and walnut ink.














None of it is particularly neat and tidy, but then life isn't neat and tidy, is it?  I wanted a sense of spontaneity and freedom, so I tried really hard not to try really hard with the writing!












I love how the texture of the watercolour cotton paper shows through in places, even after all those layers.















And my finger-painted circles make me happy...















... as of course do the clambering vines and twining grasses.














I had a semi-gloss gel medium with me in my travelling stash, rather than a matte one, so in sunlight you also get this rather magical glimmer in places.











I was cross at the time that I had no matte gel to hand, but in the end I rather like the effect of the glossier medium.  As you know, I've always loved trying to capture light in my work as well as shadows.

Thank you for spending some time with me here at Words and Pictures this weekend.  I hope you've enjoyed getting a closer look at some of what is going on in this page, and I hope you're all enjoying some "me-time" doing whatever it is which brings you joy.







There are patterns which emerge in one's life, circling and returning anew, an endless variation of a theme.
Jacqueline Carey

Life is a full circle, widening until it joins the circle motions of the infinite.
Anaïs Nin

I'd like to enter this in Going Round in Circles at the That's Crafty Challenge Blog
And at Stamps and Stencils where they are In the Meadow this month