Butterfly grid

Back in October I joined in with the Lifebook 2021 taster sessions. I wouldn’t take the full course because there is quite a focus on mixed media portraiture and figure paintings — something I’m happy to have the occasional play with but it’s never going to be my go-to subject matter. But there were some interesting taster classes, including one by Laly Mille whose style definitely appeals to me. She taught a class for Wanderlust 2019 that I really enjoyed.

This session involved making twinchies. The big brother to inchies (one-inch squares), they are, predictably, two-inch squares. We started with layers of paint on a full sheet of paper, before cutting it up and adding more layers of pattern and texture to the individual squares. I could have left them there and just added them to my stash for use in future projects, but I’m trying to create finished pieces where I can at the moment, so I stopped and had a think about what to do with them.

Butterflies may be a bit cliched in mixed media, but I like them. I’ve liked them since I was tiny and I’m going to use them because they make me happy. I got out a selection of metallic cardstocks and die-cut a whole flutter of butterflies.

The trickiest thing about this piece was making sure that everything was lined up correctly. That and coming up with an arrangement of both the squares and the butterflies such that no two adjacent colours were the same. To finish off, each butterfly got a tiny gem that matches the colour of the square they’re sitting on.

I definitely need to get a 12″ box frame for this piece, and then decide who would appreciate this for Christmas, maybe…