Playing with Pan pastels is fun still, so this journal page has a whole background made with Pan pastels, Finnabairs clear gesso and stencils in Seawhite hardcover art journal (25x19 cm / 10"x7.5") :0).
At first I used foam applicator with light blue Pan pastel for whole background, than I used a waved stencil from Simon says stamp with darker blue pastel and than I covered whole page with two layers of clear gesso (just to be sure that I will not destroy my thinner journal paper later). Finnabair's gesso is quite smooth, so I could easily used it for my next step - I covered whole page with third - darkest - blue color of Pan pastel. Clear gesso holds pastel beautifully, but I was still able to remove some of this third color layer with wet baby wipe through circle stencil. Final result are the lighter circles with visible wavy pattern from first two layers of Pan pastel.
Then I used Tim Holtz white texture paste with TCW Nautilus stencil and I reduced the shine of the white color with light blue pastel applied with brush. The structure of the paste is a little bit rough, so I didn't want to use my foam applicator for it and I had a better blending possibility.
At the end I embellished whole background and shells with Indigoblu gilding flakes and I wanted to have at least the central circle a little bit dimensional, not just flat. Here I found out one important thing (for next time), that I really don't like the Indigoblu special gilding glue for this kind of gilding. Maybe it was because of the layers of Pan pastel, but it did not hold the flakes well when I brushed the excess flakes off (some parts ended scraped, although I did use a quite soft brush) and on some spots it left some "rubbery" sticky lumps....so for example the gold circle I gilded three times and rest of the page two times. In the end, for the last trial I used Design-Metall liquid gilding milk from Efco instead (you can use any gilding liquid). You can put the leaves on it in 15 minutes after application, it holds the leaves with no problems and with no sticky residue. I also applied the protective varnish for metal leaves from the same company, so it could keep the shine of the metal leaves and protect them from scratches for a longer time (unfortunately metal leaves are not the real gold, so they will not stay shiny forever). Outcome of this experience is, that next time I will use the white gesso or a texture paste to build a dimensional objects and than lay the metal leaves on gilding milk.
The sea horse was stamped with Indigoblu gilding glue, gilded and colored with Dylusions sprays in waterbrush. I also re-gilded some parts of it with gilding milk and used the gilding varnish.
At the end I must say, that this page was a great creative adventure and I really enjoyed all new techniques, although it was a bit difficult in a few moments :0)
2.4.2016 Playful journal page 7
