Doodle Book

Finally I managed to make this book look a bit more fun. I started doodling in this book a while back and always wanted to create a colourful cover. Now this is inspired by Tracy Bautista´s book "Collage Unleashed". There are so many fun ideas in it how to make your own papers and she even incorporates fabric in her work.
Background is painted with gesso and acrylics, then I drew those doodles on it with a pit pen and the "Doodle"-writing is on a scrap piece of linen. All attached to each other with gel medium.

Fiber Arts/Mixed Media announced a january challenge I can´t resist.

>>>> Pick one of your ugly, or plain, or "why did I ever buy that" commercial fabrics, and enhance it with fabric paint so that you end up liking it! Paint over it completely, outline or color in the shapes, give it an all-over tint, etc. <<<<  

Does that sound like fun or what? Oh my, another monthly challenge for 2010...

Inside 1

Inside 1
Lutradur, Silk Hanky, machine embroidery, cotton, stretched onto canvas frame, 30cm x 30cm / 12" x 12"

This piece started out months ago as an experiment. I attached a silk hanky to a lutradur background with gel medium. I thought it might give a nice silk paper. First I didn´t like it too much as it was stiff and very flat, but then I thought the colours were so lovely, I should try to work on it some more. So I started painting the yellow lines with acrylics onto the silk and added the red dots, all inspired by a magazine picture. I don´t recall exactly what this picture was showing, but I guess it was something with bloodlines.
Then I machine embroidered onto the painted lines and dots and it was a pleasure to do this on the lutradur. The gel medium made it all very stiff which was perfect cause I didnt need a frame to prevent it from puckering. It was so easy to machine embroider on it.

When the stitching was all done I wasn´t sure how to finish the piece. I added the red borders (cotton) and thought I would make a quilt sandwich, but it somehow didn´t feel right. So I tried to put it on a stretched canvas and I liked it much better.

Inside 1 / Detail

Orange Squares

A small quilt I made over the last 2 weeks. It all started out with a fused background of leftover scraps but they all got covered in the process. The background is machine stitched and I learned an interesting thing. I used 2 different threads in the same needle. One a thick cotton and the other a trilobal polyester. While stitching the polyester thread created intersting loops on top of the stitching while the cotton thread stitches as usual. I´m afraid it can´t be seen even in the detail picture, but I will experiment with this type of stitching in the future. If you never tried using 2 threads in the same needle, you are missing out on something very interesting. It can be tricky to find the right tension, so it is best to start with some threads the same material like 2 polyester or 2 cotton. And make sure the eye of the needle is large enough, or you will have broken threads.
The same yarn that is used for the hanging stick is couched down on the background. The squares are made of polyester felt, painted batting and some sequins.

My first Glued Collage

A few days ago I found Ellen Lindner´s Blog and was hooked. I was experimenting with fabric paper, silk paper and some other ideas but wasn´t happy with all the experiments. I knew I wanted to do some sort of fabric collage, but had no idea how to approach it.
Then there was Ellen´s work and I knew that was exactly what I was looking for. Her glued collages are gorgeous! Although Ellen is preparing an online workshop for her technique, I had to try it right away. I definitely will be the first to enroll to her class as soon as she announces it, but I am not the patient kind ;-)

So, with the help of a vidcast on Bonnie McCaffery`s site I started my first glued collage, inspired by Ellen´s wonderful work.

I thought I would chose an easy stillife, but had to learn the hard way that it wasn´t easy at all.
This is my first try on Pear and Grapes
I wanted to make sure one sees the light coming from top left. But I think it rather looks like somebody had gotten a bite of the pear while I wasn´t looking, right?

So, I cut some more pieces of fabric and added, added, added and although the upper left corner lacks something to balance the piece, I am almost happy with it:


The fabric is glued to a stretched canvas and what I really love is that you are able to rearrange things while the glue is still wet. You can also add more layers if somebody comes in and eats part of your fruits ;-)

First try on fabric paper

This is my first try on fabric paper. It is a huge piece and is now hanging in the bathroom to dry.
The lower part is a mix of handprinted Washi papers that I brought with me from Japan 15 years ago. I brought tons of this lovely paper and never really used it because it was just too beautiful to cut. Now I think it is time to use it and let go of some.


Upper part is some fiber paper. I think that will get a colourwash as soon as it is dry.
The two pieces in the middle were just fillers, because it took me almost 2 hours to get all this done. I chose a way too large piece of fabric to start with. Now I know better and next time it will be the size of a fat quarter max.
I like this technique and it is a great way of using up fabric that I don´t like anymore. If it is a print you can use the backside and if it is a batik you can always try and work with the given design.
There is more to come, cause I have lots of ideas in my head for this kind of paper.

Finally - a finished piece in faux encaustic

Oh my, this was a nightmare. Really! I was not able to find the workable fixative necessary for the faux encaustic workshop anywhere in this big city of Berlin! Sometimes I really wish I would live in the USA! I´ve been to so many craft and art supply stores and none of them carried this fixative. Finally, after weeks I found one by Lascaux, a swiss brand, in a shop that just had opened up.
Now on my way I ruined one canvas cause I tried a fixative that would "definitely work", as the lady in the shop told me. Well, it didn´t and all got smeared!
The next canvas was ruined as I tried a mixture of Golden GAC 500 and Golden Airbrush Extender Medium. This mixture works pretty well as a fixative, but the spray bottle I had produced big blobs instead of a nice even coating. So part of the canvas was sealed, part wasn´t. So I got parts that were smeared, too.
Third canvas got ugly somehow and so I only finished one canvas. As you can see it is a different one from the first set. Don´t ask! This whole project almost drove me crazy, because of thousands of problems arising on the way.
BUT, the workshop itself is very very good and I highly recommend it if you would like to learn this technique. Jodi created wonderful videos and it was easy to follow them. But if you don´t live in the US, make sure you find all the stuff you need before starting the workshop...

Faux Encaustic - here comes the colour

And here we go with the 4 chosen colours added to the canvases.

Faux Encaustic Workshop start

I joined a Faux Encaustic Workshop by Jodi Ohl at Creative Workshops and just finished my work for today. It is a gorgeous workshop and worth every cent. Jodi did wonderful videos and also a pdf file to read it all while working on the pieces. I enjoyed doing the first stages of my collages, but am really not sure where this will take me. But the finished pieces from other classmates look so wonderful, I think I have a chance mine will be OK in the end. Right now they look a bit like a pile of paper scraps with no direction...

Stage 1

Stage 2

I now have to wait til tomorrow cause all needs to dry. Then it will get exciting cause the canvases will be covered partly with Gesso and then there will be acrylic paints and more and more... Sounds like fun, right?

My first time in Japan for TT

Not happy with this one, but I don´t think there is a way to improve it. So I´ll leave it at that and maybe try a new one later.
I printed some photos on cotton, cut out some of my treasured Washi paper from Japan (hand printed and soooooo beautiful in real) and layered them on another piece of Washi.
The image of Mount Fuji in the lower left is a little woodblock print (Ukiyo-E) I did in a course in Yokohama. The Buddha statue is the most beautiful Buddha I´ve ever seen. I think it is the largest sitting Buddha outdoors, but am not 100% sure. He is in a beautiful town at the seaside called Kamakura. Fortunately Kamakura isn´t too far from Yokohama (where we lived), so we´ve been there quite often and enjoyed the many historical sites there and the shrines and temples.

It was my first time living abroad and also the first time living in Asia. It was the most interesting, frightening and difficult time in my life. But it was very hard to leave. I hope that one day we will be able to return to this country, maybe only for a vacation, but maybe for a little longer. Who knows what the future brings?