Printmaking and Painting and My Art Staycation

Today officially starts my week-long  ART STAYCATION! Unofficially, it started Saturday morning. I pulled out most of my art supplies and scattered them around the living room in organized chaos. Saturdays seem to be the day when I just create a mess, painting backgrounds that don't look like much, pulling prints off my new gelli plate, cutting, measuring, mixing and splattering. On Sundays, I am more rested and often manage to figure out a way to pull the unrelated art bits into some kind of unified piece. Sometimes it is just a little edge of a print that becomes an ATC or a tag.

Collage with Gelli printed deli paper and stencils, assorted papers,
vintage royalty free images and printout of original drawing

Collage using vintage magazine ad, stenciled
Gelli printed deli paper and assorted papers

For my staycation, I have a few plans. One is to work on my faces using the Jane Davenport method. I have a vision of doing something bigger than an ATC, incorporating angels and wings and Medieval illuminated writing on it. I have sketchbooks and journals full of ideas that I scribbled down in moments of inspiration, so I will pull them out and see if anything turns into a solid idea.

Layers of Gelli-stencil deli paper prints, thermofax prints and assorted papers

I hope to pull my 6x6 series from the Julie Balzer workshop into one piece, maybe even hang it on the wall. Strangely, our walls are kind of empty, and my husband keeps saying: "Why don't you hang some of your work up?" Why indeed? Well, much of it is in art journals--can't hang them very easily. Some pieces are too personal, too in-your-face and I don't want to look at them every day. Some of them remind me of where I have been, emotionally, and looking at them evokes feelings I don't really want to revisit.

There's a couple unfinished projects on the horizon: my finishing the hand-quilting on my grand-niece's handmade fabric piece, repairing broken jewelry--some commercial and some handmade. Then there's the canvases...I made a "junque journal" in a Julie Balzer class, which is now so fat it will hardly close. So, I need a new one. I had some painted canvases that were intended to be covers for the first journal, but they weren't quite right. So, yesterday I gessoed over them. I had used some fiber paste through a stencil, and the gesso didn't cover it, so I used molding paste on top. Still didn't cover it. So that's a back-burner project in two parts...making the canvases look okay, and putting them together into a new journal.

Here's the 2"x3" printmaking experiments from yesterday. Two will be traded, one is a "keeper" and the rest will go in the nowhere land storage bin and either be reworked, added to another project, or used for an emergency greeting card.

Sacred Geometry Chakra Mandala...and a Blog Hop Too!

One of the first things I thought of when I unwrapped my package of Artistcellar Sacred Geometry 2 Stencils was—wow, these would make great mandalas! A few years ago I did “lunch time mandalas” where I took a CD, traced around it with a pencil, and filled in the circle with color and shapes. Some of the designs became fabric, which I used in art quilts, and some were used for other fiber art creations.

I experimented with all four Sacred Geometry stencils in my journal, trying soft inks, graphic black on white, assorted colored markers, and white inks on red paper. I tried them with acrylic paint beautiful scrapbooking paper, and on thin deli paper. The results were good, but not inspired.

Then I noticed a pretty piece of paper that had been hanging around my art bin for a while. I had painted some watercolor paper a soft pink, and then printed a circle texture over it using white printmaking paint and bubble wrap.

I liked it, but didn’t know what to do next. It sat in the box for about a year. Inspired by the Sacred Geometry 2 stencils, I decided to try using a round, flat stencil brush, and pounced my favorite shade of turquoise (I mixed white acrylic with turquoise Dina Wakley acrylic) through a sacred geometry stencil. It looked pretty good, but I put it to the side to dry and thought “what next?”

I used the same turquoise shade and printed several stencils on white cardstock. I was wishing that the stencils had a positive/negative image, but since they didn't, I flipped the wet stencils over and used them to get the opposite image, carefully pressing the wet stencil down on the paper with a paper towel.

I got a little creatively reckless and began overprinting stenciled images with different colors, and then I got even more reckless and began printing one stencil over another. I ended up with a whole bunch of multicolored pastel prints.

I also incorporated my Artistcellar mini chakra pocket stencils here and there. Again I thought “what next?”

