Doodle Journal

Shakti's sumptuous Doodle Journal arrived last week. This is my contribution. I'm actually surprised to see that the gold and silver swirls show up in the photo, but I'm very glad they do.

I've been doodling a lot lately. I've almost completed an entire (thin) doodle AB of my own. I carried the book and a bag of felt pens everywhere I went, which didn't go entirely unnoticed. In the process, I managed to start a friend (58) off doing doodles. She was absolutely and very positively amazed at what she was able to create. Her pleasure (and flow) while working and her sense of achievement when she completed various doodles were a joy to watch.

So far, her craft medium of choice has always been window color, and she's always done the usual style of window color motifs. Now she's planning to try doodles in window color, which I think is a fantastic leap forward!

The thing about doodling is that is so accessible. There is no way anyone can doodle wrongly or poorly. I guess it all goes to show that a little bit of doodling goes a long, long way....

Serendipity Paper

Only another programmer will understand the joy I feel right now, because I finally got the blessed email form on the site I'm working on to function this morning! Oh bliss!

Anyway... to celebrate, I've taken a few minutes time out to upload these (as yet uncut) sheets of serendipity paper.

I dare say everyone and her pet dragon knows how to make serendipity paper by now, but just in case... Simply slap any scraps of paper, magazine pictures, lamp fleece, and the like you have lying around willy nilly onto a sheet of paper and glue them down. When the glue is dry, either glaze the sheet with a thin layer of acrylic paint or stamp randomly all over to unify the elements. Cut the sheet as desired to make ATC backgrounds, AB covers, tip-in backgrounds, and so on.

When you see the sheets in one piece, like those shown here, it can be hard to believe that serendipity is worth the trouble, but when the sheets are cut to size for a project, they pop!

Journal Notelets

I know... I know... I've been negligent about posting lately. I am doing what I can to remedy that.

I'm signed up for a doodle journal RR, and while I wait for the journal to reach me, decided to practice. Actually, I've been doodling rather a lot lately, and one thing I can tell you about it is that it's addictive. Another thing I can tell you is that it helps produce a lot of arty things in a relaxed way.

I made these journal notelets last night while (half) watching CSI on TV. (It was CSI Miami, which I don't really enjoy. I prefer CSI New York, but I art as I watch that, too, so there'S not much of a difference, really.) All you need to make these are standard shipping tags (any size) and a pack of very basic felt pens.

I use these as journal pages, then I thread yarn or ribbon through and tie them closed. Gosh, for a moment I could almost see myself alongside Klee and Hundertwasser...

Library Project - 3 March

At last! I finally got around to taking photos of the showcase. This is the first selection of articles I intend to display in the library. I intend to change the display two or three times over the course of the project and, if possible, to fill a larger wall-mounted display case with participant works, if participants are willing to play along.

I think the biggest surprise I've experienced recently is the reminder that so many people feel intimidated by art. I've been talking to a lot of people about art recently, and when I do, I start out by describing the kind of art we do as "art with a small 'a'", to differentiate between it and, say, Turner landscapes. I do that not to make less of our art, but in the hope of making it seem more accessible. It is, after all, the kind of art that almost anyone can do once they have had a little help and instruction to get them on the road. What I've found, though, is that people are awestruck and feel they would never be able to achieve the kind of outcome they see on display... but my point is that they can achieve exactly that type of outcome if they come along to (free!) classes. Sigh...

Does anyone have ideas or experience about encouraging adults "off the street" to develop a "perhaps I can..." view of our style(s) of art? I don't really want to have to do a LOT of persuasion work, but if there are do-able tips and tricks I can employ without investing a lot of time and effort, I'm open to them, especially if you've tried them and they've worked for you.

(The teachers among us have probably all learned the lesson that the more we have to persuade and cajole people to participate, the less likely they are to stay the course, and they rarely develop motivation just because they are placed in a situation.)

It's not in the least that I can't imagine how others might feel, I guess the "problem" is simply that my inner world has always been a little different, as in looking for ways to develop new skills and rise to new personal challenges. Heavens, I'd be bored to bits otherwise! Maybe it's also a cultural thing... (?)

Ok. I'm off to take some budding writers on a walk.

Fish AB III

One of the sample activities I mentioned above was creating more spreads in the fish AB. Here's another one.

