The fish picture 3 is indeed done!!!! And it's about time! I've only been working on this piece for about six weeks now. Started it at the beginning of May and here it is the 11th of June already!
I am quite pleased with the outcome of my efforts!
The pictures that follow are close ups of some of the elements of the canvas. There is a lot to see on this one and I'm afraid the pictures do not do it justice. The colors are off and you can't possibly comprehend the depth and the textures on this canvas!
Enjoy the pictures. I'll keep commentary to a minimum.
In among the fish picture 3 pictures is a picture of the three little books I made in the afternoon on the 10th. You all know I don't know how to add these pictures in the order I'd like them to be! Get used to it, I doubt it's going to change anytime soon! :)
3 Little Books
The pages inside are 6x6 inches, the covers slightly larger. I bought a whole box full of upholstery material samples yesterday at the thrift store. These samples must have come from the 1960s or 1970s. The colors are bright and garish like these three, tweed material, most of it. There are ten pages, 20 sides of paper sewn to the covers with crochet thread in a coordinating color.
I'll be making more of these. There was also a bit of brocade material in floral patterns in that box of samples. The brocades are a bit smaller than the tweeds and not quite so garish with the coloring. I'll be making some little books from the brocade eventually as well.
A list of things used on this canvas:
canvas with a seagull painting (I gave $3 for it at Goodwill.)
dictionary pages to cover the painting that was on the canvas when I bought it (I paid 50 cents for the entire dictionary. I might have used a dozen pages on this canvas. We'll call this 10 cents. Even though it's probably not anywhere near that!)
black glitter paint ($2.97 for the whole bottle. I used very little of it for the background. We'll call this 50 cents)
red nylon scraf material (Boatbird sent me the red nylon scarf in a trade so this one is $0)
green glitter paint (2.97 for the whole bottle. I used quite a bit of this, half the bottle at least so we'll call this $1.50)
gold glitter glue (This was a freebie from my brother. Didn't cost me anything at all, so another $0.)
pink crochet cotton (Freebie from my sister, Kathy, so another $0.)
gold seed beads (Traded other beads for these beads so another $0)
joint compound tinted blue with acrylic paints (The bucket of joint compound was $4 and the acrylic paints, I used purple, blue and gold , not much of any of the acrylics. We'll call this one $3 cause I did use over half of the bucket of joint compound.)
joint compound tinted grey with acrylic paints (We'll just add this in with the previous.)
earth toned varigated eyelash yarn (The skein of yarn cost about $3. Not sure just how much, I've had it awhile and have used most of it on other projects. We'll call this one .25 cents)
red tissue paper (Freebie. Came with one of my Christmas present packaging. So this one's a $0)
fabric stiffener (I bought the fabric stiffener at the thrift store for a quarter. I only used a very small amount of it on the tissue paper. Course I promptly lost the rest of it cause I'll be damned if I know what I did with that bottle! I went looking for it shortly after making the tissue paper sticks for the fan coral and couldn't find it anywhere. Still don't know where it is! Not a big loss....We'll call this one .25 cents.)
copperwire (Freebie. It was salvaged from a piece of electronics. There are three different kinds of copperwire on this canvas. So we have another $0)
crocheted copperwire (Freebie. Salvaged from a dead VCR and crocheted into fan corals. Another $0)
crocheted copperwire and milliflorie beads (Freebies. The copperwire was salvaged from a broken something or other and the milliflorie beads were given to me by my sister Jeanny. So another $0)
purple easter grass, ironed flat and some of it painted with olive green metallic acrylic paint (I paid 10 cents for that bag of purple easter grass on clearance at Dollar General. I hardly put a dent in the bag with what I used for this piece! The paint costs $2.97 for the bottle and I used very little of it on this piece. We'll say this one is .10 cents only because we have to give it something.)
yellow premade styrofoam flower centers (I paid .25 cents for 2 packages of these things at the thrift store. I only used one package.. there were 11 of them in it but for some reason only 10 of them made it on the canvas. I think one of them is hiding on the floor under the easel cause I dropped them when I went to clip off the wire stems that were on them. These were also painted with gold dimensional paint. A bottle of it costs $1.17. I used over half the bottle on the entire canvas so we'll call this one .65 cents)
crocheted fishing line (Freebie. Might as well be a freebie anyway. I've had that spool of fishing line for years! I didn't use much of it! So another $0)
rose glitter paint (A bottle of this costs $2.97. I used about 1/4 of the bottle on this canvas so we'll call this one .75 cents)
blue glitter paint (A bottle of this costs $2.97. I used about 1/4 of the bottle on this canvas so we'll call this one .75 cents as well.)
polymer clay beads and copperwire (I don't recall how much that package of sculpey was when I bought it last year. I only used about 20 beads made with it on this canvas. The copperwire was a freebie salvaged from some dead electronic thing. We'll call this .25 cents. I probably didn't use a quarter's worth of polymer clay but the acrylic paint cost a small bit as well.)
styrofoam and red acrylic paint (The styrofoam came from packaging for an electric winch so it was a freebie. The red acrylic costs about $1 a bottle...or it did when that paint was bought. We are going to call this one another $0 simply because I threw that bottle of paint away after I painted the rocks because it was full of boogers and wasn't worth keeping for anything else.)
purple glass beads and florist wire (The beads were freebies from my sister Jeanny and the florist wire cost $3 for a hank of it. I used about 6 yards of it for all the things fashioned out of it on this canvas. I think there are like 25 yards of it on the hank. That makes it .08 cents a yard... 8x6 is 48 so we'll call this one .50 cents)
fake pearls (Freebies from my sister Jeanny so again we have $0)
copperwire rolled into little balls (All copperwire was free so another $0)
red acrylic leaf beads and florist wire (I paid .50 cents for the red acrylic leaf beads and we already added in the florist wire so this one is .50 cents)
plastic leaf beads painted with acrylics (Freebies for the beads. My sister Jeanny again. The acrylic paint was that same red stuff I threw away when I was done with it. So $0)
tacky glue (Tacky glue costs $3.57 for a big bottle and that's what I usually buy. I didn't use too awful much tacky glue on this canvas. We'll call this one .50)
clear sealant glue (I ran out of E6000 and had to use this crap. This tube of glue is very similar to E6000 but it's much thinner and things don't like to stay where you put them unless you weigh them down with something. I used almost half of this tube of glue. It cost $1. 97 so we'll call this one $1)
E6000 (A tube of E6000 costs $2.97. I went through a tube and a half od E6000 on this canvas so that's $4.50)
Elmer's glue (I buy school glue which is what Elmer's glue is when it is on sale after school starts. I paid .20 cents a bottle for it back in September of 09. We will call this one .10 cents even though I didn't use anywhere near half a bottle of it.)
fishes are made from:
copy paper (A ream of paper has 500 sheets, costs $4 and I used a total of 2 sheets of paper for the fishes. We are going to call this one $0 only cause I don't know how to justify saying it's worth anything when one sheet of paper out a ream of 500 costs way less than a penny!)
black slick fabric paint (This bottle of paint cost $3.97 and I used about !/4 of the bottle on the fishes so well call this one $1)
red glitter glue (A bottle of this costs $2.97. I used less than 1/4 of the bottle so we'll call this one .75 cents.)
gold glitter paint (A bottle of this costs $2.97. I used less than 1/4 of the bottle so we'll call this one .75 cents))
blue glitter paint (A bottle of this costs $2.97. I used less than 1/4 of the bottle so we'll call this one .75 cents)
red glass seed beads (Freebie from my sister Jeanny. So another $0)
gold glass tube beads (I paid .25 cents for these at a yard sale. I used a total of 34 beads. There were hundreds of them in the package I had. We will call this one $0)
white paint pen (This pen costs $4. I've used it on numerous ATCs since I got it. We will call this one .25 cents.)
I really don't have a lot of money invested in this picture. Much more time invested than money for sure! Along side the ingredients in the list above are the cost to me of those materials. I made this list more for myself than anyone else. I didn't count the actual hours worked on this canvas but the next one I do I will keep a log of the ingredients, the cost to me and the time spent working on the picture.
I couldn't even begin to say just how many actual hours were involved but the total cost as I've outlined it above is $21.70. I spent more on glue than on any of the components of the piece.
I'm unsure just what will happen with this canvas. I intend to see if the Art Center wants to put it in the gift shop but they already have two of my canvases and they don't have a great deal of room for large pieces of artwork. The other option I have is to go talk to Robyn's friend at the Gallery downtown and see if they will sell it on commission for me. I'll be asking $150.00 for simply because of all the time and handwork that went into it. Guess we'll see if it sells wherever it ends up!
Go get your hugs, people! You need them!
Be good to one another!
I shall return soon with more artwork to show. I have a boatload of ATCs that you all haven't seen. I need to go to bed right now though. I've been awake for 22 hours and sleep is calling! Couldn't go to bed though till that fish picture was done.
Peace
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