The lightbulb went off in my head, and I realized two things: the mini chakras could go in a circle on top of the pink and aqua bubble wrap/stenciled paper, so I carefully used a blue mini ink pad to apply color through each small stencil. I did not measure, I just “eyeballed” the placement of the chakra stencils.

I decided that the multi-colored/multi-stenciled paper prints would make a good background. For many years I sewed and made art quilts, so cutting the paper into 3” squares seemed like a natural next step. I pulled out my green cutting mat, ancient long metal ruler (that I purchased in 1978!) and an exacto knife, then sliced the multicolored printed papers up carefully.

This paper print uses most of the set of 4 Sacred Geometry 2 stencils,
as well as the Chakra pocket stencils.

The sliced printed paper using multicolor prints of
Sacred Geometry 2 with Chakra pocket stencils.

I chose the squares I liked best, arranged them as a border, alternating lights and darks and varying the color, then carefully taped them together on the back.

Before adhering the center piece to the border, I “aged” the edges using a combination of sepia Adirondack ink and a brown chalk ink. The 12” x 12” piece is currently hanging on my living room wall, above my art table, and it is a constant reminder to me to remember to regularly slow down, breathe, meditate, and rest.

Here's the really cool thing: if you leave a comment on this page of my blog, you might just win a free set of stencils. All you have to do is leave your name and a comment. Easy peasy!

And please visit all the other artists who are part of the Artistcellar Blog Hop celebrating the release of their new stencil series: Sacred Geometry 2. You can leave a comment on their blogs for a chance to win the free stencils...plus, they are all awesome artists and worth a looksee.

February 29th - Lisa Cousineau/Artistcellar
artistcellar.com/blogs/news
 March 1st - Stephanie Gagos

http://www.stephaniegagos.com/blog/ 
March 2nd - Lisa Chin

somethingcleveraboutnothing.blogspot.com

 March 3rd - me!

March 4th - Sarah Trumpp

http://wonderstrange.com  

March 5th - Effy Wild

http://effybird.com    

March 6th - Guadalupe Brizuela Cabal

http://guadasartplace.blogspot.com  

Vintage Textile Design and Early New Year's Resolutions

Last week we purchased a new item--a shelf unit with bins for my art supplies. They were really taking over the house, piled on the dining table (making it unusable for anything but art) and piled in corners in ugly plastic bins and cardboard boxes.

In the process of getting my supplies arranged just the way I want them, I have been forced to sort through several years' accumulation of papers and paper scraps. While I was rummaging around for papers to use on today's journal page, I found some magazine pages with gorgeous antique textile designs. I knew immediately that I had to use them.

Two things occurred to me as I was working on the page: 1) why save things for "someday"? why not use them NOW. So maybe it will be an early New Year's Resolution to stop saving beautiful things--art, paper, jewelry, clothing, food--for a special time and make NOW the special time. 2) I realized that no matter what else I do, I am a textile designer at heart. I can't seem to make a design without wanting to put it into repeat, visualizing how it would look on cloth or clothing, and imagining various color combinations for the design. Of course I love to paint, to sew, to draw, to weave, to write, to be creative in almost any way. But fabric design? That is a deep, integral part of me that feels right and good so maybe that's the second New Year's resolution--follow that path again in my art.

For this collage, along with the reprint of the vintage textile designs, I used assorted commercial and original paper, painted newsprint, washi tape (recycled from an envelope seal) a white signo pen, and some Julie Fei-Fan Balzer stamps.

Unplanned Stamping

Usually my work table is covered with bright color splashes. Today, for unknown reasons, I was in a sepiaish, black and white, earth tones mood. I started puttering around yesterday, using assorted favorite stamps with white printmaking paint, and printing a bunch of teabags for future use.

Some of the smaller teabags were printed using a Julie Fei-Fan Balzer geometric stamp. Once dry, I adhered them to ATC blanks with a gluestick. My favorite whimsical girl stamp called to me today, and I used her on top of the printed teabags. I added some tiny words that I had previously output from a laser printer onto clear Avery mailing labels. I made a total of seven ATCs, each a little different. The one above will be traded in the October Paper Traders Winner Take All, where group members submit any type of ATC...the group leader pulls a name randomly and that person wins all the cards for the month.

