Heart Shaped Box as of February 21, 2011

Heart Shaped Box as of February 21, 2011
Originally uploaded by randubnick

This heart-shaped box is still a work in progress. Apart from minor fixes, I am finished with cutting and pasting bits of printed metallic ribbon. Now I am painting the inside wall of the box top. I got started yesterday, and at first I was nervous about getting paint on the collaged surfaces. I am using two different colors of gold metalic craft paint (acrylic) mixed with glossy medium to get very thin layers. I thought it might be difficult to get the paint to stick to the shiny surface of the box, and I was right. So I used thin layers, figuring that paint woul stick to paint, and that seems to work. After applying three very thin layers, I am starting to see results, but I think I will need two or three more layers to cover the surface (which would take about an hour altogether.) In this photo, you can still see the orange of the paste-board showing through. As I applied the paint, my vertical brush strokes created a natural pattern. With the third coat, I decided to try horizontal strokes over the vertical ones to get better coverage and in the process also realized that the horizontal and vertical marks would create a pattern that looks something like the texture of the woven metallic ribbon.