3D Hot Air Balloon by Snip Art

 I had a 3D Hot air balloon mdf piece from Snip Art on my desk for a while...  I was contemplating how I would cover it so that I could add more chipboard items to it...

 Then it "hit me"  cover it with string!  So one evening, I sat meditatively with my gel medium and a ball (and a bit) of string and slowly but surely wound it round the balloon...

 Till the whole thing was covered and then let it dry over night...

 I then added the chipboards which I sprayed with water on both sides to allow them to mold to the form of the balloon without cracking or bending at sharp angles...

 My go to colour scheme is spray painting everything black and then using the metallic waxes over the top... this is an easy way to get an effective outcome.,.  However... Olga challenged me to use white as my base and some colour... so I patiently gessoed the whole thing white and then added some pink and blue sprays... followed by some metallic paint which I thought made it look messy...

 So I turned it upside down and put it in a dish and spray painted it black from the botom which left a highlight of the previous colours when you view it from above...

 to make the chipboards stand out a bit more, I used some Finn opal magic waxes over the top

 This how it is for now... I quite like it...  but truth be told... I preferred it before I painted it.  The natural look was rather nice... but it goes well in my little studio in the pink and black... which the natural beige would not have... such is life!