I used up the leftover white paint from my ATC-making by painting broad, uneven strokes onto a black page in my journal. Once dry, I used an assortment of Julie's stamps with the little girl, which became today's journal page. The photo is a little blurry, but I liked the way it came out. It was totally unplanned. I really was just cleaning my brush on the black page. One thought led to another, and I started grabbing stamps and printing, and the page just emerged. Sometimes art is planned, sketched, thought out, and measured. Sometimes, as with this page, it just flows out unplanned.

Vintage Textile Design Collage

Some papers and fabrics just seem to special to use. So, they sit in a box, or a drawer, or a bin, or a notebook for weeks, months or even years. Sometimes you take them out and oooh and aaaah and wonder what to do with them, then decide they are too special to cut or glue or stitch. Then they get tucked back into the box for a few more months.

The middle pink floral stripe on this collaged journal page was something that had been tucked away for about a year. A European decorating magazine had a center insert of some vintage border prints from the 1700s. My art training and specialization is in textile design, so I loved seeing the artist's pencil marks and measurements for the repeat. But use it? noooo...until today.

I carefully cut it out and used matte medium to adhere it to a reject watercolor. Next, I used a black ink pad and stamped three shapes that I had previously hand-cut. I added a strip of harlequin paper to give it a zetti feel.

The top middle had a triangle of beige where the artist had sketched the pattern's repeat. It looked empty, so I masked off the area around it with tape and stamped a Balzer woodcut design to fill in the space.

To break up the striped effect, I added a blue butterfly that was printed on translucent paper.

It needed words, so I hand-wrote BELEIVE. (I had just returned from the Bronx Botanical Garden Frida Kahlo show and was feeling inspired.) Rather than using a black marker, I chose a black "scribe-all" all-surface pencil, which I dipped in water to get some shading variation and gradation. Around it I used it's twin sister, the Aquarellable Watersoluble white pencil. I used the pencils as accent not only to write believe, but as black dots and white accent around the butterfly and to soften some of the background color.

I really like the black and white water-soluble pencils. I have many watercolor pencils and often use them, but somehow I lacked basic black and white, so these are an excellent addition to my art supplies.

Last, I added some tiny inspirational words that were printed on Avery clear peel and stick labels. The small size and horizontal orientation balanced the large word nicely.

Hope But Anticipate Journal Collage

 

This journal page started with the idea of experimenting with transparency--while at the Ink Pad, I saw some a big pad of gorgeous, preprinted transparent paper by a very well-known mixed media artist with his own line of supplies. I mulled over the idea of buying it, but being frugal, decided to print my own. And after all, why use somebody else's designs when I have a computer full of my own designs and collaged images that I created in Photoshop?

 

So, I found some similar paper, cut it to size, and printed a few sheets on my laser color printer. It came out beautiful and printed easily. Today, I dared cut it up and experiment. I tried two different journal pages.

• I loved the sheerness of the semi-transparent paper
• I didn't love the lack of stickability...I tried matte medium and also my favorite glue stick. With the matte medium, it buckled and didn't stick very well. With the glue stick, it stuck a little better. I placed the experiment (covered with waxed paper) under a heavy cast iron pot and will see soon what a little time and pressure does to it.

On the piece above, I recycled a hideous painting I did recently as lunch-hour therapy. By laying a section of partially painted deli paper over the watercolor and adhering it with matte medium, I was able to keep some of the underneath image, yet partially mask the ugly parts. After it dried, I then added some of the new transparent paper--the stripe of vintage French script and the butterfly. Next, I put a lacey stamp and a Julie Fei-Fan Balzer stamp made from one of her woodcuts. At the top I used a strip of newsprint from the New York Times.

 

Reflecting what is going on in both my life and in the world, and probably inspired by the butterfly image, the words "hope for the best, anticipate the worst" came into my head, so I wrote the words on the page freehand with markers.

Black Butterflies with Stencils, Stamps and Vintage Collage

Butterflies are popular image, symbolizing freedom, beauty, fine weather, release of emotion and much more. Even the word is beautiful--Papillion in French, mariposa in Spanish and Kamama in Cherokee.

Many people use butterfly images with light pastels and girly colors. These ATCs are unusually dark. After several hours of experimentation with various paints, stamps and printed images, and having no success with my butterfly ATCs, I decided to try using a black butterfly stamp over an existing background.

