Saturday, January 28, 2023

Color and Texture, Texture and Color




Like a magnet, I am attracted color and texture. Smack! A beautiful color combination or an interesting patch of texture can draw me in and make me want more, and more!

After painting or gel printing, I can create interesting leftovers when I clean off my brayer, stencils, or other tools on various papers. Love the randomness and unintentional designs that appear, as if by magic.

Although I enjoy trying different things, when I use paint I come home. Mainly, I adore acrylics. Last Sunday I focused on painting over a single page in my new little handmade one-signature 6” x 7” book. My intention was to create a background for attaching a fabric trim. This page was already painted on hot-press watercolor paper but I gessoed over it which created a nice base for what happened next.

Here is my original inspiration. If it had been larger, I would have simply glued it in. But it was a little short.

  


Not sure which exact paints I’d used in the original, I began using both fluid and high flow acrylics and then branched out and invited some acrylic inks into the mix. Using plastic cards, palette knives, a comb, and an occasional brush stroke I got interesting effects since some of my fluid acrylics are pretty old and drying out, making the paint thicker.

Now I really like this page. Will I leave it just as it is or add the 3-D element (green trim with beads I sewed on)? Here's how it might look if I attached it.



Monday, January 16, 2023

Fabric and Paper Journal




A newly bound journal!







Yet, I started it during the beginning of the pandemic and it has sat quietly. The original amount of signatures were very wide and unwieldy so I decided to break it into several journals.




















I cut an old book cover into about 5" x 5" for the cover. The pages are a true mix: acrylic painted watercolor papers, tissue paper sandwiches with string inside, felt on cardstock, a nice thick brown piece of felted wool, painted foil, a piece of an old soft t-shirt, a paper cutting, canvas, handmade paper, painted fabrics. I did embroidery on the felt pieces and then glued it to thicker cardstock papers. The handmade paper was from a paper-making class years ago.






















































Using my favorite sewn-over-tapes binding, I wanted to try something new by adding a denim spine from my old jeans.
















Really love how it turned out and how it feels!


Although a lot of the pages are "done" there are still many blank pages inside to play with.







Sunday, January 1, 2023

Happy 2023!

 


Stencil, crayons




Here's to a creative New Year!