By the Ocean, a circle accordion book

I have had a lot of fun doing a circle accordion book, although at the very end (it figures!) I am running into some unexpected issues, but I'm sure I'll come up with something, right?

To start with, I applied Daler Rowney FW acrylic inks to a 22x30" sheet of Arches 140-lb. watercolor paper using brushes. Towards the end I switched to a stencil brush and was happier with the results. I went a little darker overall than my original intention but managed to lighten it up & unify everything at the end by putting a layer of Silver Moss over all. For the most part, I used pearlescent inks but did use a bit of two regular ones for some contrast and increased interest. They mostly got covered over with the pearlescents but still served their purpose.

I then cut the strips up to make a cover and four strips of internal pages (finished book measures 6" tall by 5-1/2" wide). Took a little bit to work out some lines about how the ocean makes me feel--nothing to change the world but meaningful to me. Practiced my handwriting in a journal and then made moves to put the words in the book.

Here is where I have gone astray a bit! I did the responsible thing and put light pencil guidelines on the paper so my writing would be straight, and then I wrote with a Pigma Callipen, but it is NOT permanent ink. So when I went in to erase my pencil guidelines, the ink is disappearing too! Right now I'm deciding whether to go in and cover up the pencil lines with charcoal pencil, which actually might look pretty nice to ground the words, or go with the erasing effect and have it look like the tide coming in and erasing marks left on the sand.

Later . . .

I tried using a charcoal pencil on some of the scraps of paper and was not taken with the result, plus the thought of having to mess around with a fixative and even then I'd probably get facing pages rubbing onto each other . . . no, I think not. Plan B went into the effect with the eraser, and I LOVE IT! The ink looks better not being so black, but since I did it bottoms up on the words, it really does look like the sand and the sea breeze have been there working their magic on the scribblings. I know that the whole thing would probably be even better if I did add something to ground the words with, but I'm not confident I can do that without messing it up, and right now I like the overall effect of the words floating in the sea. So there.



All I need is some self-adhesive linen hinging tape to attach the pages together. Once that's done, I'll take pictures and post them up.

27 July 2008

Need to think about what projects to tackle upon arriving home—

9 August—need baby book for Joanna, tin for Danny
6 August—need baby book for Jen?

22 August—must have finished birthday card for Mom

Start producing Xmas cards!

29 August—must have finished anything for Mom to take back

On plane, try to write out steps for Danny’s tin.

Get 1” square punch.

Re seascape item: use Opalite Sterling Frost to do small shells, starfish.

Start working on steps for sea piece.

Make Japanese card for Irene.

Look up Japanese philosophy of Wabi Sabi (p. 45 Mixed Media Collage).

Really like the layout pp. 50-51 MMC.

Look up a book by Joanne Mattera on using encaustic—The Art of Encaustic Painting.

20 July 2008

Thoughts on the “foggy” challenge: I thought of the fog of memory and how people can suddenly pop out of one’s mind when if asked an hour before you wouldn’t have recalled anything about them.

So I thought about having a piece that had a foggy look all over but with faces emerging at certain points between the clouds (use Stampscapes clouds stamp recently purchased?). Not clearly defined, maybe some kind of transfer. Or transparencies.

Have to think about how to make it interesting and also how to make it pretty, or at least not dull.

I did have the idea of having the faces appearing in a circle on the piece.

Maybe the idea with “foggy” is that all the images should be obscured in some way, as though there was a fog or haze or veil in the way. Encaustic? Vellum? Angel hair? Nothing too hard, like metal or wire mesh. Fog is soft, no hard edges, can’t be contained in a form.

NOTE: for dolphin/sea piece, try using heat-transfer method to put a celestial map in the sky (p. 18 Collage Discovery Workshop).

Apply transparent colors on top of each other.

NOTE: try using Cobalt Blue first then Turquoise Phthalo on top for ocean (pp. 22-23 Collage D. Wkshop).

NOTE: try using a combing tool to make waves in the paint (p. 26 CDW).

NOTE: sprinkle sand or crushed shells onto the paint?

Something to try: apply plain white vinegar to copper sheeting.

Something to try in the right piece would be to use incense sticks, either tied together or just glued in place, to frame an element (p. 60 CDW).

19 July 2008

Woke up this morning ten to five and foolishly went into kitchen for more water. It was so bright I couldn’t go back to sleep properly. Kept having dozy dreams, many of which were about things I want to make.

I’m still thinking about my ocean piece. Saw good idea somewhere in which the artist had used glass pebbles (like my flat-sided marbles I got at the Moon Marble Company) along the ocean bed. Good idea! Could use different sizes and mix of blue, green, clear.

Also had some ideas about those dolphin peel-off stickers I like so much and some ideas for a mixed-media piece on it. I just need to do some of these things and see how they turn out. Anyway, I was thinking of something in an L shape, and then something bridging the space between to represent water, and then the dolphins leaping above the “water”, behind it (use a mesh?), and below it so they are completely underwater.

Not sure what the “L” is made of—two pieces of wood? Two canvases attached somehow? Maybe get sheet of playwood (or big canvas or foamboard) in square or rectangular shape, then fasten canvases onto that for 3D effect. Mesh could go over canvases, and then it’s easy to fasten things behind the canvas onto the backing plywood.

Would like to work into the background images of those old maps with sea monsters lurking in the waves, and images of ships, compasses, maybe constellations in the sky.

Do something to the mesh so it’s shimmery, sparkly, but not too obvious.

Maybe paint warm colors above mesh (on both backing and top of left canvas) as sunset, or if want cooler colors then stick to light blue and clouds. Not a stormy look, though.

Carry what’s done on canvas across to backing board too. Experiment with Glamour Dust—use in constellations, possibly.

13 July 2008

Kayleigh and I went to the seaside today at Clacton-on-Sea. At the beach she helped me wash lots of rocks, and I wrapped up the parettiest ones in plastic to bring home.

My thought is to use them in some kind of dump art project, but I’m not sure what to do with the rest of it. Maybe I could print out 1 or 2 of the photos I took of Kayleigh today and use them as the backdrop. Should I try painting the sky a la Angela Cartwright? Maybe I could use a waves texture plate on just part of the picture—combination of water and sky to blend the picture together a little.

What else could I try? Could have the pic and rocks be only the top part and have the bottom (1/3) be what’s under the ground, flotsam and jetsam, gems hidden in the earth (use Rox recently gotten), a sea monster in its den, “hot lava” as it reminds me of Kayleigh and it’s like the burning love for one’s children; something that indicates or represents ineffable mysteries, things that are hidden.

Just now we passed some fields—cows, cows, cows, then bunnies. Must have been at least 30 of them. I know they are a nuisance to farmers, but they sure were cute.