I started with a digital collage that I made in Photoshop using Graphics Fairy vintage advertising images. Using white printmaking paint, I sponged through various stencils to give the collage another dimension.

After the white paint had dried, I used a black Stazon ink with commercial square stamp of a butterfly and vintage French images. Since the stamp had a black border around it, I used two different washi tapes to hide the horizontal lines, which also unified the design. The washi butterfly tape repeated the theme, and the airmail tape repeated the French postal elements from the stamp. The white printmaking paint under the black stamp gave the cards a texture that isn't visible in the photo, but adds another dimension of visual interest.

These three ATCS will be traded with the Yahoo group Paper Traders. I made a total of six--I usually make extra ATCs, and keep the one that is my very favorite and also the ones that didn't come out quite right.

Tea With Helen

I had my "debut" as a member of the Artistcellar design team yesterday.

For my first Artistcellar blog post, I started with a favorite technique—printing on recycled teabags—and used a vintage photo of my mother, Helen, circa 1934. I printed the photo from an inkjet printer onto printable silk fabric, trimmed it to size, and removed the paper backing.

For the base, I started with used teabags. After drying them, I emptied out the old tea, carefully opened them, flattened them out, and printed on them using white printmaking paint applied to an assortment of hand-carved and commercial stamps.

Once the printed teabags were dry, I randomly collaged them onto cardstock using gel (matte) medium, which adheres like glue, but dries flat, and you can stitch through it with ease.

When I laid the translucent silk photo on the teabag print base, too much of the background showed through, so I applied viva décor inka gold old gold to the central area, which made the silk photo easier to see. I added a little matte medium to hold the photo in place, and edged it with a favorite sheer lace, also adhered with matte medium.

For strength, I added a felt backing, then clamped the artwork to the felt and carefully stitched the edges with a machine blanket stitch. To give the piece even more of a vintage effect, I sponged on extra viva décor inka gold old gold to the edges and corners.

The piece especially touches my heart because, growing up, the kitchen was the central gathering place in our house, and mom always had a pot of tea to share with friends and family around our kitchen table. The dress she wore in the photo was made of a rich indigo velvet and I remember feeling ever so beautiful in it when I played dress-up.

Romantic Journal Collage Page

I have been working feverishly this weekend to get ready for my debut as the Friday Blogger on the Artistcellar website. I can't show any sneak peaks of that, but I hope you will go to http://www.artistcellar.com/ and read my blog, as well as all the other terrific artist who will be posting during the week.

As I was rummaging though my journal for inspiration, I saw this page. When I made it, about a month ago, I thought it was too "me" to post...too much what I always do, that I wasn't stretching myself.

Well, it IS very much in my comfort zone. I used a variety of soft colored papers and newsprint on the background and a giant floral--from the Graphics Fairy free online images--as the focal point. I used a variety of stamps, some with black ink and others with white printmaking paint, as well as a floral stencil.

Even though the page is very busy, it is soft and soothing with the muted colors and rounded shapes, and the little kitty and Japanese stamp are a surprise, as is the vintage typewriter on top of the flower. It is kind of a visual scavenger hunt to find the almost hidden elements.

le Pain Quotidien Journal Collage

Coffee is the stuff that keeps many of us running. My weekends often begin with a trip to my very favorite place for my morning latte--le Pain Quotidien. The hard part is which one to go to--one is closer and but has no outdoor seating, and the other is a few blocks further but has a sidewalk cafe where even Coco, our Maltese, can enjoy the coffee klatch with us.

I picked up one of their catering brochures thinking that I liked the beige paper it was printed on, and that I might use it as part of a journal page. Somehow the word Catering emerged as the central element. The rest of the collage is bits and pieces of my textile designs, photoshop collages, a hand carved stamp, some stencils and stamping. The words in a circle are a line from a Goo Goo Dolls song, a leftover part of some mandala designs I made a few months ago.

I also used the tiles on the walls of their 49th Street@2nd Avenue location for my Indigo Girl paper dolls a few weeks ago. http://lindaedkinswyatt.blogspot.com/2014/06/indigo-girl-dolls-geisha-tags-and-alice.html

Rediscovering Journaling...With a Kelly Kilmer Twist

It’s been a few years since I did any regular journaling. I have gone in fits and starts, and have large gaps in my journaling. Years ago--and for several years straight--I made a monthly 8" x 8" quilted piece, but due to neck and shoulder issues I have moved to paper. 

