Mixed Media Fairy–stack of books

This is the base for the fairy. She will be resting on a stack of books. I’ve spent my time off and on today, prepping the base and the books. The stand is a simple 8” X 10” frame from the thrift store. I cut out the picture that was in it and gave it a rough sanding. A nice feature was the back of the frame, it had been finished with a piece of wood nailed on, bonus… I glued on some wooden feet, and after that dried, went outside and sprayed it all with gold metallic paint.

The next step was to prepare the books. There are tons of videos on YouTube for altering books. You’ll be there for hours watching them all. There is no right or wrong way to alter books, it’s all a personal choice.

Once I had them thinned out, I set about adding the paint. They are going  from stage to stage to stage up to the last picture. There is probably 7 or 8 layers of colour and I will be adding more in the morning to brighten up the edges more. The centers are not necessary to finish, they won’t be seen, other than the top book.

This is the first set of colours…doesn’t look like much but that’s why layers are so important. Right now they just look like colours that have run into each other and that’s good. Just a tip about this kind of project. If you aren’t going to see the whole surface of each layer, you still have to carry the colour close to the center so that when they are stacked up, you won’t see an unfinished/ unpainted area.

After the first layers were dry, I took the gold spray and blasted the sides of the books and onto the tops. At this point you might be getting kind of panicked because now the books are too gold and really washed out. But in this case, I wanted the edges of the pages to be gold and I’ll be adding colours on top of that. I also love to layer colour so this is fine with me to have them dulled down.

This is where I’ve left off for tonight. I’ve stippled layer after layer of colour around the edges and it resembles a garden when you see it up close. When this is put together, I’ll post closer pictures so you can see the layers better. The book at the top left is the bottom book and the stack will finish with the book on the bottom right on the top. So that’s it for this stage, I’m really pleased with how it looks.

When you see something in real life compared to online, there is such a difference. These books look so aged and vintage lying here on the floor, if you click on the picture you can see them a bit better.

Back soon with the final product….. I hope. ;o)