Chunky Book Take Two
My adventure continues…embellishing the pages. I came up with several ideas, but they seemed too complicated. I purposely tried to stay away from Fantasy Film as a main media, (because I use it so much!) but my mind kept coming back to it. And then I received a bag of scraps from work and so it was meant to be. I wanted to do something quick and easy with wings so stamping was a natural thought. But it always takes so long to cut the image out and my hands are so sore after 30 of them! Then I thought about burning the edges off with a candle flame and now we’re off to the races.
I like to prepare my stamp by heating it first with an iron (cover it with parchment paper first), this helps grab onto the first layer of film. Then ink with black permanent ink and lay on one layer of Fantasy Film.
You can see all around the stamp my scraps of Fantasy Film from other stamping projects that I cover the image with.
Cover the scraps with parchment paper and iron for a few seconds. Since these scraps are on the thick side I iron for about 5-10 seconds. Just until my light starts to blink on my iron!
You can see the ink through the film.
Trim off excess film and separate the wings.
Hold edges up to flame and move around till done. Yes there are burn marks, and if it caught on fire I simply blew it out. Love it!
I held it right over the cut between the wings to get more definition. I also heated the wings to make them curl up. I even got some great holes in some of them. I don’t have a photo of it, but I did use a pair of pliers to hold the butterfly since the film is so thick it does get quite hot.
To give the body a fluffy effect I added Elements Earth Textures. Draw the body on with the Designer Dries Clear adhesive and dump some Elements on.
To make it really thick I gently added another line of glue and Elements.
This is pretty thick and not dry at all, so just slide the Elements off carefully.
Roughly this is it so far. I will be using more techniques from Michael deMeng’s class to attach them. I see wire, beads, E-6000 and possibly ribbon in my near future. Stay tuned. (If you didn’t see the making of the background see my last post.) Enjoy!
2009 Art Unraveled Techniques Chunky Book Take One
Okay, here’s the new adventure. I’ve signed up to be part of the 2009 Art Unraveled Techniques Chunky Book. For this chunky book exchange you need to have had a class at the 2009 Art Unraveled gig and your page is to represent a technique you learned there. As you already know from my last posting, my surprise technique I learned was how to paint again, and really enjoy it. So that’s my big exciting technique, painting a background!
I started with a cheese crisp box from the Mexican restaurant down the street (Su Casa, love it!). There are some cuts in the box making some of it unusable, but I was able to get eight 4 x 4 inch pieces anyway. I made 4 of them for a total of 32 pages. Since I only need 29 I can properly screw up 3 of them! (Can anyone say hello to Christmas mini-presents for Vicki and Cheryl this year?).
So the technique is simple, mix your acrylic paints with water to make a proper wash and apply colors until you are happy. It works best to start out with a dark color and go lighter or visa versa. You can use a heat tool to speed up drying times. But be careful if you are using a cheep surface like mine. It will bubble up if it gets too hot! Lovely rich colors!!!
I also enjoy blotting some paint away with a paper towel to get a faux texture.
This paper towel has so much paint on it (Azo Gold, yea!) I’m going to save it. Yes, I am a bit stingy. But it suites me! Anyway, I’m also showing you my stubby fingers in this shot because I derive a measurable amount of joy by seeing paint on my fingers. Of course it translates to creativity to me that I get reminders of every time I look at my hands until it completely washes off. Am I alone in this feeling?
On the backside I went for a slightly drier brush effect, just for sh*ts and giggles. I must admit at this point how much I thoroughly enjoy mass production pieces. The maturation from piece to piece thrills me!
Ta Da! All cut up. I had envisioned myself with my straight edge and x-acto blade deftly cutting these out at home when I realized…duh, there’s a big cutting board at work! Done, now for the embellishing. Will have to think about that some. Show you later.
DISCLAIMER: I apologize, these photos aren’t my best, acrylic paint reflects even the smallest amount of light. I had to take them with almost no lighting and there you have it.
