Hand-made Christmas 2012 Album...and Project X

With the new Government Legislation (that came into effect on October 2012) and as a solo mother receiving the DPB (solo parent benefit) I might be faced with losing my Right to home-educate and will be required to look for paid employment. I hope to be able to continue my Art and Creativity Certificate but I am just not sure what next year holds for me. I am struggling to concentrate on anything.. but have tried to maintain some sort of creative momentum as I find this soothing and relaxing. Over the past two days I have been working on a Christmas Album using my hand-made banana palm paper.

 I used the card-coard backing from an A3 art paper pad covered it with scrap-booking materials, decorated it and punched holes for the rings

 Another view of the album

 I've trimmed my handmade paper to fit

 ..and finally the back cover

I look forward to recording what we do as a family leading up to Christmas, purchasing and decorating the live tree and house with lights (for the first time) It's Rosie last Christmas before going away to study Vet Nursing in Hamilton and it'll her puppy's first Christmas (so I'll be out-and-about with my camera)...so no doubt there's going to be lots of tears and laughter!

I've also made attempts to start on my Project X. 

 Painted and Gesso'd...yes I KNOW your suppose to do it the other way around...but when have I done anything the "right" way LOL!

 Starting to dry

 I'm loving the texture of the cracking.

Still working on what going to happen next.

I have some ideas but they are all

jumbled up in my head.

I want to try some image transferring I think.

Time: Handmade Album - 10 hours (22/23 Nov)

Project X - 1 hour (20 Nov)

Photo editing/uploading - 1 hour

TOTAL: 12 hours (20-23 Nov)

Project X

I'm currently working on my Project X.

Unfortunately, I can't remember what I had planned to do.

I'd sketched out some ideas.

On scrap paper.

Not IN my visual diary 

*bangs head*

Dumb me!

I know I wanted to evolve my Travelling Egg.

And use those materials.

Plus Gesso (new product I've been wanting to try).

I'm hoping I recorded some

ideas on my blog.

3D Clay Basics/3D Composition

Today I took the clay and had a "play"

First, I just studied it...the colour, the smoothness
and the solidness of the clay.
Then I plied it and moulded it
feeling it's coolness beneath my hands.

At first I wasn't sure what to do..or what to make.
So I put myself into my "childlike state"
and did what most children would do with clay...

I rolled it into a sausage and coiled it like a snake

This reminded me of an elephant's trunk!

Next, I rolled small pieces into balls and stacked them on top 

of one another. I was a little surprised to find they stood upright!

I like the slight variation in its vertical alignment and the way

 the light and shadows play on the curved surfaces.

So then I shaped some leaves. I used a vegetable knife

 to shape and score the clay.

a slightly twisted leaf

 Two twisted leaves

 

Which lead me to google TWISTED LEAVES 

and found these (many) IMAGES

I'm going to print out a few of my favourites

to add to my visual diary

 ...lots of inspiration!

 

Time: 3 hours (15 Nov)

 includes photo editing/uploading

More print making

I got inspired to have another little play this afternoon. This time I printed out half a dozen heart shaped templates and cut out the heart from two pages. 

The first stencil I coloured yellow, the next orange.I thought it was red ink but it squeezed out orange. Never mind.... We just "playing and having fun"...

As I had orange inked up I went over the yellow heart masking it so I'd print the orange as a background. Of course the two colours didn't "meet" very well but ..we are not aiming for perfection, I tell myself...

So I take my next printed orange heart (that I had drying outside) and ink up my brayer with blue ink. I masked the orange heart with a smaller heart I'd cut out by hand and inked the masked heart, combining the blue with the exposed orange heart. I really like how this has turned out!

Then I decided I wanted some "texture" so I inked some nylon netting with the blue ink. I masked the orange background with the stencil and lay the inked net over the yellow heart covering it with newsprint and rolling over using a brayer to take a print of the netting.

Here I have again used the inked netting on the ghost print from yesterday.
 
  I did the same with the apple stencil (that got water damaged in the rain yesterday) and finished both the ghost print and apple print with a blue stencilled heart. I'm really enjoying experimenting with these basic print-making techniques.

Time: 2.5 hours (14 Nov)
1 hour editing photos/uploading (15 Nov)
Total time: 3.5 hours (14/15 Nov)
 

Print-making

I played a little with my inks today. I printed out a few apple templates from the internet and used a blade to cut them out. I inked up the apple stencil and mask but found the paper stuck/ripped with the doubled sided taped and the blue-tac didn't really work for me either. I decided to just "play"  and not get too hung up on the movement of items. I also experimented taking prints from a paper doily, a bit of netting and a leaf..plus took a print from the inked surface which looked kind of cool with the marking made by the rib of the leaf.

apple stencil ..I think this is a stencil?

 print from stencil

print from mask?

apple mask ...unfortunately it started to rain and
 I had these lying on a flat surface outside to dry..so they got wet!

apple stencil NO.2

the back...

and the stencil print

Print from a doily

and a print from some netting

Print taken from inked sheet of glass with an inked leaf

 leaf re-inked and a print taken...it moved while pressing
with a marble rolling pin but I've cut around the leaf  as I
quite like the texture and can use it on something else.

 A mistake...can't even remember how I did it now
but I really like the effect! I think it's from the inked sheet of glass
 after rolling ink over the leaf (that moved while rolling)

..and a ghost print of the above.

Time: 2 hours (13 Nov) plus 1 hour editing/uploading 
photos on blog (14 Nov) =3 HOURS 

Te Kowhai Print Trust and a gift!

I got talking to my neighbour in the afternoon
 and discovered that she was involved in the setting up of the  

Te Kowhai Print Trust here in Whangarei thirty years ago!

I told her about my trip to Wellington to do the weekend
 print-making course and that I had tried doing some
when I got home but only had acrylic paints
which dried out too fast. Well....look what she gave me!

I'm so excited..I can't wait to try them out! Thank you Pippa!

She is going to come with me to Te Kowhai and show me around

She's also going to help me with print-making techniques.Yay!

Waikanae Beach Photos (Oct 21)

While staying in Waikanae I went for a walk done to the beach.

I  took my camera with me to take photos.
 I love visiting the beach...
I love the peace and tranquillity of the water,
 even when it's roaring!
You can see them HERE on my Heart's 'n  Crafts Blog

Time: 3 hours walking/photography 
plus 1 hour editing/uploading photos
Total = 4 hours (21 Oct)

Experimenting with print making

After talking on the phone with Rachel, my mentor this morning I decided to risk experimenting with some prints from the leaf collagraph I made last Saturday. This is cardboard template...

 

I applied oil paints (thinned with a little turps) to the surface and used either a heavy marble rolling pin or the back of a metal spoon to pull the print...and was nicely surprised with the prints!

The leaves eventually lifted off the paper leaving this as the template...

 ...which I think looks kind of cool!

I also took prints of my feet with acrylic paint - just for fun!

TIME: 3 hours (9 Nov 2012)