Ziggy zaggy

This week I have been playing with some more with concertina or zigzag books!

I had previously made some monoprints on mixed media paper so that I could make books. Here's the pile of prints and left over collage bits.

I used my own poem A Poetic Conundrum on this one.

I made this into a beach themed book and used words from a scrapbook paper pad

This third one used the words of another of my poems

You can read the poems on this post: Oh my word!

Thanks for joining me today.

Happy Easter

Bernice

Monoprinting with stencils

I love using my gel plate for monoprinting, but it is veryaddictive.  I usually get out a range of different types of papers - cartridge paper, deli paper and printer paper usually.  I limit myself to around 15 sheets of paper because otherwise I would just keep going.

Two reasons for keeping to a small number:
1.  I don't have enough room for a large number of papers to dry.
2.  there's only so many things I can think of to do with the painted papers.

Actually there's a third reason:
I've found the best prints are those that have several layers so even with 15 pieces of paper I might be pulling 45-50 prints.

This time I knew I wanted to play with my text stencils.  Here are some of the results.

I frequently photograph or scan my monoprints.  This is especially useful if you put another layer on one you really like and don't like how it turned out.  In addition, if you have scanned one you really like, you can use it multiple times.

The other useful thing you can do is change the scale of your print on your computer - larger or smaller - and use the print out for collage.

Next time I'll show you what I did with these papers.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Art Cloth update

In November I told you how I had cut up my art cloth and then pieced it back together with some bought fabric.

I took it with me to Littleheath Barn and used a thermofax screen to print over the whole thing to try to blend the bought fabric into the made fabric.

I had enlarged a Michelle Ward stencil on my computer and then traced over the images with unwanted dress pattern tissue.

I laid out the tissue stencils on the art cloth. Sorry about the quality of the photo.  I was standing on a chair using my phone!   Now it's ready to sew.

Here each of the large stencils have been stitched on one of the circles to the cloth.

A closeup of the pattern completely stitched.

And here the stitching with the tissue pattern removed.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Art Cloth update

You may remember I shared about the Art Cloth earlier this month.  This was how the cloth was when I had washed it.

I recently attended the last day of the course.  When I got there everyone who had used the turquoise was talking about how the colour had washed out.  Very strange!

I used a quarter of a Michelle Ward stencil from her Gothic Collection to draw an outline to have made into a Thermofax screen.   I used the masked off stencil and the screen across the cloth.  I made myself a quarter circle mask so that I could work through it.

I used a crackle pattern thermofax screen through the quadrant mask with black fabric paint and then sponged through the mask with silver grey fabric paint.  I also used one of Ineke's lace thermofax screens.

When all the black and grey was dry I went back with some pearlised white with a touch of teal mixed in.

The finished painted and patterned cloth.

I'm going to put this on top of two layers of fabric and then machine it.  I was planning to machine straight lines between the circles.  However the photograph shows lines for squares so now I'm not sure which lines to machine.

What would you do?

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

More from my Venice project

I saw this blog post by Anna-Karin Evaldsson and thought I could do something similar for my Venice sketchbook.

Apart from the fact that I didn't have the same stencils, colours of paint or ink pads - but that aside I'd give it a go.  I stuck some Italy related bits and pieces that I had bought from Julie Kirk - she made this pack especially for me.  I painted over it with a yellow acrylic mixed with glaze medium.

I stencilled some brown paint.

Added some more stencilling with a flesh colour acrylic.

Stamped randomly over it all

Stencilled again and decided it was all rather brown.

So I mixed some yellow glaze and put it over the top and then decided it was too yellow!

So painted grey over it and then wiped some of it off.

I had mixed a lot of the yellow glaze so I stencilled a piece of Deli paper with it.

 I used gel medium to glue some pieces of painted repair tissue onto it.

I used some stamps designed by Michelle Ward and then I started on the red paint.  I read the instructions again - I wonder why really because apart from the number of layers it's nothing like Anna-Karin's piece.  Anyway she had said use texture paste.

