More Stuff

Yummy! Look what came in the mail today; Sinopia dry pigments for encaustic. They are so beautiful lined up on the shelf next to my wax area. I just had to share.

And another journal page. That too.

I was inspired yesterday to shoot several pictures along the Willamette River. I drive this route every time I go to town and it is full of great old buildings. This abandoned Marina was flooded out when the Willamette breached it banks a few years back. It occurs to me that much of what exists along this old stretch of highway is disappearing.

A few days ago I promised you a tutorial on making a journal out of used grocery bags which I think are a great material to recycle. Well, here we go. First you carefully open the seams of the grocery bags. (or you can just rip them open like I did)

Tear them to size. My size was 10" x 15 1/2 ". They'll be folded in half. I got 3 sheets that size out of each bag so it took 6 bags to make the journal.

Next I soaked each sheet in water and squeezed it out. Then I hung the sheets on a rod in my studio to dry.

Next I ironed out each sheet with a little spray and my iron.

Here are all the sheets folded and stacked into 3 signatures of 6 each.

After sewing the signatures in a coptic stitch (there are many tutorials on that online. Just google "coptic stitch" and choose one) ---

I cut a sheet of tarleton (use whatever you have. Fabric, cheesecloth - I happen to have tarleton because I'm a printmaker but I would have used anything else that presented itself equally) - anyhow, cut a piece of something and get a sheet of cardboard to fashion a spine so you'll know which end of the book is which.

Here is the spine cut out. Dont measure. This isn't that kind of a book.

Slather gel this way and that until the spine is roughly in the spinal area and the fabric is glued to the cover.

Let it dry. It's gonna be a wet puppy.

Ta Da! You now have a floppy, friendly, fabulous book in which to gather up all your ideas and flotsam. Throw it in your purse, let your friends draw in it, do anything but treat it like it's a big deal. This journal is just for sloppiness. (come to the wild side!!)

Another shot of 99E looking south toward the motel that has never been open in the 10 years I've lived here. We refer to it as the Bates Motel and joke that the government uses it as a witness relocation house. You never see anyone outside but the roses are always pruned. Very straaaaange.

Ciao!

First Friday

Things are warming up over here in more ways than one.

This is a wine label that I removed soooo easily by filling the wine bottle with boiling hot water. The label then just lifts off. I've done this several times now after struggling with other methods. There are so many cool wine labels to play with.

Wordy. Like my life these days. Everything moving so fast. My friends Jenny and Ruth and I went to this open studio event yesterday and got hugely inspired.

 

Readers, meet Tangie (left) and Ruth. Tangie and Ruth, meet the readers. Tangie is demonstrating her collage technique. She works BIG.

This is Kristin on the left and her work up front on the table and in the back on the wall. 

Look at her painting closely. Grocery bags and walnut ink. That's it folks. Brilliant work from simple materials. The best!!

Here's a cornstarch paint recipe for making paste paper. I love "secret" recipes. 

Then last night my friend Shannon and I went to Andrea Benson's Friday Open House and admired her recent encaustic work. It is meticulous and thoughtful. The wine was flowing (that's my excuse) so the only photo I took there was of the above poster. I'm going to make my own list of demands; can't wait to start.

Don't forget to enter into the book and art giveaway that Mary Beth and I are sponsoring here. One more day to leave a comment at that post and enter. Next week I'm going on another road trip so fasten your seat belts and prepare for a little travel. We're going to have some fun. :-D

ps. oops. Can't count. Make that two more days. We'll pick a number on Tuesday and post the winner asap.

New Stamp, Paper and a Thank You

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 .