Thursday, April 18, 2013

Art of Science Challenge: REVEAL...

The lovely and talented, Tara Linda, hosted a challenge on her blog.  The prompt was an image of Orion's Nebula taken by NASA.  She first proposed the challenge HERE.

I have always loved these images of outer space.  To me, they've always looked like the most luminescent silk paintings of billowing celestial clouds.  This is the birthplace of stars.

The image of a place of creation stuck with me.  I kept thinking that this faraway place will make new constellations... they will be constellations within a constellation. This is where the children of the heavens are born... the star children.

I did two things in this piece that I normally don't do in my work... I broke out the plastic babies and the glitter.

I gessoed and covered the plastic baby in gold-leaf.  Simultaneously, I prepared the inside of a copper, fold-formed box I made recently.  I sealed all the seams, coated everything in gesso, and then added layers of paint.  My trusty hairdryer helped speed this process up.  I then had a high quality image of the nebula printed on a laser printer and glued it in place.  I sealed the image and noticed that the photo had sort of flattened.  Those sparks of life that give the original a truly ephemeral feeling kind of disappeared.  So this is where the glitter comes in.  I sparingly used it to simulate the stars. I glued the baby down and once everything was dry, I embedded the baby in resin.

I wasn't exactly thrilled with the end result.  It needed something else.  I busted out the drill and created four recessions in the corners of the surface of the resin.  I set vintage rhinestones in the holes.  I think that it's a nice little detail that elevates the piece.  The crystals seem to float and gives it another dimension.

The pendant that I made was simply strung on a stainless steel ball chain.  I had originally planned this elaborate embellished chain with clusters of beads in the colors from the photo, but I thought it distracted too much from the actual pendant and had a little too much Rainbow Brite action.  So I edited it down to just a length of ball chain.

Check out what the other challengers made:

Tara Linda
Angie Warren
D of Wondrous Strange Designs
Sarajo ~ SJ Designs
Marina of Fanciful Devices
Andrew Thornton (You are here)

7 comments:

TesoriTrovati said...

Super awesome use of babies and glitter! I love the depth of the piece. And what a fabulous idea for a hop and challenge. Will check out the others. Enjoy the day. Erin

Sarajo Wentling said...

I got a good laugh at your comment about breaking out the plastic babies and glitter! Too funny. Your piece turned out pretty cool.

Thanks so much for sharing the info about this challenge... I had a great time participating!

dgmidkiff said...

I love the depth you created as well:)So much color in such a small space. Great work!!

Toltec Jewels for Jewel School Friends said...

What a brilliant pendant! The birth of stars is a beautiful event, and your work is a celestial celebration -- very cool. Love the theme of the blog hop, too!

Anonymous said...

Oh I love this Andrew!! I want to look directly into it; it has so much depth to it. How imaginative and cool. I too used the image in my second piece (still curing...) I will finish it this weekend, but it won't be half as cool as yours Lol!! Thank you for participating ;)

somethingunique said...

That is just so sweet...love it...!!! And as always enjoy your story telling....take care....xox

Works From The Attic by Linda said...

I love it! What a great interpretation of the original piece.