Whatever can go wrong...

School has started and my little one is off to preschool tomorrow. I will hopefully get in a good rhythm of working again. (Here I am grinding pigments in my studio)

Unfortunately, the little I did this summer on the Hodigitria icon has met with some pretty disastrous results. All part of the learning process- but do I have to learn everything the hard way on this icon? Anyway, I applied gold on the garments of Mary and Jesus, but forgot the crucial step of applying a thin layer of talc or corn starch on the icon before. The gold stuck to the egg tempera paint, so I had to take the gold off, which was time consuming and laborious. Unfortunately, I took off a good amount of paint with it- some clear down to the ground or gesso. So, the first thing I have to do is reapply paint to all the damaged areas and start over with the gold. Please continue to pray for me friends.