A Thousand Splendid Suns - The Bears' Interpretation

Hello there, Horace here in casual dressing gown mode, relaxing over the Easter weekend, any excuse not to dress! I've been far too busy to bother with such trivialities anyway, as I was chosen to create the bears' challenge piece, this month based on the book A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Before I show you my humble little creation, I'd like to thank

Morning AJ

Lauren


Alison at Teddybobcrafts

Alison at Words and Pictures

and

Ike

For taking the time to join in with us with their wonderful creations. Do go and look at their work as there are some really great interpretations of the theme.

So, what did I come up with? Well as we said before, we always post the challenges with absolutely NO idea of what we will create, we think it makes it more fair, and fun (and worrying when we realise we have blank minds of what to create and it's 3 days to the deadline!!!!) Anyway, I started by misting a page with Dylusions yellow mist (I can't remember the name of it and am far too lazy to get off the sofa and go and look!)




Wilbear made me some sun ray strips, so I placed these over one side of the misty page




Then re misted with Dylusions Pure Sunshine mist, what a serendipitous colour for our challenge. I pressed the misty strips into the opposite page, to represent weaker rays.




I then printed a sentiment, this was a quote I found on the Internet. It reads 'Never let one person's darkness dim your light'. I thought this was a perfect quote, and although it didn't come from the book, it could have been written for it, as no matter how dark and terrifying Maryam's world with Rasheed is, she never loses her sense of hope and her capacity to love others.




I decided to use the new Stampers Anonymous face stamp on the page, to represent Maryam.




Stamping in the bears' own inimitable style.




I used an arrow stencil, to depict that Maryam would feel she had no where to turn to. I inked through this directly onto the page.




I thought it came out a little too light, so re inked in Walnut distress ink.




Podgy allowed me to use his special glue (I am not worthy.)




I perused my page before beginning gluing, to make sure I was happy with the placement of all my elements.




A few hours inking and drying time later......




My page is complete, the sentiment may need to be highlighted in some way, I'll give it a day or so and see if it fades any more.




The left hand side has a brick effect stamp, to depict Maryam feeling trapped in her predicament, as an Afghan woman abandoned by her father, she would have had no say over her life. The arrows go every which way, to show that she would not have anyone or anywhere to turn to. The word freedom is included to represent her wish to be free of Rasheed and the word Abominable to depict Rasheed's treatment of his wife.




The right hand side has Maryam's face covered in chicken wire, to depict the fact that she is imprisoned in her life. The butterflies represent the fact that she gave her life in order to gain Laila's freedom.




After spending most of the month with a very blank furry head and no idea of what to do (and panicking slightly when I realised it was 28th March and my page was as blank as my mind) the page eventually came together quite easily.
We hope you'll all return to play along with us next month, when we choose a childhood classic that we still read to this day.
Wishing all our lovely friends, followers and any visitors stumbling into The House of Bears a happy Easter. Xx
With love from the bears.