I mixed the red paint with the fibre paste - which of course made it a bit pink!  Anyway, I stencilled the shapes with the fibre paste and then when it was dry tried to darken it with black paint and then lighten it with buff white.

By this time, I decided I'd be better off leaving it alone for a bit.  I will come back to it when I decide what it needs.  It's not saying Venice to me yet.

What would you do with it?

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

PS: If you would like to look back at the pages of my Venice sketchbook to date click on Venice in the list below.

Glimpses of Jesus 3

Glimpses of Jesus in the Old Testament is a year long bible study written by Simon Clay of Jubilee Church Solihull.   You can join in at any time.

Today's study is about Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3.  The part that stood out to me and inspired my journal page was later in the story in Genesis 15:5
He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars - if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 

I thought of the numerous stars in the sky - too many to count - and that one special star that led to the stable when Jesus was born.  And that led to this page.

I put a thin coat of gesso on the page and then used a snowflake stencil for the large star and a star stencil for the other stars.  I used Transparent Texture Paste through the stencil.

I put a thin layer of acrylic paint over the page and you can see the texture of the kitchen paper where I dabbed it off.   I wiped someo f the paint off the stars.

I put another coat of acrylic paint over the page.

I used some white acrylic paint through the stencil to make the large star show up.  It's not as neat as I would have liked it to have been.  The paste had spread under the stencil.  Then I wrote around the edge of the page.

You can join in with the Bible study without doing a creative response.  I do hope you will join me.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

More in my Venice workbook

Last week I showed you the gelli prints I had made using Michelle Ward's stencils.  I scanned some of them into my computer which enabled me to print them in different sizes.

When I was doing the gelli prints I put the excess paint on the stencils into my sketchbook.

These pages also have bits of stencils pressed on the paper.

I cut up parts of a gelli print and glued it only at the top on the left hand page.  I may stick the strips down completely but at the moment they can be picked up so that I can do something underneath if I wish.  I printed out the quarter size image of the original I had just cut up and stuck it down on the right hand page.

This page consists of gelli prints using the same stencil.  The top image was printed on paper and the lower one is on Deli paper.

I had dyed two pages with fabric dye and I rather like the contrast between the dark gelli print and the bright page.

I cut out parts of the print and stuck down the negative and positive.

I cut out the quatrefoil shape from another print on Deli paper and stuck them down.  I drew round all the shapes with a black pen which grounds the shapes on the page.

All of these pages need more work and I will blog my progress.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Collage Camp & Dimensional Stenciling

I'm just back from a glorious three days at Art from the Heart in Harrogate doing three separate workshops with the amazing Seth Apter.  Today I will concentrate on the first two days.

I love Seth's teaching style.  It really suits me.  Friday's class was Collage Camp.  The morning was very structured.    Seth went through his 8 principles of making collages and we made 8 mini (6 inch square) collage samples.

Later in the day Seth showed us how to make backgrounds using two of his techniques.

And then we were let loose to play - to use what we had learned in the morning to make one or two larger collaged pieces.   Seth went round the room talking to us individually - encouraging and guiding us.  He was so generous with his time and his knowledge.

This one isn't finished.   I worked on the page this way.

But when I was asking Seth's advice about what more to do with it, he suggested turning it the other way up!  And it makes such a difference!

This is the other collage I made

The second day was Dimensional Stenciling.  And the format was the same as the day before.  Seth took us through products this time that you could use with stencils and we made samples.

We made a couple of backgrounds and then we started using what we had learned about stenciling for a larger piece.  I found that what I had learned in Collage Camp was also very useful.

I had worked on the one above as a landscape but when I turned it up the other way I could see shapes that looked a bit like a New York skyline.  You might need to use your imagination.

I used some of Seth's stencils to make the buildings.   It isn't finished yet but I was thrilled that I got this far.

 I also have a couple of other unfinished papers.

And this is from the excess of paint on the pages above plus rubbing off the graphite from the stencil.

I might make all the samples into a book so that I don't lose them and perhaps use the paper above for the cover.  I'll let you know what happens.

Come back on Thursday to find out about the third class I took.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice