Tribal Messages

My book is finished now and I am busy trying to complete all the assessment paperwork. This week we set up the studio for the end of year exhibition and next week will have the stage three assessment, before the exhibition opens with the private view on 12th May between 6-8pm..
The paperwork is mind-boggling and I sometimes think is it worth it, but I suppose it is about wanting to finish the course properly at this point. Some people will be going on to do degrees and I do envy them but I know it’s not for me at this point in my life.
Someone called the book a' modern relic’ and that was the idea I was trying to convey, so that if an archaeologist in the future found it he would be faced with trying to work out what our society was like from some of the signs and symbols which are about everywhere , even if we rarely notice them. On the front are supposed to be talismans, which in Africa used to contain writings thought to have magical powers, in mine I have put signs for 'corrosive','biohazard' ,'keep dry' and 'don't litter'.

Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=40412





This is a link to an Etsy treasury that I am in .

Many thanks to Liz Plummer of Dreaming Spirals:
http://lizplummer.com/blog/

I have not done much with my shop recently but will be updating it once the course is finished.

Tribal Messages

On a programme we have in the UK called University Challenge there was a question last night about signs and symbols and I got them all right being more aware of them at the moment; they included the sign for ‘compostable’ and the one for ‘antivivisection’. Do you know what they are? Here are two of the pages for my artists’ book.

This page is worked on a piece of cotton which I dyed with Potassium Permanganate and discharged with lemon juice. Over it I have stitched signs for ‘corrosive materials’ and ‘biohazard’. I have made some paper and also dyed the pulp in the same way, adding bits of bay leaf to give some texture.
This page is stitched onto handmade paper and is overlaid with a piece of organza on which I managed to print. I tried various ways of doing this and settled on spraying a piece of card with 505 spray and attaching the material. I printed out the messages in the same way.

Tribal Messages

I have decided to call my piece ,in the form of an artist’s book, Tribal Messages. It will juxtapose contemporary signs and symbols with traditional Adinkra symbols from Ghana.

I have been working on the cover which I wanted to look like an ancient relic, and with a bit of paint and use of the hot air gun a piece of chamois leather now gets somewhere near to the effect I wanted. I had the Deka paint as a free gift from Fibercrafts, I think not many people wanted muddy brown, but it came in very useful .It looks like Elephant skin to me.

The inside of the cover brings together various Adinkra and contemporary saying. I sprayed material with 505 spray and put it onto card which then went through the computer fairly easily. I used scrim and pieces of silk carrier rods dyed with tea to get the ethnic look I wanted.