I prepared the pages for this spread by coating them with gel medium (any kind). When it was dry, I painted on a second coat of gel medium and layered on a sheet of plain white tissue that was around twice the area of the pages. I pushed and crumpled the tissue so it fit onto the page while remaining fairly flat. This gave the page texture.

The next step was to paint on layers of blues and greens and touches of coral, bright red, deep yellow, and blue. I just kept dabbing and swiping until the colors took on the kind of depth you'd expect in an underwater seaweed world.

I added images of two fish and a seashell. What is happening now is that all the fish in the book swim from left to right, so it looks a little as if the fish are on a journey through the landscapes of the book.

To finish the spread I sewed in fronds of sea-coloured yarn close to the fold.

The approaches I've used in this book are all very simple, but people who've not seen them before are impressed. My aim is to help the budding artists in the AB class gain confidence (and impress their friends) by teaching them techniques like this.

Library Project - 25 February

Sorry for the silence. I've been caught in a whirl of prep activity. I'm documenting it in a project journal, which has turned out to be a good thing, because there is currently so little to see that I've caught myself wondering whether I've really been working. The journal shows me that I have indeed been spending a lot of time of very necessary activities. In fact, I've been working very hard indeed.

The perception problem arises because most of my time has been frittered away on the many little tasks necessary to get a show like this on the road and rolling. For example, getting the flyers printed (photocopied) turned out to be a quick job. The printer ran them off for me while we drank herbal tea and had a fascinating conversation about the state of the German economy, real estate prices in Poland, and other interesting issues.

Distributing the flyers was the time-consuming part. I don't have a car, so I had to hoof it or cycle around, carting a basket of flyers and "show me" examples. As many of my European artist friends know, art is not necessarily the everyday and "everyone can do it" affair it is in the UK/USA, and AB are next to unknown in mainland Europe. That makes for a lot of explanation time. I had to spend time showing and telling in almost every location at which I left flyers. There was a great deal of interest (and surprised looks). Now all that remains is to hope that interest translates into participation. The library decided not to charge course fees, so money is no barrier to art in this case. The time spend talking was well-invested, of course, as I met interesting (and interested) people who have asked me to keep them informed about this and any other projects I might offer.

After setting up the library display and filling my "show me" basket to tote around while distributing info material, I realised that I'd need more examples for the classes themselves. As a result, I've spent quite a lot of time at my workbench creating samples and also refining some of the techniques and projects so they can be completed in a two-hour class. That as been a challenge in some respects, as we will not be working in an art room with sinks and work benches and so forth. Classes will take place in a general purpose room, so it won't be possible to do projects that require a lot of washing up of self and tools. (I'm hoping I'll get a dedicated group together, so we can meet elsewhere and do painty and gluey things...)

I've also sorted through my stash and put together a box of papers, images, and bits and pieces for participants to use as starter material. One of the things I'll be doing is showing how to use everyday objects or found objects to work in AB. There is little choice here in any case, as goodies and rubber stamps and the like are only available in Berlin or further south or by mail order. I'll then encourage participants to bring along materials to pool or swap.

Today I need to finish off several more detailed flyers for individual projects. Tomorrow I'll print them and the tip sheets and so forth and copy them, ready for distribution in the library and in classes. I also need to cart my tools and supplies to the library and hope they have a cupboard in which I can store them. Whew!

And I was worried someone might think I wasn't doing enough....?

Fish AB spread

Here is another of the "easy-as-pie" examples from the Fish AB. I've done several other spreads in the meantime, and I'll photograph and process them later today or sometime tomorrow.

At the moment I feel as though I have a production line running, what will all the examples I'm working on and all the instruction sheets I'm preparing. Whew!

I promise to show more eye-candy (and on amore regular basis) soon.

Library Project - 16 February

Flyers, flyers everywhere! These photos are a few days old, now, but I've only just got around to uploading them.

Earlier in the week I spent two evenings folding flyers ads for the project. Since then I've spend hours and hours tramping around town distributing them. Anyone who has ever distributed flyers knows how difficult that can be. I carry a few examples of art with me, too, so I can show them when asked what the project is about.

The main thing is to get the first classes filled. I'm sure the rest will fill by word of mouth. Fingers crossed!

Fish AB

I'm busy putting together a small selection of AB work for a "taster" exhibition in the library. If luck is with me, two exciting projects will return home in the next week or two, but just in case they don't get here on time, I though it best to rustle up a couple of new AB to show.

