In the Spotlight + Mini Challenge... Pallavi Iyer

Hi! This is Pallavi and today its my turn to take the spotlight and post a mini challenge for you.

Here is a little bit about me:

I am 30 something, happily married and live in the western part of India. I started my crafting journey a couple of years back. I have always been interested in beautiful things,be it art, crafts, décor or writing.

With my full time job though, I did not have enough time to pursue anything seriously (that's my excuse and am sticking to it). 2012 was a bad year for me because I lost my father due to cancer and had to deal with a scary disease myself. After that I suddenly lost interest in the corporate rat race and looked for solace in arts and crafts. I resented the time I had to spend at work and couldn't wait to get home to work on my craft projects.

I quit my job exactly two years back and that was the best decision ever. The plan was to take a sabbatical and go back, but I love being home and being able to indulge in my passion so much that I don't think this is going to happen.   :-)

As far as crafting goes, I am still trying to find my style. I have tried my hand at Cards, tags, altered projects, canvases etc. My problem is that I am interested in too many things and want to try them all, so my work is all over the place. For now, I know that I gravitate towards a shabby chic style and creating textures, mixed media and altering things are my favourite works of all. This year I am focusing on art journaling and honing up my sketching and water colouring skills. I write about my crafty endeavours on my blog which is appropriately named " Dazzled by life ". Do come and visit me if you feel like it. I would love to see you there.

Now enough about me and onto the challenge!

Lately I have been fascinated with Black. It is such an important component of any artwork. A little touch of black automatically brings the whole project together, don't you feel? However, I have lately been enamoured with the combination of black and metallics. I feel that a black background provides the perfect base for metallic paints/mediums or glitter to shine through and do their thing. 

So my challenge to you is to create a project with a combination of black and metallic components. You can use metallic paint, gold leaf, mica flakes, glitter. The options are endless.

Here is my project for the challenge: I altered a wooden mini chest of drawers. I used modelling paste and stencils for the texture.

Everything was given a coat of black acrylic paint. Once that dried, I used some Decoart antiquing creams to highlight the textures. Using the antiquing cream gave a nice patina to the whole texture but something was missing. I could not figure out what was wrong , just that it was dull and not what I had envisaged in my mind. Next attempt to salvage the project was to use Silks acrylic glaze to add some more color.

Still not happy! In my frustration, I decided to try using Viva Décor Inka gold as my last attempt and am glad to say that I am finally satisfied with the whole look.

I hope my project gave you some ideas and really hope that you play with us in this challenge. Would love to see your projects.

Please join us next week for a brand new Challenge!

Till then,

Cheers

Pallavi

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