Yes, I have been busy. Super, crazy busy. But super crazy busy in your personal and/or work life (in my case both) can make you frazzled, panicky and maybe even sick. 

I did do small art pieces, but journaling got put on the back burner. The closest I came to journaling was using an old moleskin planner of my daughter’s and repurposing it as a journal, but not one I drew or painted or collaged in. I glued or taped all my little scribbled doodles and ideas into the book—ideas for paintings, art series, new ideas, and the beginnings of books that I someday hope to write.

A great side benefit to last weekend’s course with Kelly Kilmer, http://kellykilmer.blogspot.com/where I learned how to make my own journal from scratch, was that I also relearned how to journal. Kelly’s technique is to pick five or six background items from your hoard of ephemera and pretty papers, and one focal piece, then play with them instinctively until you have covered the journal page and glued them down. She also adds a little washi tape or torn snippet of paper here and there. Here’s the scary part—on top of the “finished” collage you do two more steps: 1) use either a stamp or a stencil on top of the collage, then add color with markers or paint to the stencil/stamp. 2) write on it, using a prompt or a favorite line or whatever words pop into your head.

I must confess that I just don’t have time to journal every day. I do, however, have the desire to journal every waking minute. This weekend I did about six or seven journal pages, and even took a trip to the Ink Pad and Utrecht and purchased some new supplies—gloss medium, washi tape, a cool rolling stamp, new stamp pads, t-pins, a new carved wooden stamp, a new rubber face stamp, acrylic blocks for mounting my previously unmounted cling stamps, sewing machine needles and an awl.

I am thinking about making a little “to go” box for work so I can journal on my lunch hour. I might get carried away and accidentally-on-purpose forget to get back to my job though.

Experimenting with Retro Arts Café Pre-cut Templates

Part of me swoons when I see the gorgeous mixed media work posted online made using templates and unfinished parts from Retro Arts Café. But a little voice in my head says: “Why waste your money? Build your own box or recycle one. Make your own doll template.” It also whispers: “Stop spending so much money on art supplies! Save your money for something more exciting than cardboard blanks, like learning how to use encaustics…” and “Come on, part of the fun of creating is starting with your OWN template…why spend money when you can download templates off the internet for free?”

Well, I finally broke down and ordered a bunch of Retro Arts Café items. I started with an ATC holder and a paper doll. (Some of the items I ordered are still waiting for me to find the time to experiment with them.) The ATC box was easy to put together and well cut. I stayed inside my own comfort zone and decorated it with printed recycled teabags and my favorite lace. I added dots of dimensional gold paint to cover the joints. After I was done I realized I should have painted the interior, but it really didn’t show once I put some ATCs in it. I also realized that I should have put it together first and applied the teabags after for a better fit on the sides.

The doll forms were kind of weird. I ordered a small and a large. The large was a little larger than the size I usually make, and strangely elongated. And the head was tiny and out of proportion. The small doll (which I have not used yet) is really miniature and much smaller than I am comfortable with. I covered the large doll with my favorite recycled, printed teabags and made a skirt of assorted laces. I just couldn’t use the tiny head that came with the doll, and chose a face to go on top of theirs from The Graphics Fairy’s free vintage images. The dolls came in a rectangle, and I had to pull the pieces out, which left a negative space doll. It was fortunate that I had the leftovers since I somehow lost a leg and had to recreate one on cardstock. 

I also ordered some stencils, which I have been experimenting with. They are made of a lightweight durable paper, so I was afraid they would turn to mush when wet, and dry all buckled-up, but they did stand up to repeated paint application and washing. Now I just need to find a big chunk of free time and a bigger space to work on than my living room table!

 

 

British Royals ATCs

I know next to nothing about British royalty, and pretty much don’t care—except that some very distant relative with the surname Edkins was the official gun-maker to the king—a fact that has no bearing on my ATC-making whatsoever.

One thing I did know was that I didn’t want to get all sentimental, with photos of Princess Diana and images of a candle in the wind. I didn’t want images of the newest royal baby either. I opted to research British royalty, and selected the oddest and most interesting faces. I explored King Edward III; King Edward II; Queen Alexandra, Princess of Wales; Margaret Tudor; Mary Stuart; Queen Elizabeth; King Henry II, King Henry VIII; King John and the homeliest image available of Queen Victoria.

