Fern, Quotables; Poppy, Thistle, Snap Dragon, and Sour Grass

 Fern 

12 x 9

venetian plaster, celluclay, found fern, wax, resin on wood

For Mixed Media.  Use multiple media and let the process guide you.  I began with the Venetian Plaster on wood.  I them added the celluclay to the edges creating a berm.  After the celluclay was dry I added the fern and the wax.  I wanted to see how wax and resin reacted so I decided to pour resin on top.  All of the materials are in the natural state.  I really like the play of textures and subtle colors and tones in the piece.  

Quotables: The Traveler's Gift- 7 Decisions of Success

text paper and tape

5.5 x 68

For book making.  Create a book using a leporello format.  I have been reading The Travelers Gift by Andy Andrews and was inspired to create a book highlighting the 7 Decisions of Success described in the book. 

Poppy, Thistle, Snap Dragon, and Sour Grass WIP

11 x 15

tea and watercolor on Reeves BFK

For Mixed Media.  My final project.  Each of these is going to have a flower on it done in a style similar to my Sketchbook Project 2012.  

 

Love Book

Love Book

5.5 x 8.5

davy board, handmade paper, book cloth, cardstock

For Book Arts.  My final project.  A simple pop up book of mine and my husband's love story.  

  Love is a single edition.  Designed, constructed, and written by me. The silhouettes are hand cut and the typeface is Calibri.

-I would like to thank Christine Rolik for her guidance, direction, and positive critiques.- 

You can see a mock up of this book here.  

Moments, Half Clam, Love WIP

Moments

9.5 x 15

ink, gouache, watercolor, charcoal, sanguine on cellucllay

For Mixed Media.  Experiment with additional techniques. This was done on Celluclay, mixed with green tea, and dried in the oven at 200* for 2 hours.  The green tea gave the paper a nice tint and I like the way the tea leaves are embedded in the "paper".

It is super fragile.  As I was peeling off the aluminum foil, the edges cracked off, then as I was painting on the "paper" more of the edges cracked off.  If I was to do this again I would make sure to make the "paper" thicker as it seems to be a bit more sturdy.  My husband thinks it looks like a giant potato chip :) 

The one on the left is thicker.  I painted on the thinner one as the thick one wasn't dry.

Half Clam Tray

3.5 x 2.75 x 2

davy board, decorative paper, glue, book cloth

For Book Making. The case wrapper and liner are done with a decorative marble paper, and the tray is done with a black velvety book cloth. This was surprisingly fun to do.  I really love the way it turned out.  I may make more of these in the future.  

I created it to house my "Me Book"

L<3ve WIP

8.5 x 11

cardstock

For Book Arts.  Mock up #2 for my final project. Here is my first attempt at this project. This one is much more successful then my previous try.   I plan on using the pop up shapes as "bases" and then attaching black paper to add contrast.  The pages will have white card stock behind them.   

Bound, Slip Cover, Love WIP

 

Bound

9x12

wood, wrapping paper, card stock, glitter, modge podge, twine, yarn

For Mixed Media. Experiment with assemblage. Scraps and failures.  The wrapping paper, glitter modge podge, and twine are scraps from various other projects.  The card stock cut out into mine and my husband's silhouettes are from the book making mock up that went wrong. 

Some of the modge podge is still wet.  I really hope it dries clear.  

Slip Cover

5 x 5

davey board, book cloth, handmade paper

For Book Arts.  Create a slip cover for one of your previous projects.  I created a cover for my Leaf Scans book.  

L<3ve WIP

8.5 x 11

cardstock

For Book Arts.  Mock up for my final project.  Thank goodness I did a mock up.  As I was putting it together I realized my structures wouldnt pop the way I wanted them to.  I an going to do another mock up with the pages vertical. 

Leaf Scans, Resin, CitraSolv

 

Leaf Scans

5 x 5

paper

For Book Arts.  Create a book inspired by found objects.  It has been windy here lately so when I went on my found object walk I found a lot of leaves.  Originally my idea was to create a gradated color book (green to yellow to red to brown).  When I scanned the leaves the color didnt come through the way I had hoped.  Instead I got these really cool images with a lot of depth. The leaves were very detailed where they touched the scanner and blurry as they moved away from the scanner.  I decided to make an accordion book with these images.

California Golden Poppy 

12 x 9

wood, watercolor, venetian plaster, image transfer, gold leaf, antique solution, gold metal paint, matte medium & resin

For Mixed Media.  I took my Golden Poppy piece from last week and decided to pour resin on it.  It makes the piece feel more important.  I was surprised at how easy the resin was to use.  I think I am going to have to use it more often.

