Paper making, Part Two, The Reveal

So here's the post of paper,  dried in the linen closet overnight, and you can see the process of removing the paper from the felts.

The paper clings firmly to the felts and you start by persuading the edges to lift

Then slide your hand under the paper to lift it off. This is one of the best parts, like pulling a print and seeing those wonderful edges, or taking the tape off the edges of a watercolor.

Then see what it looks like

Top left, I removed a couple of petals to create ghost images

Top right lint partly laminated into the paper

Bottom left raised sculptural shape

Bottom right lint again rising and falling into the surface

The pulp I added makes some interesting negative shapes

top line

Bottom, right, flowers embedded

The bottom one here is interesting because it picked up yellow color from the felt, probably turmeric from a previous use.

Some are background on which other work can be mounted, some are standalone artworks for framing. You can see the range just in this little post of ten. What you probably now realize is that handmade paper of this kind is itself an artwork. It can be drawn on with dry media, and you can mount flowers and grasses on it, since it's acid free, but it's not a material for just writing on. I have stitched into paper, too. In fact I have a couple of gold work embroidery ideas for some of these pieces.

Hard to see white on white, but a couple have a really pleasing raised area that looks sculptural, and stitching could work well there. Hm. Thinking.

All in all, a good day's work. Some of these look wild now and will frame up nicely.

If I had wanted a big single piece, I could have flopped out the individual pieces directly onto another surface, edges overlapping, and they'd have bonded as they dried. Or you can join them dry, using white glue, Sobo is best.

And you never, ever, cut handmade paper. That would be a crime against nature. If you want to reduce the size, you paint a line of clean water along your boundary, then ease it apart. You can also use a steel ruler to tear along, and create a fake deckle.

This has been a lovely interlude, and I'm back to spinning next. Thanks for following along,and maybe you'll like to try your hand. As you see, you probably already have the tools. 

Lily and iris book added to exhibit

Moving along with the artist books, I finished another this weekend.  This has pages from the iris paper, and the covers are from the lily flower paper.  

Simple stitching to secure pages to back.  The spine is a strip of hand dyed silk, dyed with natural materials.  

And there are a couple of stencils, one of an iris to honor the producer of the raw material, one a general floral, because flower heads went into making the cover.

Simple construction but complex meanings in this book. All the materials for the paper and the dyeing came from my immediate surroundings.  Three local gardens, including mine.

All my books are available for sale, and the eventual owner can either just enjoy them as an artwork, or add to the pages with your own drawing, writing, stamping.  As you go along let me know if any interest you, and I will quote a price.  I like to price art where people can actually own it, so don't be shy about asking.  


Most of the books will be in the November exhibit at West Windsor Library, and if any are sold, I will ask the buyer to allow me to ship them at the close of the show, usual arrangement when exhibited work is sold.   Nearer the time I'll post a complete set of pix of the books for you to see.

And, as always, I encourage you to try your own hand!  it's great fun to make your own, too. 

I have individual sheets of handmade paper, approx 8x5 inches, which you can buy if you want to embark on a project yourself.  This is paper which can be drawn on with marker, or pencil, or fine pen, or stamped, stitched and stenciled.  Not for use for waterbased media, though, it will melt!  Can be incorporated into your collage work, too.  I'll make a post with the sorts of paper and how much is available, and prices, if you're interested.  Give me a shout if so.

Another Artist Book is almost done

One of the things about making artist books is that you can use them to house a lot of stray art which has not yet found a home, and it's a good way to let people browse through.  

So this latest book is a group of stitchings on handmade paper, together with other handmade paper pieces, some molded, and it uses second cut cotton linters fiber, abaca (that's banana tree) fiber, and daylily paper.  The whitest looking, crisp paper is the cotton, the softer, more ivory color is the abaca, and the daylily paper is a rich golden brown.  I made all the paper, and will soon be making more, but I need to be more outdoors to do it without flooding the studio.  These pages have been exhibited, but are home now.

Here are the fronts and backs of the pages, both adhered to a piece of foamcore for stability. You'll see stencils and stampings.  I handcarved the stamps, from giant erasers, great fun, and the stencils were given to me years ago. One paper is black, mulberry paper, I didn't make that one! not having access to mulberry raw materials.

