Riikka Kovasin - Paperiliitin: Look for the Magic

Sweet Thursday to you all! Today I'm sharing my Finnabair Ambassador project for July. This time the theme was machines by Leonardo da Vinci. What a fantastic theme by Vasilis Kontos.

When looking at the machine drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, I was intrigued by the flying apparatuses. I found the detailed drawings of the bat like wings the most beautiful and inspiring. Using those, and the beautiful sepia tones of the drawings as my inspiration, I created a machine of my own. Well, I maybe shouldn’t call it a machine when the inspiration was a master of mechanics as it’s more a collection of gears.

I started by coloring a block of wood black with black gesso. On top I then collaged some pieces of old books and music notes using Soft Body Gel as my adhesive. I then colored the whole surface with a combination of three different Liquid Acrylic colors. Then I made the assemblage on top using both Mechanicals gears and die cut ones. I also re-used a piece of an older project I did for a publication (link).

I first was playing with the idea of doing the wing myself by using some kind of wooden pins and paper or leather paper. But then I remembered that Finnabair had a perfect mould for the job! I cast the wing piece using hot glue, my favorite way, and then colored it. I didn’t want a perfect, solid coating so it was a process of adding and rubbing off paint when coloring. I’m really pleased how the wing turned out. There’s still places with the translucency of the glue showing, imitating the translucency of thin leather or cloth the wing might have been made.

Thank you for stopping by today! Keep an eye for the other Finnabair Ambassador projects with the same theme!