No Guts No Glory, Grasshoppa Man and Michael deMeng
I’m starting a new adventure; well actually it started last summer when I went to Art Unraveled, a great artist’s retreat in Phoenix. I had a blast, learned a boatload and met a lot of amazing people, like I knew I would.
I took 5 classes and true to Emily nature, I barely finished anything. But right before the Made In Clarkdale show this last December I finished my pieces I started in Michael deMeng’s class – ‘What a Relief’. What an amazing class. I went to learn how to properly attach items to a relief and learned so much more. The biggest surprise was in learning how to paint again. I realize this statement would make my teachers in college spit. Yes, I learned how to paint traditionally, but it never was my thing, so I didn’t do it very much. Now, don’t get excited, I’m not going to start painting canvas; it’s still not my thing. But Michael said, “you’re just painting things, not painting”, and so I ended up painting my backgrounds for most of the class! We used acrylics, which have always been my favorite, but what I didn’t know was that there are transparent and opaque acrylics. I may seem a little naive in admitting this, but hey, it’s a great discovery anyway.
So here are my finished pieces. When I showed them to my husband he said, “You’re not one of those kinds of artists are you?” To which I didn’t reply to, I mean, we’ve been together for 21 years now…he’s well aware of the answer to that question. Anyway at Made In Clarkdale they were hung next to each other. Several times it was observed that a viewer would stare at them for a bit, run off and bring someone back to point at them together. I didn’t get to watch this myself, I’m always busy working the show, but my husband told me of these events, with some pride I might add. So overall, a resounding success!
Feel free to point and stare.
“No Guts, No Glory”
“Grasshoppa Man”
Thank you Michael for a great class. If any of you ever have the chance to take a class, any class, from this man, do! And as for the new adventure? We’ll talk about that next time. Enjoy! -emm
The Stars, The moon, Oh Yea
Oh boy, the moon and stars were spectacular this morning! I would say I wish you were there, but really it’s our time. Me and my spazdik dog, Scottie. Our walking time is in total darkness this time of year and it’s nice. It was about 36 degrees, so not too cold as we set off down the big hill in town, I noticed right away that it was incredibly clear and very dark. Then we came up the hill the back way, off-road. I let Scottie go free and had to watch my footing, but at the top of the hill I had to stop, a couple of times, just to take it all in. The moon was just a sliver, slightly above the horizon and every star was visible.
This is the time of year when I really start to crave longer days. But today was an exception. I’ll take it!
Here’s the spaz and I out front later today he would not cooperate! Ethan, my photographer, was still able to get a couple of good shots.
Scottie is an Australian Shepherd Lab mix about a year and a half old.
And here’s the loot I picked up when we went on one of our longer weekend walks, (during daylight!). Actually this is stuff I’ve seen forever along our trails, but I happened upon the rusted coiled wire for the first time and couldn’t pass it up. And once I took out a bag…well…I just had to fill it! Pretty great stuff right? I know you’re all jealous! Anyway, hopefully you’ll be seeing these pieces show up somewhere along the way in my artwork. Maybe it will make sense then, maybe not…in the eye of the beholder right?
Soon I’ll take the camera out with me and show you some of my routes. I love this town. Scottie does too.
Sprockets Trip to Ace Hardware
All of us at Art Glitter (where I work) have become totally enamored with the new design trend ‘steampunk’. We were introduced to it by Elizabeth (the youngest of the group of course), and liked it so much we have designed our CHA booth around it so people will know what to do with glitter and a steampunk theme.
We noticed our good friend Tim Holtz has a line of products perfect for this design called: idea-ology. Great stuff, we emailed him and he sent some to us immediately. 
Here is our favorite: sprocket gears. I can only show you the back of the package because we used them all immediately!
Feeling downtrodden but not to be creatively stifled, Debrey, Nancy and I decided to go to Ace Hardware (at lunch time because “Holly’s Deli” located inside the store has excellent food at a great price!) and find some sprockets and gears on our own.
