Saturday, September 17, 2016

NEW SERIES, NEW WORK



My friend, Kelly Hoernig, stopped by for a few days between her teaching engagements here in Florida.  Kelly is a wonderfully creative driving force with so many ideas in play that you can't help but be inspired and motivated!  She was just what I needed in my studio at this time.  I've been dragging a bit creatively and spending time with her was like being hooked up to a super charged battery.  We talked nonstop for 4 straight days, often into the wee hours of the night!!! Even before she left, new ideas were popping into my head in my dreams and I was rushing into the studio to get started earlier and earlier.  Thanks, Kelly, for a wonderful kick in the pants!!!

  This is the beginning of a new design for my current new series.  It's kind of fitting that she was here for the birth of this new piece.  The  "canvas" for the first piece of the new series was  inspired from an online class I took from her.  She cut a niche out of a book for her design surface.  I didn't complete that piece but the way she created the niche caught my attention and I wanted to try creating my own niche without the work of cutting through a book.  My niche creation was supposed to be used in her class but it wasn't going to happen.  Even though the first surface is still a work in progress, it is coming along and I can see the end in sight!  For this second piece, the design is from a reworked watercolor batik design.  Don't look now but those wings are made up of Gelli prints! These butterfly bodies will be freeform elements that will fly into the new work shortly!

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Inspiration and Upcoming Work


There is all kinds of work in progress happening right now to get ready for an upcoming show. However, nothing is complete and not photo worthy at the moment. I was really intrigued with Lyn Belisle's post on creating pale papers for upcoming work and she had some really interesting and easy techniques for using basic supplies in a slightly different way. I had a few minutes to spare but didn't want to start working in a lot of wet paint. And I just bought the new Tim Holtz Leaf Prints stamp set - a really nice set of tattered and skeletonized leaf stamps! Perfect for a few minutes of playing. So I pulled out some ginwashi scraps, an embossing stamp pad and embossing powders, some walnut ink and Golden's Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold. I did a variety of leaves embossed in gold and clear and already had the dragonflies embossed on another scrap. Gave the papers a variegated wash of the Quin Gold. Then spritzed with walnut ink (Eucalyptus and Terra Cotta) and did a bit of mopping up with a paper towel. Set them aside to dry on the drying board. Quite a successful little experiment for only a few minutes worth of work! There are so many uses for small elements like this and different color ways will be really easy to do. I will certainly be doing more of these!!