09 March 2011

Distracted

This month I decided I wasn't even a little interested in doing Inks on our challenge blog, "And then we set it on fire" I promise this is the only month I will give myself a pass.
An explanation of what I've been up to is that I have been totally distracted by Linda Kemshall's "Friday Night Fix". In addition to all the other great shows on DMTV, Linda has added a feature on learning how to do little 5 minute creative bits whenever you can squeeze them in. I have become obsessed with my projects because they can involve any media I want to utilize.
We have been making an altered book. First, let me tell you I have no, and I mean zero, interest in PAPER. I know many people who love paper like one of FIVE, Marcella Christenson, but that is not me. Well, this project/distraction/obsession is much more akin to the Sketchbook Project I was involved in earlier this year which is currently touring the country. Every week, Linda gives "the next step" so I have been blindly following her down this road to altered book mania. We are now at the point where we are actually doing art work on a page. She talked about "framing" and creating "niche's" on a page or pages. This is the first page I've finished.
The crow on the left is a photocopy which I carefully cut from printer paper and adhered to a "prepared" page with gel medium.That page was prepared with gessoed pages that had been stitched together with zigzag stitching on a machine and colored with pastels, paint sticks and watercolor paint. On the next page (now opened and acting as a frame), I cut an opening to act as a frame. I then stitched the "window" with black embroidery thread. On the right page I used gel medium to attach a square from the paper I cut the crow from. THAT page was also stitched, gessoed and I used copper paint stick and turquoise watercolor paint which shows through the paper opening, creating a mirror image. I applied gel medium over the paper and some of the turquoise paint became re-wetted and bled (on purpose) onto the white copier paper - kind of unifying it and marrying it to the book page.
To make a long story short, I have four books going at the same time so I can do more than a one minute process at a time. Some of the gessoed pages have pastels or paint stick along (and acting as a resist) with the watercolor paints. On some, I just have watercolors and other I covered with tissue paper, scrim or used dryer sheets before painting on the watercolor paint to give them a base coloring.
I'm sure I will recover from this process and go back to actual fabric. I have been planning and doing some color work with my new quilt, "Where have all the flowers gone?" I'll show you the quilt soon. This book can't last forever....or can it?

4 comments:

  1. AHA!! Little Miss "I have no interest in collage" is collaging in a BOOK with PAPER! Do bring them to show on Saturday.

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  2. Oh No. I've been found out.
    I'll bring them.

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  3. I like what you're doing here!

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  4. I finally got my ink pencils yesterday so I'm giving the techniques a try before the month is over. I also got the book "The Painted Quilt" from the library about a week ago, I wasn't too fascinated by the Kemshalls until I saw this book, their work is just amazing--now I see why you like them so much!

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