Sun, moon and stars

The sun and moon resin piece had been floating around my craft room waiting for me to get some waxes to colour it. But I hadn’t really thought any further ahead than that so, once coloured, it continued to float around for another couple of months waiting for me to turn my attention to it.

I wasn’t in the mood for making anything too fussy so, with the intention of creating a galaxy for them all to sit in, I picked up a pack of wooden stars to go with the sun and moon.

I had coloured the sun and moon with Finnabair waxes and was pleasantly surprised how well it covered the resin, even with no primer of any sort.

After choosing the size of background I wanted to create I primed it with black gesso and then gave it a coat of black acrylic paint, not the super-matt black 2.0 this time — can’t use that for everything — just a regular black.

I created the galaxy effect by lightly dabbing on a selection of metallique colours using a piece of natural sponge. The star field was made by splattering white pearl paint liberally over the background once the galaxy colours were dry.

I decided exactly where I wanted to put the sun and moon and then painted a slightly larger black circle so that there would be a star-free halo around the piece.

My other half recently bought me a set of the faux finish Tattered Angels “color wash” paints which were perfect for adding a little variety to the wooden stars. After laying out the stars on the panel to see how many I would need — and taking a photograph so I could recreate the pattern — I divided them into three groups and painted them with the white, silver and gold finishes. These are thin colour washes so the grain of the wood still shows through.

When everything was dry, I glued the resin focal piece and wooden stars in place.

I was happy with the design, but it didn’t feel quite finished. The addition of dry brushed white gesso on the stars made them fit in with the background texture better and left the sun and moon as the only element with a completely smooth finish so they shine out of the piece.

Supplies:

• Prep & Stick:
  black gesso
  Finnabair 3D gel
• Colour:
  Finnabair metallique paint – mermaid teal, romance pink, ancient coin, white pearl
  Stuart Semple – raven (carbon black)
  Tattered Angels colour wash paint – white wash, silver, soft gold
  Liquitex white gesso
  Finnabair metallique wax – old silver, white gold
• Paper & Fabric:
  That’s Crafty 15cm square white/greyboard
• Embellishments:
  sun and moon resin cast
  wooden stars