Here is my slab of rubber positioned next to the thumbnail sketches I did of possible designs to carve. Every step of carving rubber is pleasing to me. So much easier than all the plywood I slaved over long ago when making woodcuts. Now I can zip out a new stamp in about an hour.
And here it is, stamped on the paper next to the sketches. The last two that I made seemed masculine to me so with the shape and the wavy lines I hoped to make this one more feminine.
I tried it out on my journal pages first thing. Yay, I like it.
So time to finish the paper I primed last night. Here is a shot of the newspaper getting a coat of house primer. I used white on several sheets to play with.
And let them dry overnight.
Then awhile ago I went in and started stamping on them with my new stamps. I was going to use all my stamps but it was so messy that I just stuck to a few.
They look like a real mess from a distance but up close are some sweet spots. I've decided to use the paper in my collages instead of using it for wrapping paper.
The one piece of advice I have for anyone who wants to try this is not to keep the paper in such big pieces.
It's a pain to get around all sides of it when it is big and floppy.
I left a lot of the backgrounds white thinking I can always go back and glaze color over them later.
If you are taking a class from me I'll bet some of this shows up in your goody packets.
So that ends the newspaper project. One thing I like is the way the paper ripples with the paint on it. Sort of like kraft paper only thinner. I love paper, don't you? I have samples of the expensive stuff all over my studio that I just take out and fondle from time to time. But *shhh* my favorite paper of all is used paper bags from the grocery store. I'm saving them up to make my next journal. Yes! You can come along and watch. I'll put it all up here when I do it.
Behold the box of wonders that arrived in the mail yesterday. My sweet angel
Carla, because she is thoughtful and herself, gathered up this bundle of love and sent it to me. I wish she could have seen me opening it and admiring each item. I sat right down and glued the red chinese cut out faces in my journal and then cut out the pictures of the head sculptures she made and glued those in my journal thusly:
and painted silly bodies on them. John didn't "get" my illustration; maybe I've been reading too many cartoons out of the New Yorker magazine. At any rate, thank you dear
Carla, for making my day special.
Back to the studio now to start tearing the paper bags for the journal project. I don't promise I'll get to it right away but I'm going to start collecting my materials so that when the time is ripe I'll be ready .
Yesterday I played with japanese papers, paint and wax. My favorite is the ghoulish lady above; I like to think of her as a consumptive poet. Feverish color in her cheeks and poor handwriting. I love how the pictures talk to you as you work.
She needed a sister and so she got one.
Then I went to school and played in wax some more. I think I've figured out the difference between using a torch and a heat gun on the wax. I have more control with the flame from the torch - it's like the difference between painting with a small detail brush and a big sloppy one.
Here is my magnum opus. It's the first one John hasn't made the pickle face over. That's progress.
The farmer has an art project of his own going on outside. He's building a home for our firewood. It is 27' x 10' and already I am coveting it to store my stuff in. He ordered the roofing today. I love a man who knows how to build things. I've learned so much from him. On our first date he picked me up in a '55 black Ford pickup and HE brought the picnic lunch of fried chicken and strawberries. (we went fishing and then to Bagby Hot Springs.) He taught me where the rainbow trout hide (behind the riffles) and I pretended like I was an old fisherwoman from a 'way back instead of the thoroughly sissy city girl that I am. He saw right through me and loved my charade. Ahh, sorry. I digressed.
Here's the little conestoga wagon (actually a cloche) bearing the peppers across the prairie - I mean the garden. Our peppers are still ripening inside. They don't know it's clammy and cold outside their little home.
Autumn brings the blooms of the Maxamillion Sunflowers. Multiple heads among the blue salvia. The flowers would look beautiful in a pumpkin vase if I were the sort that fussed. Instead I'll just take a picture of them and call it good.
The walnut orchard ready for the yearly visitation of the crow-angels. I love crows. Don't you ever be sayin' bad things about crows. They know things. I especially love their piercing cry.
Here are the fairy houses I promised you. Growing under the Douglas Firs in an area of the yard that is most like a forest floor. Don't the roofs look like shingles? Tiny yurts for fairies.
And these too. Our yard is full of mushrooms. If I were a real witch I would know which ones to cook up with the eyes of newt and frogs. Blech. No worry. I would never cook a frog.
Boxes of apples. This is autumn to me. Dodging the spider webs, gathering in the apples and pumpkins, readying all for winter. The veil between the worlds grows thinner and thinner. For the next few days we in the northern hemisphere can expect visitations and spirits and spooky business too. Hope you're enjoying the fun.