 I'll be explaining all the techniques that went into this one the week I bring it in, since a lot of them are very accessible to anyone once you realize it's possible.  Such as molding the paper, which gives great results, and is easier than you might think.

Then, so that people can see both sides, and protect the art at the same time, I put the pages into page protectors.

And I improved (!) a three ring binder to hold them and to work with them in concept.

When all the decorations are dry on the cover, I'll install the pages.  If you look at the cover you'll see a great effect. That lacy stuff is in fact the glue holding the paper on the other side, organized to be another art element. It will dry clear, but will still look interesting.

I'm hoping that, aside from enjoying the art, participants will get new ideas they can try at home, without years of training! The week I talk about handmade paper, I'll bring in enough equipment for people to see what it consists of, and raw sheet fiber, which they can send away for if they get excited about this process.  We can't make paper at the residency session, but I can explain the process.

I'll try to alert you here about what's coming up which week, in case you're local and there's something you really want to see. But I hope you'll show up anyway!

Danger, Women at Work

So this is what's afoot.  

The freeform crochet, color is a pale sage green, on natural colored muslin pinned on a big hoop, probably a quilting hoop,  just to see it, will probably come off and a painted, frizzled, technical term, Tyvek will be on the bottom layer, the crochet replaced, and meandering about over the top of the Tyvek, and various insects and wee beasties in the foliage.  At least that's the plan.

Here's how the Tyvek painting looked with the  acrylic paint, metallic gold, applied with sponge brush, my fave tool.  

 

I had a fun time frizzling the Tyvek, and even more fun getting the acrylic back off the footplate, having forgotten the correct temp at which to frizzle.  Note to self: cooler than you thought.  But the acrylic came off obligingly onto the paper I was ironing through, so that was fine.

 Here it is all frizzled nicely, and after I trimmed down the frizzled painting, here it is in relation to the crocheted work stretched on the hoop

 
Then this habitat will need inhabitants, drawings of which you see here, along with the threads I have in mind to create them separately, using  the tiny hoop. 

 

 
I'll create the little bees and lizards and their friends, seen here in drawings, in goldwork with beading, for later affixing in their crocheted and Tyvek habitat.  Handmade paper will also feature in this work.  I already have some I embossed with a little honeycomb design.  And I molded little animals in handmade paper, which you saw earlier.  

It's shaping up to be a kind of fourth dimensional piece, where time is the fourth dimension, ghostly bees and lizards molded in pure white paper, along with lively ones in goldwork and beading.

A sort of update of Peaceable Kingdom, if Douanier Rousseau had known how to crochet, or to bead and stitch, or to do goldwork, or if Tyvek had been invented, or if he knew about even the third dimension, let alone the fourth, he being a flat, decorative sort of painter..cue Matisse..  Well, come to think of it, nothing like Peaceable Kingdom, more like Stitched Wilderness...

But exactly how this will all come about, don't ask me, I only work here!  this is one of those works I'm not in charge of.  It just has been coming over me in bits for several months.

And today, after reading a great history of Eliz. First, by Alison Weir, a great read,  my right brain, evidently tired of being quiet while I studied peace treaties and dates and political strategies,  suddenly presented me with this possibility.  Who am I to argue? 

Anyway, that's where we are.  Speaking of helpful, I hope, dear blogistas, you realize how helpful it is to the process to have this blog where I can think aloud and bang on about what I'm doing, knowing I'm being read with interest and curiosity.

I did one other small Tyvek work, you saw it in my exhibit earlier this year, and I think I need to do more, once I get this piece properly under way. The nice part is that it uses the studio, haven't been doing that much lately, and it also gives me portable bits to carry in to my embroiderers' guild meetings, always a nice thing.  So often my work isn't portable and I sort of chat and drink tea!

If anyone wants to know more about the Tyvek thing, just ask in the comments, and I'll be sure and say more next time. I hesitate to bore you with endless technical stuff, but I'm glad to talk about it if useful to you. Also to point out the precautions you need to take if you do it.