On some, I manipulated the images in Photoshop®, trying different filters and colors. I printed everything out on cardstock, then cut, pasted and puttered with arranging them on my ATC blanks. I fell back on some old favorite techniques: using my white over-stamped painted backgrounds, adding my favorite sheer lace, embellishing with gold dimensional paint dots, and edging with liquid chalk stamp pads.

There were a couple of favorite images that I really liked and made extras on—King Edward III with a gold crown on the background of roses and music, and the pretty Queen Alexandra, Princess of Wales.

 

Tea Party Mixed Media ATCs

"Tea Party—Mad or Otherwise” was the theme for the April Roses on My Table ATC trade.  The theme conjured up all kinds of ideas in my head, from charming English high tea to bizarre Alice in Wonderland images. I played and played with the idea, mixing teacups, teapots, forest animals and stuffed animals. I merged layers in Photoshop®, and cut out new and vintage images…but nothing really worked. So, I rummaged through my box of semi-finished ATCs, and began ripping about some old, half-finished work. I mixed portions of my Photoshop® collages (using free vintage images from The Graphics Fairy) with old pieces of my own printmaking , recycled teabags, and snippets of lace. I adhered them to lightweight ATC boards from USArtQuest, then ran the edges along a brown chalk stamp pad to give the ATCs an aged look. I made eight in all, traded four and kept four for myself.

 

 

 

Ransom Note Portraits

I had never heard of the Ransom Note art concept, so when my friend Karen Musgrave suggested doing some, I thought it would be just the thing to get me out of my artistic rut. I Googled the theme and found a lot of inspiration.

I started by randomly cutting words and letters in various sizes, colors and fonts out of magazines. Next, I researched famous quotes, and then made a short list of the ones that I liked best. I tried using words on a solid background, and then on torn strips of newsprint. One was too boring and the other too busy. So, I decided to try using faces in the background. I used two Graphics Fairy http://thegraphicsfairy.com/ stern looking portrait images and one of Frida Kahlo’s self-portraits.

After the letters were adhered to the background portraits, they still needed something to make “make it my own,” so I added some stamping with white printmaking paint using my own hand-carved stamps, and edged the finished pieces with liquid chalk stamp ink. The “Beauty” piece also uses, in the background, a commercial William Morris-style stamp in coffee-colored distress ink. I put some washi tape of a measuring tape at the bottom to suggest how beauty is literally measured in our society. The "William Morris" stamp and washi "measuring tape" are from a great little store in NY called The Ink Pad. http://www.theinkpadnyc.com/
 

 

Queen of Hearts Tags & Bubble Wrap Printed Heart Boxes

Where have I been for two months? Unable to post, but I HAVE been doing some small art pieces. Here's what I've been working on.

Queen of Hearts Tags: I hadn’t joined the Roses on My Table tag trade in ages, so when I saw the January theme, Queen of Hearts, it sounded like fun. I researched various queens, and decided on some romantic looking images from The Graphics Fairy. I played with them in Photoshop: one was flipped and arranged like a playing card; another was arranged inside the frame of an old valentine.

I mixed the Graphics Fairy http://thegraphicsfairy.com/ images with some painted watercolor paper that I had stamped over the Christmas and New Year holidays, added lace and some accents with faux gold royal coins and gold certificate stickers as well as fancy ribbons at the top.

 



 

Heart Boxes: A few arty friends are trading small pieces in 2014. There aren’t too many rules other than a monthly theme that we can interpret any way we want, and the rule that the artwork needs to be less than 6 inches. January’s trade theme was hearts.

I make and collect little art boxes, so that was my starting point. I wanted to paint some pre-made heart shaped boxes, but only had one on hand, so I did some Internet research and found a template for making my own boxes.

I enlarged the template and printed it on cardstock, then glued it to some painted watercolor that I had printed with white paint using bubble wrap. When folded up, the underside of the heart closure is visible, so I used printed teabags for accent. As an extra, I used some of my own hand-felted fabric, cut freehand heart shapes, edged them with a blanket stitch, and added a small bead made from rolled fabric, then tucked the felted heart inside the painted box.