A Venetian Return

I found this blog post by Jenny Marples on the Paper Artsy blog.   It spoke to me.  I loved it and had to have one of my own.

But as I followed along I realised that actually I don't like things to look like something.  I don't 'do' realism.  But I started off the way Jenny suggested.  I put gesso on A4 watercolour  paper.

I used my gel plate to print on deli paper

printer paper

wet strength tissue paper

I glued whole pieces of the painted papers onto the watercolour paper that will be the covers of my book

I tore up bits of the painted papers and glued them on.

However everything looks a bit too green. And there's possibly too much gesso!

I moved on to using stencils and rubber stamps.

I used an Inktense Charcoal Grey water soluble pencil to suggest stonework and added water.

I added a piece of something I found in my stash - I'm not sure what to call it but it's sort of string!

When I'm working on something like this, I tend to do little bits to each page rather than work only on one page until it's finished.  In addition, I will stamp or stencil or whatever I'm doing on each page and then go away and do something else.  Usually Facebook or read a book.

It maybe several hours or even the next day before I come back to it.  And frequently the pages go through an ugly stage when I don't like them at all.   However I know I can always gesso or collage over a bit I don't like.

At the time of writing this blog the pages look like this:

In an attempt to stop everything looking green, I used some blue paint.  Which is too blue!

The next two photos show the inside of the covers.  I used a heavier weight watercolour paper for the covers.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Introducing Simply Create

 

I launched Simply Create on December 12th and I am thrilled that lots of you joined me in the Simply Create group on Facebook.

 

Simply Create is about the creative process.

It is not about creating works of art or even finished pieces of anything.   You will learn how to use art materials and tools in different ways which I hope will lead you to investigate your own ways of working, build your own creative language and find your own style.

Plus it is totally FREE

  Is Simply Create for you?

You can find all the information on this page.

If this is not for you but you know someone who would be interested, please pass on the link to this page.

Thank you to everyone who has continued to follow my blog through 2020.

Here's to 2021.

Thanks for joining me today.

Bernice

Recording the black & white walk

Last time you will remember that I showed the photos from the walk I did from Kingswood Junction to Lowsonford.

The aim of this sketchbook exercise is to draw what you saw as you walked.  I didn't particularly want to draw things so I filled the pages with text and stencilling. I own a lot of stencils and I thought this would be a great way to use some of them.

The next activity was to isolate areas within the drawings to make 'tiles' which can then be made into stamps.  To be honest using the stencils made this part of the syllabus a bit difficult.

I was reading Jean Draper's book, Stitch and Pattern, where she suggested drawing a stylised leaf and making patterns using that.  I drew a stylised Hawthorn leaf as I had seen Hawthorn  hedges all along the side of the canal.

I made a sponge leaf, 2 funky foam leaves and 2 lino cut leaves.  These are the stamped images.

I made these into digital stamps and spent quite a lot of time producing pages of various versions of repeat patterns.

The spaces between the printed leaves interested me and I traced that and made another set of digital stamps and printed out repeat patterns for my sketchbook.

I also made yet another set of funky foam stamps using this shape.  I printed with a variety of the stamps on fabric.

The first set or prints are with Formusol - a discharge paste - which removes the colour from black fabric.

The formusol was spread on some plastic and then pressed onto the fabric.

White acrylic fabric paint on black fabric

Black acrylic fabric paint on white fabric

I have lots of ideas whirling around in my head but need to settle down to making 12 samples as a way of working to my final piece.

In the meantime I have a Jean Draper 3 day workshop to attend at Bobby Britnell's studio and a one day with Caroline Merrell.  This is on experimental inkjet printing learning how to transfer my favourite images that I have taken onto silk and then proceed to add fibres to nuno felt.  I will of course be using a photo from my canal walk, to use as one of my samples.

There will of course be blog posts to let you know how I get on.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

More in my Fabric Sketchbook

In my last post I showed you my Fabric Sketchbook as far as I had got on the two day course.

When I got home I worked on it again adding the exercises suggested by Dionne that I hadn't had time to do.

I made a stamp and found the stamps I had made from Dionne's online course Developing Sketchbooks.

I used black acrylic paint to stamping my fabric sketchbook.  I also developed the teardrop shape which I had found in amongst the pages.

And here is my book which could be called finished.  Although there's plenty of scope for more machining and handstitching.

The back (left) and front pages

I really enjoyed doing this workshop and I feel much more confident about using my machine.

Be aware though that if you book for next year's course you won't end up with what I did.  Firstly, each of us on the course ended up with something different, and secondly, Dionne teaches it slightly differently each time she does the workshop.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice