3 Materials Challenge: Day 14
In Sweden, they have something called Saint Knut’s Day or simply Knut’s Day, which falls on January 13th, every year. There’s a whole history to it, but in modern Sweden, it’s mostly something for the kids, as I understand it. It’s the traditional day for taking down the Christmas tree. I think there’s a whole tradition of dancing around and “plundering the tree”, so I think there are treats to eat, as well. It’s basically an excuse for a party.
Donald grew up with this tradition, and I have to say that I do think it sounds like more fun than our American way of taking down the tree, which is a bit anticlimactic by comparison. Here it just… comes down—or at least it did in our family. I think Mom usually did it all while we were at school.
Anyway, in our house, we typically leave the tree up until at least the 13th of January. There’s no special dancing or plundering or eating of treats, however (or no more eating of treats than usual), and for me it’s mostly about wanting to hold on a little longer to the added light cast by the tree (and maybe a little post-Christmas laziness).
Technically, Knut’s Day was yesterday, but I’d missed it (and was busy enough with other things), so I thought I’d start taking off the ornaments today. As it turns out, I didn’t get around to that, but all of this goes to explain the theme for today’s 3MC theme: Doodled Christmas tree ornaments.
As for the materials, I used three colors of oil pastel. We have a couple small boxes of really old oil pastels, so I thought I’d change things up and give them a try today. One is Pentel and the other is Sakura Cray-Pas. The Cray-Pas I used was much less creamy than the Pentel, but considering the age, I’m not sure any of them are in prime condition, and they weren’t high-end to begin with.
I wanted to try the sgraffito technique, which is essentially making your own scratch art paper. You put down a layer of one or more colors, first. (I used pink and orange for this.) Then you layer a contrasting color over the whole page. (I used the bold purple for that.) Finally, you use a tool to scratch away parts of the top layer of oil pastel, revealing the colors beneath.
Unfortunately, when I tried this some of the colors didn’t pop as much as I’d hoped they would. I think it’s probably a combination of problems, but mostly due to the age and quality of the oil pastels. Maybe using black on top would’ve been better, too. I also wonder if it’s possible to use a different medium for the bottom layer—maybe marker or watercolor (if you’re using paper that can handle water)… There are a lot of possibilities!
Well, it didn’t turn out exactly as envisioned, but it was something to try. I have a new set of what are supposed to be at least somewhat nicer oil pastels, so I may try them another time this month. Oil pastel is not my favorite medium—it’s just so messy!—but it’s fun to try new things from time to time.
