A Celtic Fable

 A Celtic Fable - (6x9" closed)

Last October when I took a workshop from Lynne Perrella, she brought, as always, a number of examples of red rosin work to show the class.  One was a piece I hadn't seen before with an Asian theme. She had cut and folded it to make it into a book.

 I was struck not only by the design, but by the feel of the paper - there were so many layers of paint on it it felt like leather.  I decided then and there that I wanted to re-create that leather feel on a piece of my own.

  As usual with my ideas it marinated for a few months in my mind and I came up with the concept of doing something Celtic.  A Celtic Fable was conceived and now is born!

 I started by gessoing the front and back of a 16x24" piece of red rosin paper adding some bits of cheesecloth here and there on the front for texture.  When dry, I painted the back using Lumiere's Pearlescent Blue and then stenciled Celtic knots with Golden's Iridescent Gold Deep (fine) and Quinacradone Crimson.

 I used the same three colours on the front side along with an Unbleached Titanium  from Liquetex. The Celtic knot stencils were employed again (thanks to friend Destiny for cutting these for me!) and the small web stencil from  Mary Beth Shaw's Stencil Girl. Sequin scrim (or punchinella) provided the small groups of dots. Portfolio Water Soluble Oil Pastels in red and blue were lightly scrumbled over the cheese cloth and then hit with a heat gun to bring out the colour and affix them to the strands of the cloth.

 Various bits of Celtic imagery (xerox copies) were adhered with matte medium, I rubbed these lightly with a small amount of paint on my fingers to "ghost" them out and make them sink into the surface. Splatters in all four colours were next. A few bits of red cheesecloth (courtesy of Lynne's friend Steve Sorman fine art printer maker) were affixed with matte medium.

I found a small Celtic knot stamp in Margot's stash (a clingmount - couldn't find a designer's mark on it) and sprinkled it throughout the piece using Ranger's Archival Black.  Gold circles were punched out of joss paper and adhered with matte medium.  Sumi ink was used to add "mystic" symbols.  The final touch a few Celtic charms (from earrings) were sewn on with FireLine.

The paper was folded and cut to turn it into book form.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  The paper does indeed, with all it's layers, feel very much like leather. Thanks once again to the incomparable  Lynne Perrella for not only the inspiration but for teaching the techniques to achieve it.