Mixed Media Fiber Art Play

Adding stitch to a mixed media fiber surface.

Trying out different acrylic pastes on top of canvas.

I love adding stitch to mixed media artwork.
I am currently playing around with molding paste, acrylic paint and heavy duty thread on top of canvas.

The above samples are of  pure, unadulterated play.
Which is awesome for the creative muscles.

Paperclay Birdies

I thought that I would update you on the Paperclay birdies that I made a couple of weeks ago.

I needed a few small birds for a piece of artwork that I was planning. I decided that the easiest thing to do would be to create them myself.

It was easy but potentially addictive.

First I created the birds by hand.

Plain white birds - like tiny soldiers waiting for their marching orders.

Some of them have perfectly formed eyes & beaks...
others do not.

The largest one is about 1/2" long

I was distracted by several other things (bronchitis and flu to name a couple) so it took me a couple of weeks to get to the next step.

Oh look, someone was watching us! 

I coated the birds with a little bit of Soft Gel to seal them.
Then I used a little bit of acrylic paint in a brown color to rub into the lines on the birds (eyes, wings, etc).
This has to dry completely before you paint the final color.

The bird on the left was created from Crayola Model Magic.
It doesn't firm up the way that Paperclay does.

Sitting there waiting on the next layer of paint.

When the paint has dried completely, I used a small paintbrush to apply the top layer of paint.

Some of them are a cream color, some are brown, some are blue. This step could be done by finger-painting as well.

Little Bird Family

 I used a tiny bit of orange to paint the beaks.
After all of this had dried, I went back and added more brown to the line work as needed.
If you click on the photos to enlarge them, you will be able to see how the brown paint settled into the uneven surface of the bird.
It creates a lovely antique look to the surface of the bird making them appear to be decades older than what they are.

Made from Paperclay

Mommy is keeping an eye on her babies

See how tiny they are?!

The Paperclay is not expensive at all.
It's a fun and easy activity to do that requires very little materials and not a lot of time.
I'd love to see what you do with it!

Ramblings

After I recovered from the initial rush of nerves at the beginning of the radio show interview, I really enjoyed it.
Rebecca made me feel so comfortable, just like two buddies chatting away on the phone.
We were both (more than) a little surprised to find that we had quite a few things in common...
making similar types of artwork, teaching the same type of classes, having artwork in the same book and, like a lot of artists, feeling such an attachment to what we do.

I love being able to use my creativity.
I try to exercise my creative muscles everyday.
Even on days like today -
I am SO tired. It's almost overwhelming how tired I am
but I'm still yearning to DO something...make something...
create something.
I usually pull out my trusty background papers and start throwing paint around on them
but today I did do something a little different.

I have this piece of artwork that I have looking at,
circling,
trying to find its purpose the last couple of weeks...

I've done a bit of collage on it.

A little bit of drawing & painting that I later covered up.

I scraped paint across it...

I'm continuing to look to it to figure out what it wants on the surface...

looking.

thinking.

feeling.

So far this is what it has...

I love the way that the surface looks aged - cracks and splits over the entire thing.

There is no crackle on it - it's just the way it turned out as I have painted, wiped off, wet it, sanded it...

constantly feeling no pleasure in what I see.

So, this aged appearance was a nice thing to see. Perhaps that means I am heading in the right direction with it.

I'm hoping that my energy will return soon - this being worn out when I have SO many things that I should be doing is for the birds...

Me Next! Me Next!

Look at who who wants to be the next book cover...

Texture on Fabric

There are a lot of different ways to obtain texture on fabric. I've been experimenting (again) with different mediums.

Below are several photos of the results.

I started out with a medium weight canvas fabric. Cheap canvas. No need to experiment with the expensive stuff, huh?

I applied a thin to medium coat (apx.1/16" to 1/8") of molding paste and used different "tools" (i.e. fingers, baby wipes, crunched up paper) to obtain the texture on the wet paste.

Let this dry.

I used various Golden fluid acrylic paints to add washes of color.

Click on the pictures to see the detail.

It's just awesome to see how much texture you can get and how the paint really catches on the hills and valleys of the molding paste. I used "light" molding paste so I could sew through it later.

And yes, your machine can handle it ...  as long as it not TOO thick... and it would probably sew through a lot more than what you think anyway. (My hubby  just has to clean the machine a little more frequently)

You can see the frayed edges of the canvas material in this photo.

Here's a close-up of one section of the piece. I just love the colors!

This next photo is of a piece of paper that I used.  I actually started out covering paper and switched to fabric. The results will be just about the same with either one. I use paper and fabric interchangeably in my work anyway.

This is the same narrow piece of fabric from above.

My favorite area is in the center of it . The texture is just amazing,

as well as the flexibility of the entire piece of fabric!

I hope this will encourage you to experiment with different ways to approach your art making.

You just have to be willing to ask yourself this question

"Gee, I wonder what would happen if I did this?"



Art Journal Pages

I have been making art journal pages. I begin with regular sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" pieces of heavier weight paper (I'll post specifics later...can't remember it now).
Then I do collage work. The ones I am going to show
today are all made of vintage paper.
All shades of white, yellow and tan. The page above shows my basic layout.
Pretty simple, very haphazard...some paper here,
some paper there.
Actually I do follow a very rough outline. I usually try to do things in three's.
Just to even things out a little. If I have time later (haha, who am I kidding...
if I can TAKE the time later) I'll do a post of step by step. If you really want to know, email me.
Or leave a comment. If I get enough, I'll post it.
Anyway (don't you hate it when I carry on conversations with myself like that?!)
then I add a watered down layer of white gesso.
Then a few washes of color glaze (acrylic paint watered down or mixed with polymer medium/matt medium) (whatever is close by).
Then I begin adding some stamped elements, whether that's rubber stamps
or actual household items that I use to stamp with.
It could be a section of bubble wrap, an old medicine bottle top, drawer liner...
Then I add more glaze, maybe some more gesso...
I might drip paint on the whole thing, or use my hand to tap it from the brush...
I use regular stencils to add some texture with modeling paste -
or my new favorite , a big ole bucket of joint compound that my husband gave me.
You know, to his credit, he doesn't think I'm that strange AT ALL
when I get so excited over
JOINT COMPOUND.
Gotta love a man that lets his wife have his joint compound, right?
Oh, back to the step by step...
I use sand paper to scruff things up a bit...
I use white gesso (or titanium white) to tone things down a bit...
and I love to use Ranger Distress Inks to age things a bit.
I'll add some finished pages (ones without the writing on them anyway)
for your viewing pleasure.
I suppose that you've noticed by now that
my "usual" practice of making the journal pages
is a little of this, a little of that.
The secret is the Layering of all of it.
And letting each layer dry between times.
Or use a heat gun/hair dryer to dry it with.
Practice and experiment.
That is the true secret.