Play time.

My month’s subscription to Creative Bug is about to come to an end; I have enjoyed playing along with a few of the workshops and have discovered some interesting artists, including Lisa Congdon , Jody Alexander, and Courtney Cerruti.    I didn't find any difficulty in unsubscribing and will keep a look out for any workshops which may tempt me to dip in again. I particularly like the sets for the videos and on their blog there is a section describing how they are set up. The only problem I had was that there seem to be some bugs in the Ipad app, which is awkward to use and does not have some of the features that were available when I logged in on my PC.

I never thought I would be interested in having a go at Iris Folding but apparently it was initially done with the security paper from inside envelopes and started in Holland; with the addition of old book pages it appeals to my liking for recycling.

I posted on the Sketchbook Challenge blog some altered photos I worked on following the line drawing workshop.

I had a go at packaging tape transfer using some magazine pages and an illustration from an old book, and combined these in a page of collage. So plenty of playtime.

'Paper Play'

Next Saturday I will be leading a workshop with a group of local calligraphers and we will be making decorative papers.

 I have needed to practise some of the processes which can get a little boring; the workshop is called ‘Paper Play’ and repeating things is no longer play, so I decided just to play and made a brown paper piece which I then machined to newspaper.

 I wetted the newspaper and rubbed it away in places before adding some paint. I then ironed the whole onto a piece of grey interfacing. I thought I would try ironing on some foil which I presumed would stick where the interfacing was peeping through.

 You can see that the foil attached where the little dots of glue are on the interfacing, so I was pleased. Did you think I had painted all those dots individually?  So play was resumed.

Rust Candy

Inspired by seeing Alice Fox at work I have decided to do some rust dyeing with one of my groups. Our theme is paper so we will be working on paper, perhaps some of the precious handmade paper we made a fortnight ago.

 Alice Fox’s method is to soak with tea and is much simpler than the layering method I have used previously. 

Practising in a small handmade book, I firstly tried just tea, but then I added some vinegar, which to me seemed to give more interesting results although much smellier. The best page was definitely the one left to dry over night, see header, but that takes so much patience.The one below has a good 

deal of interesting detail.

 Also shown  are a couple of small areas of a previously made wall hanging;the colour is much lighter without the addition of tea.

Paper and Fabric

As promised, a couple of samples from the Louise Baldwin class at City Lit., this was the Paper Rolling and Binding session. As you can see, I got completely carried away, finally dipping my samples in Soy Wax, stamping and spraying with my newly acquired products and generally going right over the top.

Bits of dyed fabric, chocolate wrappers , tomato paste tubes and a goose feather all feature here. The spray ink is by Craftynotions and is called ‘Shake‘n’Spray’; it is quite expensive but has a nice lustre.

I have used Soy Wax for a recent workshop and although great for washing quickly out of fabric, and being better for the environment than other waxes, I don’t really like the smell and it seems rather soft for any collage/ embedding type work.
More snow is expected over the next few days. I am looking forward to getting back into routine now, and so fed full of turkey that we may have fish and chips tonight!

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.

Papers

I have been playing with colouring papers today; trying to work on some ideas for a workshop. I used a variety of paper, including brown paper and greaseproof. The thick watercolour was the most successful and the greaseproof had a nice feel.
I will probably stitch into the handmade paper which feels just like material.
It’s a while since I did this and I think there will be a few more stages before they are finished.

Thank you for the kind comments about the felt bag; it was particularly nice to get a comment all the way from Italy.