(One that I'd hoped to get out much sooner.)
Christmas had always been a huge deal at our house, growing up. The Christmas tree took three days to put up, on account of how particular my mother was about affixing each of the 1,836,789 ornaments on the right branch, next to the perfect-colored light. Decorating that tree seemed to be the highlight of her year. She'd once left it up until Good Friday, but that's another story.
It took over a week to put up my tree this year, owing to a revolving door of art shows, illnesses, Nutcracker rehearsals/performances, volunteer commitments, and the usual chaos that rules my life. Still, I spent some time in the studio (aka Our Lady of Perpetual Chaos), working on graffiti-inspired Christmas ornaments. (You'll probably see some of that creative chaos in the final result.)
Start with a glass craft ornament.
Adhere strips of tissue paper to the ornament. You may wish to add several layers in some areas to vary the texture. Let dry.
I used several colors of tissue paper to cover the ornaments.
Next, mix up some acrylic glazes.
Using random strokes, paint layers of glazes over the tissue paper. Let dry between layers. Here, I also added texture by painting sections of rubber shelf liner with heavy body acrylic and then rolling the ornament over it.
Experiment with other materials you may have around. On these ornaments, I also used fabric spray paint, alcohol ink, and india ink.
To add even more texture, I painted the tops of the ornaments silver and, when dry, added a coat of glass bead medium. It would eventually dry nearly transparent.
Almost done!
Afterwards, I used markers to write Christmas sayings, such as Merry, Comfort & Joy, Noel, Silent Night, and Peace on the ornaments. I also decorated them with stars and hearts.
A lot of work, but a ton of fun!
1 comment:
Cool, cool, cool! I love these! Next year I am going to do a funky cool tree with lots of handmade ornaments - I will certainly try these! Hope your holiday was special and bright! Jessi xox
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