One of the new works in progress is a 1914 Cosmos book on Deep Sea Fish. I'll probably put this on display as a work in progress, to show a little of the process as well as the product. I decided to keep the spreads in this book fairly simple, as I think that will seem less daunting to first-timers than some of the more sophisticated, layered spreads in other work.

The original black-and-white drawings in the book are fuzzy and dull by today's standards, so I've perked them up just a little using watercolour pencils. I only tinted the pictures lightly, so the colouring doesn't show up too well in this photo. I reinforced the fish and ocean theme using modern drawings clipped from a children's nature encyclopedia.

I started by masking the drawing then stamping on the page with the alphabet stamp and Stazon ink. With the image still masked, I then tinted the page with several washes of green and blue acrylics. In between washes I added a section of map to the top right corner. The remaining washes helped it blend into the background.

I then colored the image and added the shells and fish and the lighthouse stamps.

I've decided to do quite a lot of edge embellishment in this book, but I'll do it when other pages are ready, so it's not in its final form yet. Here, I added an edge of gold sand, then punched the page to suggest waves rolling onto a beach.

I'll show another page tomorrow and others in the next few days.

Pianola Paper Journal

A couple of weeks back, Wendy from the UK kindly sent me some pianola paper - large "ticker tape" style rolls of music that go into barrel organs or automatic pianos. I used part of the roll to make the block for this pocket journal.

My original idea was to thread fibres through the lines of holes to accentuate the notation through color and touch, and you may just be able to make out the threads and the holes in the second image (the back of the pocket journal). However, the paper proved too thin to do threading in the style I first imagined.

I still have a considerable length of paper left, and I'd still like to try the threading. Earlier today I stuck the pianola strip to a sturdier paper and used a paper pricking needle to punch the holes into the new layer, ready to sew. More on that when I've actually done it.

Library Project - 7 February

Be warned: I'm having a little bit of a moan here today. Here we go... I'm glad I have the ability to see some things clearly before they happen; it makes them just that little bit easier to bear when they do.

Yesterday I had a planning meeting to discuss the programme the library would like me to present. The proposal I made contained a sumptuous array of ideas and possibilities that delighted and excited everyone who saw it, including the decision makers in question. Even so, I knew in advance that when make-your-mind-up-time came around I wouldn't be able to persuade them to try everything. But why, why, why, when offered a buffet of delicacies for which you and I and probably any other writer/artist we know would fall on our knees and thank the Divine, do other people still want to eat hamburger and chips/fries, so to speak? The question is, of course, rhetorical.

This is the point at which I'm supposed to say: Oh well, it might have been worse. But this is my blog, and being me, I have to say, it could have been a lot better. They have, at least, opted for Altered Books, which is a blessing, but everything else is at the safe, predicable, and more craft that art end of the spectrum. I hope I'll be able to add some of the more exciting, innovative things further along.

Usually, I only work with adults. Against better judgement and my proclamations to date I eventually agreed to do one AB course for girls aged 16 and above. I did, though, make it clear I would only do it if they can behave, and if they can work independently after instruction and demos. I'll be there to advise and suggest, of course, but I don't want to get into "stick that here" and "draw that there" situations.

So, I have to create a draft flyer today. I'll take it in tomorrow, and then we'll see how long it takes for the flyer to be photocopied. I hope it will only be a 24-hour turnaround job. My fear on that is that my "why wait?" approach will meet with a fairly typical "why hurry?" view of the world.

Sigh. I really could use some things (arty and otherwise) going my way for a change. Sigh.

On another topic: here's something utterly beautiful to look at. Mika sent it to one of our art lists yesterday (thank you so much, Mika). Free up a few undisturbed minutes. Take a look.

Ashes and Snow
http://www.ashesandsnow.org/en/index.php

Something old, something new...

This lady has lain around in parts on my kitchen windowsill for quite some time. I eventually managed to fit the pieces together so that doll and box are combined. At some point I intend to create an artist's journal to fit in the box, but I'm glad to have come so far with this piece, after all the delays.

Talking of which... after several months of waiting, breath holding and hoping, I've just received a phone call to tell me that I can start my library project next week. I don't really want to complain, as I'm glad for the opportunity to do the work, but this last minute stuff is exactly the kind of thing I detest. Had everything gone as planned (the librarian said she'd contact me mid-month), I'd have had a couple of weeks time in which to get myself organized, get leftover commitments out of the way, arrange for other people to take on some tasks, and all that. But I guess we all know that many (if not most) people are not good at remembering and keeping commitments, sigh...

