Boiled Books

The frenzy is on.   Started by online art  pals who brought this to my attention.     It wasn't the process that lured me in, but the wonderful organic look of the paper after the process is complete.      It's a project that I didn't need to go look for materilas other than in m y kitchen, studio and garden. 



The first three photos are from the first batch I made.   I think they turned grey because I tossed in what I thought was a rusty little tin thing - but now I think it was a faux rust finish.   So, the finish stained the paper.   I like it fine tough, it's subtle at least. 

Basically, it's using watercolor paper, leaves from the garden, a big art-dedicated pot water and vinegar.   Oh yes, a couple of ceramic tiles and a rock.    

Here is the link where I learned to do this.  Of course I varied it up a bit.    LOL     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULFIuj1euQ0













First I folded and tore the paper to sized to make little books the size of the tiles. 

 I have some good smelling things in my little garden.  Rosermay, Bay leaves, sage, thyme.   It will smell better than the last batch which was mostly oak and birch leaves.   

I gathered leaves and stems and arranged them in the books, sort of stuffing them pretty full in most places. 











According to people who know, you put a tile down and start bulding your book on top of it, by adding the greenery and twigs and leaves between the pages of the folded books stacking them together if small.

Next step is to position the upper tile on it and clip them together with clamps or such.  Not having a ready supply of clips, I opted to wire mine together as snugly as I could.  








The bundled stacks now go into a big pot of water, with
about 3/4 cup white vinegar.     Just to hold mind down better, I added a rock on top.  But figure once it starts bubbling away, boiling for 1 1/2 hours, it's likely going to topple off - and sure enought I just heard it do just that.     Oh well, I"m sure they'll  do fine anyhow.    

I'll post pics tomorrow.   The first batch I did two days ago, I left overnight in the bundles rather than open them right away.  I thought the colors might get more intense with longer exposure to the leaves.

You might want to try this before all the leaves fall.   Fall is here and they are starting to turn now.   
     

Things that go bump in the night.

Halloween is on the  horizon now.  So time to start thinking spooky.....   wooooooo.....  Guess who's the spookiest member of this household?   

Sewing as art - or just plain practical

I don't know what happened to my family.  All of a sudden everyone busted seams in their pants.      Trevor is in culinary arts program and wears a black and white houndstooth trouser.    Bent over the oven, and split a seam.    Grandma to the rescue.   Candis split out her workout tights.  Grandma to the rescue.     Nathan split out his favorite black pants he wears to work.     Grandma to the rescue.     Matt - well he doesnt split seams so much as pops buttons.   Mom to the rescue.

But sometimes I sew for art too.      Here are the post cards I stitched before adding the colors.     

And lastly, one after inks sprayed and spattered on them. I had sprayed the watercolor paper with water first, so the colors bled and moved and blended.     And ;the dyes soaked into the paper rather quickly so there was no way to lift them.    It is what it is.     I rather liked how the ink leached it's way down the stitch line to make a shadow under the hairline and slong the chin. btw I used black sharpie pen for eyes with sharpie white paint pen for dot.     

Book Murals

Saw this on the web and had to share. http://www.creativeboom.com/art/hundreds-of-vintage-books-transformed-into-giant-mural-illustrations/

KVIE Art Auction

This past weekend was the annual KVIE Arrt Auction.     Artists donate their art for the auction and the sales go to the public television channel.  It's a good cause.    Lodi Art Center had about 20 minutes to present the works of 6 of our artists whose works had been accepted for the auction.   My friend Jean was one of them.     We had a little get together at her house to watch.   Here is Jean next to her Yupo watercolor of koi.     


She received a phone call from them in the evening.  They told her it sold for well over her estimated price.    Win, win.       Made everyone happy.      

Jean is my sitting partner at the gallery now.     She is 84 and very active.     Teaches one community class Thursday afternoons. plus one class for the University senior program once a week. as well as showing her art in most local shows.      she is one of the people that just blossomed in her senior years when she had more time to devote to her loves of painting and teaching.      

GOT PURPLE?

I received my new order of dyed wool roving.       While sitting at the gallery yesterday with Jean, I worked on adding some of the new colors onto the felted piece.       I have much better greens to work with, certainly moe like the tree colors I know, kind of olive greens.      Then the purple had to be worked into the hilside for an extra punch of color.     Here's the way it looks this morning.    Maybe by evening it will change.  

My friend  Vivian and I were talking about the wook, and it occured to me that it's title might be........ "A Roving".   

The second photo is what it looks like on the back when I peel it off the dense foam.    I actually like it a lot.  Not all of the colors have come through yet, but more will as it progresses.     The amount of wool that comes through is so much thicket than with the old green foam pad I used to use.     

Photoshop elements play time

With the roofers clomping and clambering about overhead ( I hope this is the last day) - I turned to my trusty computer for some art play time.     First I scanned in a little mini gelli print with a family photo pasted on, so I'd have an original image to work with.  Then I went to the filters and tried several of them to see what they would do with this.     Here is my sample sheet.

I hope you can see the differences.  

These are single manipulations.  You csn always do one filter, then do another with the ressulting image, and then another and another.    There's no limit.     You can leven layer them.     But for this little play session I wanted to make a sample sheet with individual techniques to share with my mixed media group.  

Photoshop elements is one of the tools I sometimes use when planning out a piece of art.  I do some of the trials here, like adjusting colors, or heightening the sauration of colors.     I seldom opt for bright colors in my works, but in Photoshop I can do it and like it on screen.  Its a play place.    

Loads of tutorials are available online, and there are many good books on using computers in your art arsenal - or even to create digital art.   Have some digital fun.    

I posted this and then went to look at it.    Photos are so small they don't show well, so I'll add a few larger ones here.    

  
This was the original

 Followed by some of the techniques some of which I did not put on the study sheet.    

Crinkled.

 Dry Brush.

 Find Edges.

 Color and saturation manipulation.

Graphic Pen.