ad libitum

PAPER ANGELS

I love angels and angel images. 'Tis the Season to think about angels; so, I made several paper angels. My angels have a variety of faces that I have drawn, faces from family photos, and faces from clip art. Their gowns are made from painted and gelli-printed deli paper. Their wings are painted water color paper with a stencil pattern (some gold paint, some silver paint). I have made some into a garland and I will deck my halls with others. (It probably won't surprise people who know me that I made more angels than I have photographed here.)

 

 

A JOURNAL FOR A CHRISTMAS PRESENT

For one of my art groups, we have a surprise Christmas gift exchange; we each make one present, but we don't know who will get it (we draw numbers). This is fun because you don't have the responsibility of making a gift for someone specific; you just make a present. I decided to make a journal. I over-dyed some commercial fabric hat has words on it (I figured words are a good theme for a journal cover). I used the fabric as the journal cover, which I folded over a spiral notebook in the same way we used to fold cut up paper bags over our school books in the '50s and 60's. I prepared the spiral notebook by glueing pages together, then sewing them together, and then covering with gesso. After the gesso dried, I either painted the pages or glued some gelli printed deli paper on them.

Below, are photos of the journal.

The back cover:

A journal page spread (the lines of the notebook peeking through, to use or ignore):

The last page of the journal with a folded pocket for some tags:

PRINTED, PAINTED, FREEFORM-STITCHED, BEADED FABRIC

I finally finished beading the piece of fabric I had mono-printed, painted, and covered with freeform stitching. Pictures cannot convey the wonderful feel (the hand) of this piece. I started out with the idea of using some beads as a bit of embellishment; but I just kept beading and beading. This piece is about 12x13 inches.

Below are photos of details of the piece. You can see more of the painted fabric and sewing in these photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

To answer the most logical question, I am not sure what I am going to do with this piece. It may end up as a wall hanging, but it may be incorporated into something else. There's no hurry to decide.

PLACEMATS

Inspired by a gift from my friend Kate, I made a set of placemats out of painted/colored drawings collaged with background monoprinted papers, washi tapes, duct tape, and sayings. Kate and my friend Cathwren and I had a delightful afternoon making placemats. After making the original collages, I scanned them and then took them to Office Max to be laminated with extra thick plastic (they are, after all, supposed to be used as real placemats). It was a fun project.

 

 

 

 

FABRIC MONOPRINTS

I had a large piece of muslin left over from a project. I decided to tear it up into rectangles and sqares and then play with paints, my gelli plate, stencils and stamps. (And, to answer the most commonly asked question, I plan to use the fabric pieces for a variety of projects: purses, altered clothing, quilts and wall hangings; but I don't have a specific plan for all of them.) I used acrylic paints. The pieces are in a variety of stages of completion. As I work on them, I will decide what they need and when each is finished.

Below is a piece that has a lot of work to be done:

The piece below has a circle theme. The big circles are from a stamp I carved.

On this piece, I used a stencil I made, an attempt to make a picture of my younger daughter.

Below is my start on a steam punk piece using a commercial stencil.

 

I used a letter stencil on the piece below; I'm thinking I may use it on a journal cover.

 

I used a tree mask on the piece below in an attempt to make a fantasy forest. I'm pleased with the start, but have to think about what comes next.

 

People who know me won't be surprised to hear that I have a lot more fabric pieces (I have a total of 28 fabric pieces in this project; all the pieces are about 14x14 inches). I'll post more as I continue to work on them.

 

USING THE GELLI PLATES

You can't have too many papers. I love my Gelli Plate and I love printing papers with it. I'm working on building a nice supply for projects so I'll have them when I'm ready to use them.

 

PAINT AND FABRIC

I have some ideas about making art quilts, embellishing my wardrobe, and making some purses (I think I'm going to try to sell some fabric purses). I have fabric (I bought a bolt of muslin) and I have paints. So, for part of this past week-end and today (which started out with thunder storms) I painted, monoprinted, stenciled, stamped, and wrote on muslin pieces of fabric. I have 62 rectangles and squares of fabric ready to work on (or sit patiently and wait to be worked on). 

I have taken photos of my fabric pieces. They aren't great photos, but they show the range of colors and patterns.

ALTERED PAINTBRUSH ANGELS

Altered paintbrushes have been popping up on Pintrest and some of my art friends decided to do an altered paintbrush swap. It's a make2/get 2 swap. I made two extra because I had the brushes and I can keep two for myself.

First, I covered the paintbrushes with gesso.

I decided that I wanted to make paintbrush dolls; so I added spakley paint and heads/

After I gave them heads, I decided they looked like angels. I added wings, drew in some sleeves and hands, and added some glitter to the bottom of their skirts (I also gave the bald one some hair).

A FLUID ROMANCE WITH KARI MCKNIGHT-HOLBROOK

My third class at Art & Soul in Virginia was A Fluid Romance taught by Kari McKnight-Holbrook. Kari has a vast knowledge of the properties and character of fluid acrylics and mediums and gels; and she's a generous as well as knowledgeable teacher. Her class was a lot of fun. We used paints, modeling paste, clip art, drawings, photos, stencils, and all manner of embellishments.

Kari suggested we tell a story in our paintings by including images of a person, place and thing: an excellent creative touchstone. I came very close to following directions. I wanted my piece to portray the creation of a creative woman, so I used images of people and things. Below is the best photo I could get of my painting. The quote I wrote (which is partially obscured by light reflection) says, "not Eve, pulled from the parts of one who was incomplete, but Lillith, created whole."

FINISHING, STARTING, AND STILL NEEDS WORK

This past week-end, I worked on several projects. I actually finished a necklace a friend of mine had asked for; I made progress with making embellishments out of the fabric paper I had made with my friends Lori and Chris the week-end before; and I made progress on my 2-D canvas piece.

First, the piece I actually finished: a black and white beaded necklace.

Lori Hutchinson and Chris Gould came over to my house the week-end before last. We ate well (at Martini's, one of my favorite restaurants in Kalamazoo), shopped happily (at Stitching Memories, a great yarn shop in Portage) and played happily in my messy studio (we each made 7 sheets of fabric paper, the technique demonstrated by Beryl Taylor in her book, "Mixed Media Explorations").

 

This past week-end, I started making embellishments by cutting some of my fabric papers and sewing around them. Some, I will leave like this; some I will sew more on; and some I willfurther embellish with baubles and/or beads. Right now, I am just making a stash to use later.

 

 And, I worked on a 2-D canvas that I am trying to get ready for a three person show at the Portage Library in late June and July. I'm putting in some pieces I've made in the last year or so, but I want to do an original canvas for the show, too. I want it to be a mixed-media 2-D piece and I have a lot more to do to it, but here it is (paint, mostly Color Mists by Aileen Roberts,  still drying). I have a lot more to do on it.

I also worked on starting class kits for the Crowning Glory class I'm teaching at ArtUnraveled in August (it's a great art retreat and there's still time to register). I'm also working on things to sell there because I'm going to be one of the vendors at the Shopping Extravaganza (I've already posted about the cuffs I made, I'm currently working on some other things, which I will post when they're further along in production).