So we started off looking though all the bins, acting like we knew what we were doing, (collectively we’d had been there about a dozen times) but everything was way expensive. A knowledgeable salesman came to our rescue and pointed out that we were in the blue bins (stainless steel) and should be in the yellow bins (crap metal I guess). Of course he wanted to know what project we were working on and we tried to explain the steampunk design in terms a humble crafter in his own right could understand. I don’t think he really cared, but he seemed genuine in his desire to help. So he just stood back and watched as these three women opened EVERY bin, frequently exclaiming “Oh how cute” and “Pretty”. Adjectives I’m sure he has never heard about the gadgets and gears in this aisle. We were spread across the length of aisle and would have to run excitedly towards each other whenever we found a new gem. The ones that had natural patinas on them were held in very high regard. Debrey, as the office manager and our money mentor had the last say on each item as we joyfully filled our baggies and wrote the prices on them, since by this time we truly were experts in the ways of hardware stores. I’m sure they’ve watched the security video several times in an attempt to understand what just happened.
Very happy with our frugalness and deftness we neared the check out counter and we immediately realized that we didn’t need to have so many baggies. There were plainly several lines on each bag and we could have conserved our baggie consumption. Sorry Mother Earth. Then we got the bill…$35 for our loot. Hmmm, didn’t expect that.
Still we went back to work in the knowledge that we had done our best.
Later that night Debrey went home to her lovely husband Ray and asked him kindly if he had any sprockets. Ray said “hmmm”, ascended the ladder in their garage, grabbed a tin can with a paper label taped to the top that read “Sprockets”. I got to tell you, they are the most beautiful sprockets I have ever seen, perfect sizes, perfect coloring, perfect shapes. That he had attained at a garage sale for a pittance no less. Sigh.
Here’s a taste of what Debrey has done with all our gadgets.
So anyway, for the sprocket forlorn of you who don’t have the advantage of a garage sale tin full of the real deal. Here’s a little tutorial on how to patina your ‘new’ gears and gadgets.
Lay your gadgets out flat on a mat board or newspapers.
Spray with inks, spray paint, I used Memory Mists from Superior. Or just brush on acrylic paint if you don’t have any sprays.
Heat and dry paint with a heat tool. Add colors and heat in between colors until you are satisfied with look. I like to start with a redish brown, a blue spray in between and finish with a yellow/greenish layer.
Spray with a matt finish.
The flat washers don’t really hold the paint and will rub off if you try, but some spots will stay, giving a nice natural look.
You only need to do one side. And your mat board looks cool too!
Have fun; I’m going garage saleing tomorrow! (I know saleing is not a real word, but I’m certainly not going sailing tomorrow!)
No Really, This is my First Post
Yes, I started this blog almost exactly two years ago and have since allowed everything else to keep me from really starting it. Nothing big, just life. Even last year I was determined to really start blogging, and I didn’t, it was even a New Year’s resolution.
This year my resolution goes like this…Do What You Want To Do When You Want To Do It. That’s the only one for this year because it is a blanket policy for almost everything else I want to accomplish. I’ve realized that I allow too many ‘things’ get in the way of finishing or even starting ‘things’. Every time I start a project I think about all the other things I should be doing. You know, laundry, bills, dishes, Christmas decorations…things that always get done eventually anyway. So what usually happens when I start this line of thinking, that I should be doing something else…I end up doing nothing!
Therefore – DWYWTDWYWTDI great acronym! My theory is that I’ll be so full-filled and happy that I did something I wanted to, I’ll be pleased to do that other trivial stuff! Ah, sometime anyway.
I had a wonderful shopping experience at Ace Hardware with a couple of friends today. I’m going to take some photos of our purchases and blog about it…well…maybe tomorrow. -later emm
This is my first post
and I have to get going, more later!
