Stamps and paintings

This is another canvas collage I've just completed. I cut the flowers from two different pieces of my decorated papers. There's lots of layers built up on the canvas first. I never know what the finished piece will end up like. I just keep building the layers to see where it takes me. I think it's finished now, maybe.



I'm making an altered book to see how that goes in the exhibition. It's funny when I make one for myself it just happens, but when it's for someone else it never flows easily, maybe it's trying to create for someone else.



These are some Indian wooden blocks I bought just recently. The are very difficult to use with stamp pads. This is where the 'blue blocks' come in handy. I heated one up and used the blocks on both sides. One block gives you two stamps.
I used paint to stamp with this block.








I used stamp pads with the blue blocks.



This is the results of the painted wood block and the two below are the results of the reversed images on the blue blocks, used with a stamp pad.

Paperific and Altered book - last page

What a fabulous day we had yesterday. We went to Docklands, which is as the name suggest a dock and harbour area. It's only been developed recently and is still growing, lots of apartments, cafes and restaurants and boats, some very luxurious.
My husband spent the afternoon taking photos while I went to 'Paperific', a paper, stamp, embellishment, etc show. Needless to say I bought lots of 'stuff'. I met the great Jen Crossley and Julie from Collections, who Jen was demonstrating for. I also bumped into lovely Nicky who attends our altered book Thursday night get together. The photo shows me going through my loot while waiting for my husband to return, he snuck up on me.


As mentioned in the last post, I've come to the end of my current altered book. Lisa asked me in the previous comments post what sort of paper I use in my decorated papers. Well Lisa just about anything I can get my hands on, from good quality watercolour paper to bond sketching paper which is quite thin, this has the advantage that the image usually goes through to the other side, which is useful if I'm using it to make a journal. It's also nice and thin to add to my altered pages.

The photo above shows the first stage. I apply about four different colours of paint (acrylic, watercolour crayons, inks, again whatever I have available, but mainly acrylics) randomly to the two pages, usually keeping one until last for the highlights.



The next stage is to add strips of paper napkins, torn phone book pages or any thin paper. I peel the white backing off the paper napkins to make them more transparent. I use my hand made stamps to stamp images and patterns onto the pages.



I then add hand drawn lines or 'doodles', text, chocolate wrappers or anything that will add to the layers.



Finally I finish off with attachments, images, fabric or strips or cut outs from my decorated papers. Sometimes I give the two pages a wash of a very watery mix to tie the whole thing together. I leave the next two pages blank and work on the two after that, then I join the blank pages together, making the pages thicker. Quite often I come back later and add other things I find that might suit the page, it's a never ending story.

Studio and Journal

I've just done a bit of rearranging and cleaning up in my studio. I used to be a draftswoman and technical illustrator many years ago, before computers took over. I've had this fantastis drawing board all these years, but it takes up so much space, my dear husband has been trying to talk me into getting rid of it for years, but you know the old feeling that you might just need it one day. Well he's won, but there is compromise, I took the top off the board and got rid of the stand. The top is cedar and has made a fantastic desk, you can see it in the photos, that's now where I do my journals and altered books. To the right is another story, that's where I do my mosaics and major constructions, that defies being tidy. That's real hard hat territory.
Next step is my jewellery making area and my textile zone. I'll show photos later, when they've been given the treatment.

More altered pages

This is the book I work in when I teach my altered book workshops. I tend to do experiments in this book so it ends up a mish mash of styles. I don't mind this as I have a wide range of tastes when it comes to art and journals.

The top three images show two pages, with two shortened pages in the middle. I've used lots of transfers on the third image and hand written text.

In the next image, I decided to concentrate on art and art supplies. I used ads from the yellow pages as part of the background, along with serviettes. I painted some lace, made letters from some thin brass I had in my junk box and stamped to tie it altogether with my eraser stamps.

The last photo shows a page the revolved around the brochure for the movie Golden Flower. Again I used serviettes for some of the background. I tore up the brochure then stuck pieces of it down, I used my eraser stamps and even a discarded sugar packet to finish off. I like to give some of my pages an edging held with eyelets. It strengthens the page and provides somewhere to add extras.

I'm going through Randi Feuerhelm-Watt's Wide Open book and cards. This is a totally different way of journaling for me, but I'm loving it.