'The Coming of Spring' by Kat Hazelton

Firstly may I wish you all a happy new year. I hope you all had a happy and healthy Christmas and enjoyed the festive holidays. I cannot believe we are already half way through January and steadily approaching the half way point between Winter and Springtime, which is at beginning of February. This marks the central point between the Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox and are marked by a number of festivals including Imbolc, St Brigid’s day, Groundhog day, and Candlemas, which is held on the 2nd of February. Even though all of them seem on the surface to have differing religious meanings and traditions when delving further back into history the root of all of them intertwines. All of them celebrate and make welcome the changing of the seasons. Saying goodbye to the long cold dark winter months and welcoming daylight and the beginnings of new life. 

One of the first flowers often seen at the beginning of February is the arrival of beautiful beds of snowdrops and in fields the appearance of hares dancing, boxing and chasing each other! Hares are often depicted as magical creatures, often representing fertility, new beginnings and good fortune.

So for my first project I thought I would celebrate the coming of spring by making a mixed media picture showing a group of hares having fun leaping amongst frosty snowdrops. 

To make your own 'Coming of Spring' mixed media picture you will need. 

Canvas board or panel. 

Paints & paint brushes, I used acrylic paints. 

White mixed media sculpting paste and sculpting tool. I used a combination of palette knife, bamboo skewering sticks and an old paintbrush. 

Calico Craft Parts snowdrops

 https://www.calicocraftparts.co.uk/snowdrop-mdf-floral-wood-shape-style-49.html

Calico Craft Parts hares, I used the following. They also have other wonderful hares and rabbit shapes. 

https://www.calicocraftparts.co.uk/leaping-hare-mdf-wood-shape-style-2.html

And

https://www.calicocraftparts.co.uk/running-hare-mdf-wood-shape-style-3.html

Pearl drops

Black fine liner pen. 

Glitter paste or glitter to add some sparkles.

And assortment of moss, twigs, wood bark and charms. What ever you can source in your craftstash or in your garden! 

I started off by adding a layer of sculpting paste onto my canvas board. Using a palette knife, old paint brush and a bamboo stick I added lines and rough grass shapes. I then let this dry overnight. Once dry, using acrylic paints, I added  'grass like' leaves in greens and browns. 

I then painted, again using acrylic paints, my hares and snowdrops. I left these to one side to dry over night. 

To add a tree stump I cut a shape from a strip of tree bark. I then arranged all my pieces and glued into place. To glue the wood bark, moss and snowdrops I used some sculpting paste. I found this worked really well as I wanted a snowy frosty scene so any white showing didn't matter. I also added some details to my hares with a black fine liner pen. 

To finish off my frosty scene I added more sculpting paste and glitter to add some sparkle! 

Finally I added some extra foliage, some pretty pagan charms and some dots of 'snow' with little liquid pearl drops.

The Coming of Spring by Kat Hazelton 

I hope you enjoy my first 'Kat make' for this year. If you have any questions please feel free to ask I will be happy to help if I can. I shall be back again later in January with another make.
Until then. 
 'Happy Crafting' 
Kat 😊