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:

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.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

MAGI DOLL #2

Below is my second Magi doll made out of paper.

Her hair is made of strips of specialty paper.

You can see her handmade paper chemise under her outer garment/serape. There is silver glitter on the paper serape, but it doesn't photograph well.

I free-form sewed magical words on paper and attached them to her paper garment. They say "spells and incantations," "prayers and meditations," "magic is affot," and "astral enchantments."

 

MAGI DOLL #1

I am working on making Magi dolls out of paper; not flat, traditional paper dolls, but dimensional dolls constructed out of paper (and paper clay). I am making 3 wise women and calling them Magi - full of wisdom. I think the first one is finished. She is almost a foot tall.

Her dress/chemise is made out of handmade paper (all three of my Magi will have the same handmade paper chemise). 

Her cape is sewn together from apaper towels I used to clean up alcohol inks.

 

 

 

WORKING ON AN ART JOURNAL

Last year I bought some composition books to turn into art journals (some with graph pages, some with lined pages).

I glued and sewed pages together and then covered them with gesso. Then I let them sit for a year. (After all, isn't my blog my art journal?). Last month, I decided it's time to start a "page turning, in real life, art in it and write in it journal." I'm not sure where this will take me.

I decided to start making backgrounds on the gessoed pages.

I want to use the stencils I made on some of my pages.

I completed my first spread using painted deli paper, acrylic paint, a mask, and a stencil (it's supposed to be me), and some writing.

MAKING MY OWN STENCILS

For reasons that are not entirely clear to me, I am on a quest to make as many of my own art tools as possible. I have been playing with stencils lately, and I decided that I wanted to use some face stencils and that I would make my own for collages, journaling, and possibly for fabric. This, I might add, is easier said than done.

I started by making line drawings of faces on blank stencil sheets. I used magazines and family photos as a starting point.

I thought that using a hot stencil cutter would make things easy. Well, it burns through the stencil blank quickly, but it leaves blobs and ridges. I tried two different burning heads on the tool. I went slowly. I went quickly. No matter what I did, I got blobs and ridges. So, I got out my trusty Xacto knife and tried to cut away the blobby parts and even out the cuts (I also sanded down the ridges). I used just the exacto knife for the rest of my stencils. I have to admit I had to tape over some unwanted slices (and burned out blobs), but I think practice will take care of that.

Below is a face I based on a magazine photo (hint, the fall Vogue is full of great images for collages, masks, and art inspirations). I used the Xacto knife for this.

Below is an attempt to make a stencil of my older daughter's face.

This is how it looks stencilled onto a piece of paper.

This one is supposed to be me.

 

And below is my attempt to capture my younger daughter's face.

I used paint instead of stamping ink when I stencilled this image.

Below is my effort to clean up after making the cuts with the hot stencil cutter. I used a magazine face as my model.

Another burned magazine image that I tried to clean up with the Xacto.

Below is another burned stencil of a magazine face. 

 

PAINTED DELI PAPER

While I haven't posted much in the last two weeks, I have been busy (and messy). I have been painting an array of deli paper. I plan to sew some torn paper pieces, make some collages and use them for some 3D pieces. I like to have my component parts ready for when I'm set to start a project.

Below are some photos; frankly, not great photos, but they give you an idea of what the papers look like.

MES AMIS D'ART RETREAT

Last week-end I attended Mes Amis D'art retreat in Hudson, Ohio. I met my friend Andi Hinkle there and we had a great time visiting and arting (and shopping and eating). Cyndi Duncan is the organizer of these retreats and taught all the classes. We made paper dolls from magazine photos; we made paste papers and decorated papers; we made books/journals from our papers; and we made Santos dolls (I just finished painting my Santos doll today).

Below is a picture of my paper doll - not exactly human; but I think she's the cat's meow...

Here is the journal I made - the binding is a bamboo skewer and a rubber band...

I loved making the Santos doll. She is made of floral foam and plaster  strips and is wearing a custom crown. I painted her with craft paints and then covered her with glaze.