It seems like ages since I started these things. It was the day after I bought that Air Dough in Evans a few weeks ago. That stuff is really easy to work with, dries quickly and it takes paint well.
I was trying to work out what to use as spacers between the fish and starfish. I had made some small spheres but when I looked at them, they were too dominant. In an idle moment, I had made a couple of small shells and when I put them next to the fish, they looked much better. So I made a whole load more of them last night.
I was wondering about what colour to paint them. I wanted to avoid beige. Then I remembered, about a year ago, being rather taken with an iridescent varnish I saw on somebody’s nails. I love nail varnish and I do tend to look rather more closely than I should at people’s nails when I see a shade or pattern or design that I like. Vicky in my office suggested that I might have a look in Pennys for some. So I did. And I found this …

It worked really well (after about four coats!) and gave the shells the sort of mother of pearl look I was looking for. The photo doesn’t really do it justice.

Anyway, I put the hanging together (with string and glue) and here it is against a black background …

I was so impressed by the iridescent effect that I put a coat of varnish on my seahorses and lobster to give them a lift …

But I left this starfish unvarnished. It’s sparkly enough as it is.

Our downstairs toilet is like an aquarium. We’ve got ceramic and wooden fish, paintings of fish, prints and batiks of fish, one I painted on a pebble, fish bowls and a carved fish a made a few years ago. So that’s where all this lot have ended up. You can see the tail of one of the seahorses in the mirror.


Yay! Under the sea.