Art Retreat Friend: Susan Tidwell

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I'm so excited to present my new art retreat friend Susan Tidwell. Susan is a mixed media artist living in Texas. She began rubber stamping several years ago and enjoys altered arts, collage, and anything with paints and inks. The beautiful altered dress pictured above, Susan created for the Altered Dress Form for Breast Cancer Charity Event held at Stamp Salado, a stamp store in Salado, Texas. The auction was held on Sept. 28th. Twenty artists were invited to alter identical wire dress forms for the event and Susan was honored to be asked to participate. This was Susan's entry. Initially, Susan didn't intend to make it pink for breast cancer - it just happened! She used a piece of text from an old book for the bodice, stamping with flourishes, scalloping the top edge and trimming with pink Stickles. On the back Susan added three white eyelets on each side and threaded the white rayon ribbon through, tying in a large bow.The skirt was made with manila office tags. The bottom row has larger tags and the upper two tiers are from smaller ones. Susan painted each tag with gesso and then stamped flourish stamps into the wet gesso. After they dried, she wiped each tag with Tattered Rose Distress Ink and used the Fiskars scallop border punch on the bottom. The tags were all tied with white rayon ribbon to the dress form. Susan also attached flowers punched from text pages with black brads.The challenge of this was attaching the tags into a full skirt without being too stiff or sticking out too much. I think Susan succeeded with this beautiful dress! You may see more of Susan's wonderful creations here.