Inspired By... Artful Adventures in Mixed Media

It's again the 10th of the month and time for the "Inspired by" creation! But what is Inspired by? Every month awesome Marsha and I choose a subject to be inspired by. It can be for example an idea (link), a product (link), a poem (link), a movie (link) or a book (link). Or anything! Then we make something inspired by that theme or a piece of art and share it with you and each other on the 10th of the month. You can browse the past "Inspired By" posts from here (link).

This time we chose a book and not just any book. It's the one by Nathalie Kalbach called "Artful Adventures in Mixed Media". The book is about mixed media - about gathering inspiration, about techniques and art basics. I just love the way the book is divided and it's super inspiring! The book has eight chapters and they are like building blocks - you start with the base and go for the height. You can read more about the book here (link). 

Like the title suggests the book is about adventures, about gathering inspiration on the go. It can be a walk around the block or an adventure in the internet but there's also ideas about documenting and gathering inspiration during a holiday or travel. Somehow this angle rang with me the most. It might have got to do with the fact that I started to read the book while I was away from home, celebrating midsummer at my mother-in-law's. Or it might be the fact that I was really looking forward to our family vacation to London.

The book really effected the way I was gathering and experiencing the trip to London. The high point to me and to my girls was collecting sea shells one evening on the bank of Thames. Naturally we saw a lot of inspiring stuff, especially in Tate Modern, but somehow that moment was THE one. And I claim that without the book, I've never would have gone down those steps to the river shore and look for treasures. 

I also took photos of tea stains in the concrete stairs of Tate Modern and found rusty things in many turns. I again claim the credit for this to the book. There's a lot of familiar but it also has the spark Nat has. Everyone can be creative and many things can spark that inspiration. In my honest opinion, everyone should read this book. It's thrilling and exciting! 

So when it come to make something inspired by the book, I turned to my stash of inspiration I brought back from London. Besides the seashells there was a corrugated tea mug wrapper, some coins that couldn't be exchanged back to euros, a 5 pound note my mom gave us before the trip and that was outdated and a huge pile of brochures, cards and various ephemera from the museums we visited. 

There was also a ceramic button with a face I bought from Victoria and Albert that really sparked the idea. I just happened to lay it on top of one of the seashell pieces and voila! the outcome was an angelic being. I continued the thought by adding two other pieces for wings. 

As I was playing with the travel theme, I threw in some ephemera I had from the trip to Frankfurt in the beginning of the year. They were just laying there as I had been playing with a paint sample I got while I was attending the Creative World. There was a sheet of thick paper with golden watercolor ground on it and also a turquoise stone, both received with the sample paint from Daniel Smith watercolors. 

I first finished the angel piece but felt that as I had materials left, I could do more. So I did three pieces total and adhered them to a piece of watercolor paper and framed the bunch. 

The assemblage has a lot less painty layers and mediums than I usually use but it was so fun to make and this way the little pieces from the travel get all the attention. Boy it was relaxing and fun to make these! And one extra fun part still is the fact that now that this frame hangs in my wall, I can remember the time me and the girls went picking shells from Thames and also the time that I went around the show floor in Frankfurt with dear Marsha and Birgit! 

Thank you so much for your visit today! I really urge you to buy or borrow the book if you already haven't! And what you definitely should do is to go and visit Marsha's blog as I can't wait to see what she has created with this source! 

Have a great Sunday!