Prince at Heart

I finished the art project I was working on. I have posted more pictures here, if you want to see them. I am calling this "Prince at Heart".

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The piece began life as a white resin carved winged-heart which was given to me to decorate. I painted it with a green wash, then another, then clear coat, brown wash, clear coat, teal wash, green wash, more green....well, you get the idea. I just kept going until it seemed 'done'. Then a final clear coat.

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But it was just a green heart...nothing special about it! So I finally decided my embellishment would be a frog. This was one of those sand-filled little things you can sometimes find in stores, but never when you are looking for them! It was originally yellow with fuscha feet...but I painted it with Dye-na-flow #820 (Emerald Green). After that dried overnight, I painted it again, this time with Lumiere #565 (Metallic Bronze), and used Lumiere #568 (Pearl White) on his belly.

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But I was sure that just paint alone wasn't gonna do it...he wasn't 'special' enough. So I pulled out the beads! Actually, I went to the store for beads... I used a 'Mahogony Mix' of Czech glass beads on his back, and used Delica "Topaz Rainbow" on his sides and nose. The beads that are scattered on the heart were from stash...also from Czech glass mixes...as is the dark red 'heart' bead on his back.

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Beading through fabric that has been painted is not easy! I had to frequently use jewelry pliers to pull the needle through the fabric. I got best results by using 2 needles...one a small beading needle and one a #7 embroidery needle. I strung beads with the long thin needle, then couched them to the frog with the embroidery needle.

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To attach the frog to the heart required drilling holes into it. I determined the placement, then drilled 4 tiny holes with a 1/16th" bit. I shaped jewelry wire pins and hand-sewed them onto the underside of the frog's legs (and hands?) then pushed the pins through the heart and coiled the wires to hold the frog tightly in place.

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Well, I didn't like the placement! He was too high on the heart. So I cut off the coils, unsewed the pins from the frog legs...made new pins and sewed them onto the legs...drilled NEW holes for the front legs, putting the back legs into the holes previously used for the front legs...better!

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But now there were extra holes in the heart. They were small, and I was ignoring them at first, then I stuck a bead on a pin and inserted it into the hole....YES! So I drilled MORE holes in the heart and added more beads to the heart, including the dangling heart bead that the frog is intent on reaching.

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This was donated to the Wings Cancer Foundation, to be sold at auction at their 'Une Grande Soiree"-- A Wine Tasting and Art Auction

Saturday, November 1

7:00pm - 10:00pm

Clark Opera Memphis Center