CitraSolv
These pages were created by spraying a National Geographic Magazine with CitraSolv cleaning solution. I used editions from both the 70's and 2008.  The pages on the left are from the 70s and the pages on the right are from 2008.  I like the results better from the 2008 ones as I feel the inks are more vibrant and gave cooler patterns.  I plan on using these pages (and making more) to create a large scale flower piece. Stay tuned for updates :) 

California Golden Poppy, Me Book

California Golden Poppy 

12 x 9

wood, watercolor, venetian plaster, image transfer, gold leaf, antique solution, gold metal paint, matte medium

For Mixed Media.  Experiment with multiple media.  Playing off of the name of California's state flower, the golden poppy.  I thought it would be interesting to make the golden flowers gold.        

Me Book

2 x 3

card stock, screw, nut & bolt

For Book Arts.  Create a book in sequence inspired by past present and future.  Each page has a number 87-24 and in years where something important happened there is a word- 87 birth, 01 high school, 09 move to California, 12 present, etc.  This book can be read in the round, as seen above, or as a flip book, as seen in the video below.     

My book in action.  I recommend you mute the video as my camera picks up sound easily and my breathing is oddly loud.

Live Laugh Love, Metal Blots, Hidden Book

Live Laugh Love & Metal Blots 

12 x 9

wood, letters, metal tape, black metal paint & metal paint on flashing with patina solution

For Mixed Media. Experiment with metal techniques. In Live Laugh Love I adhereed metal tape over letters then used darker metal paint to add some depth. In Metal Blots I placed metal paint on the flashing pressed the pieces together and then added various patinas.  

Hidden Book

9 x 7

altered book

For Book Arts.  Take a book and make something new from it.  I have always thought false books are cool. Books that look like books but actually hold treasures.  I also wanted a cool case for my iPad.  I went to a local used book store and bought a book for $2.  I made a template, cut out all of the pages, and then glued them all together.  Quite a bit of work.  I love the way it looks though. A cool/ safe way to carry around my iPad :)  

Encaustic, A Dreamless Sleep

Encaustics

12 x 9

wax, wood, image transfer, watercolor, yarn, acrylic, pastel  

For Mixed Media.  Experiment with encaustics. Very fun to do if you never have.  Playing with different ways to use encaustics.  

A Dreamless Sleep 

8.5 x 4.5 

decorative paper, davy board, PVA, waxed linen thread, blank & lined paper

For Book Arts.  Midterm. A compilation of letters written to my grandfather in the week after his unexpected death. The letters bring the reader through the stages of grief. 

Textures Book, Paste Paper

Paste Papers 

11 x 15

flour paste and acrylic on Reeves BFK

For Book Arts.  Use flour to create a paste to make a glue to create covers for future projects.  My paste was super lumpy so I found this project to be a bit difficult. I do like some of the affects I got though.  

Book of Textures

9 x 4

wood, twine, metal paint, modge podge, crackle paint, metal, acrylic

For Book Arts. Make a book without paper. To make my book I used scrap pieces of wood, decorative metal, dyed twine, metal paint, patina solution, glitter, glue, acrylic paint, & crackle paste.  It is an exploration in texture.  A book without words.  

Exploring Textures 

various sizes

wood, metal paint, crackle paint, metal, acrylic

I love when my classes inspire each other. I used the techniques in Mixed Media to inspire the book for my Book Arts class.  To create the first pieces, I taped the decorative metal onto wood and painted with metal paint and patina to create covers for my books. The second one is blue acrylic paint, crackle paste, & bronze metal paint on wood. 

11x15

watercolor on Reeves BFK

For Mixed Media, Creating surfaces and experimenting with watercolor, salt, alcohol &soap.

Plaster, The Pauper & The Knight

 

9x12 

mixed media joint compound on wood

For Mixed Media 2  In one I embedded a piece of yarn and in the other I dripped in watercolor while the joint compound was wet.  

The quote reads "The Quesion of life is 'Why?' The answer, "Why not?" I used  watercolor, tea, ink, sanguine, and white charcoal.

The flower is watercolor, and colored pencils.  

 This is what they looked like after the plaster was dry and before I worked into them:

 

 The Pauper and The Kinght

8.5 x 5.5

 handmade book

For Book Arts. We had to create a book based on 5 random words. To find my 5 words I opened my dictionary, closed my eyes, and went with where my finger landed.  

My 5 words are

- purloin

- head

- coat of arms

- ultimatum

- partway

These words inspired me to write a story and illustrate it.  Fine art is my specialty so illustrating the book was a bit difficult. 

The story is about a pauper who wants to be a knight and decides to steal a coat of arms. 

 Below are some models I made to practice different binding techniques.