Iron Craft 2016 Challenge #15--Cool Water Sea Horse

For Challenge #15 we were prompted with the word "Cool." When I think of cool, there are two thoughts that come to mind--snow/snowflakes and water. I decided to work with the second option. So I thought that I would do a cut out of a sea horse in a sea of cool water.

To begin, I started with the cut out. This is another in my series of Paper Stained Glass. I designed this particular pattern using an image from shutterstock. I tweeked the image a little and added the "lead lines" to the background.

Step One

The second step is to design the stained glass panels. I thought about adding color to the sea horse using the background colors or even adding a contrasting color. In the end, I decided that to keep the sea horse with just the background paper (white) showing through.

The third step is to apply the first color. To be able to add color to the background, you must cut the identical pattern for each separate color. After cutting the pieces, you glue them to the background paper similar to fitting a jigsaw puzzle. You will know immediately if your cutting is offline.

First color

 You keep on cutting and adding colors.

Second color

Third color

Fourth color

The colors in the background were supposed to replicate the color of the water from the surface to the deep sea blue.

I then double matted the artwork and placed it in a frame.