Tree and moon pendant

I decided that the time had come to clear my desk. I had too many half-finished projects lying around and they were all taking up too much brain space and causing stress because they weren’t being done. I needed to make space for new things.

I’m not counting the stack of backgrounds I’ve made or even the stamps I’ve coloured: those are resources, not projects. I mean the things I’ve had an idea what to do with, maybe started gathering supplies, or applied some paint or… things that have an endpoint associated with them, however vague.

This pendant definitely falls under the “vague” category. Very vague. I had originally thought I would add it to a mixed media panel and had given it a coat of paint in preparation, but then that went in a different direction and this has been sitting, painted, without a purpose for months.

This was in the middle of my “let’s see what else I can paint matt black” phase. I really love Stuart Semple’s black 2.0 but it’s not designed to be handled lots, so when I got the email saying he’d come up with a varnish that would work with the matt black I knew what I had to do.

I cannot remember what I painted the pendant with originally; whatever it was, the black lifted it around the edges. This was one of those pleasing discoveries — I really liked the way the blue broke through so I worked to emphasise it.

When the black was dry I highlighted the tree with silver wax. I wanted the moon to stand out more so I coloured that with my liquid chrome pen.

Being careful to not varnish the moon — I wanted that to shine out from the dark — I gave the pendant a couple of coats of Coat, the “protective mattifying membrane”. It’s not perfectly matt, but it’s a good try. (I rarely varnish things so I can’t really judge it against other products.) I’m happy with the finish anyway.

Unable to leave well alone, I added some chrome stars to the sky. I need to find a better necklace to put it on, but for now, it’s hanging on a length of silver-grey ribbon.

Supplies:

• Prep & Stick:
  Stuart Semple – coat
• Colour:
  Stuart Semple – black 2.0
  Finnabair metallique wax – old silver
• Pens & Pencils:
  Molotow liquid chrome pen 1mm
• Miscellaneous:
  tree pendant from Craft Box subscription box