So, the project I've been waiting to launch is poised to happen. I have to document it for my records, and as the project is decidedly art focused, I've decided to do part of my documentation here on my blog.

A brief reminder: I'll be teaching book arts and creative writing in the local library as a six-month project. My special focus will be on introducing people to Altered Books. I intend to close the project phase with an exhibition of AB created by participants during the project. As far as I can ascertain, nothing like this has taken place in German before now, so it's pioneer work. Through the project I hope to create a job for myself, either as a city employee or through contacts I make during the project.

The project is more complex than that, of course, as are the hopes and intentions I have for it. One of the aims I have in mind is to help other unemployed artists (art teachers, talented amateurs...) in Germany by documenting the project and making my concept and the documentation available, so they can apply for funding to do similar projects in their own areas. Bureaucrats are always happy to know that someone has successfully gone before, so that's the role I've taken upon myself. I'm convinced this is an idea that can be replicated to create meaningful employment and make art more accessible and hands-on to the much-cited "average" person.

Here we go, then...

Prayer Stick

I've always been fascinated by sacral (sacred) objects. I hold an view that now seems unpopular in the Christian west that objects and places can be hallowed (holy) and have a special connection to spirit, as an individual conceives it.

I'm convinced by experience (which is something different from believing) that objects and places can accrue a kind of spiritual energy. If you've ever entered a 1.000-year old church or spent time in an ancient monument, you may have experienced what I have in mind. And if you look at texts like the Book of Kells or some of the beautiful spiritual art of various cultures, you may have felt the links, too.

Among the objects that touch me most are prayer objects that people have made. Often the makers are not artists, but simply people with concerns and praise they wish to lay at the feet of Spirit. I strongly believe the act of creating is in itself powerful prayer, in addition to any words that may be added. The act of creation opens doors to deeply meditative states that make spiritual connections easier.

This is a simple payer stick I made recently. The stick is a wooden spatula that I covered in scraps of text from Bible pages someone sent me. I dabbed that over with a layer of acrylic glazes in red, yellow, and orange. The halo is made from two circles of (used) sandpaper glued back to back, with a scrap pf black and gold punchinella added between halo and face cabochon, which I touched up with some patina.

The stick is partially wrapped with lengths of twine I soaked in pigment overnight to age them. I had pigment ready mixed; you might prefer to use walnut ink or thinned acrylic paint instead.
Traditional prayer sticks often contain a "signature" to tell Spirit who made them, who has sent the prayer. In this case I included a tiny shell to represent the feminine and also the perfection in form and dimension and spiritual progression of the spiral.

The actual prayer is written on a long strip of rice paper. I folded the paper into a star (if I can find the instructions for the star, I'll share them), which then turned out to be too large for the stick. I unwrapped a few layers, tore them from the remaining star, then rolled them into beads which I attached to the fronds. I then attached the start to the stick.

I punched holes at the top and bottom of the stick. The top hole is for a hanging thread. (I have a special place where I hang things like this.) I attached a few threads and some hammered copper nails from an African necklace to the bottom of the stick.

Let's Get Cookin'

Art is nourishment for soul and senses, but from time to time, we must also nourish our bodies, but being artists... These are the spreads I did in Mika and Shakti's Gourmet Journals. Mika's recipe is for a deliciously creamy summer pudding that can be made either with dairy products or with soy and accompanied by any soft fruits available.

Shakti's recipe is also a dessert, but this one is really, truly soul food... What do you mean "what"? I mean chocolate, of course!

This versatile chocolate cake can be made with different kinds of added ingredients (and remember, the more and better the chocolate, the better it serves the needs of your soul). It doesn't take a lot of time and effort to make, there is no need to bake it, and it tastes wonderful. Yes, it's possible to make a cheapie version, but being chocolate gourmets, Shakti and I fully understand that the better the chocolate, the better it is for our souls. If economies are necessary, be sure to get your priorities right: halve the ingredients, make a smaller cake, and eat it alone!

Prompt Cards

Yesterday Maz' prompt card project arrived. The idea is to create a set of 104 art prompts, using both sides of a pack of (52) cards.

As it happened, I'd been picking through the freebie magazine I picked up at a supermarket and had some interesting images ready and waiting. Creating the cards was a quick and easy project. They'll probably be on their way to the next artist tomorrow!

Most of the cards are straightforward and rely on simple images. I thought twice about keeping the little boy for a project of my own, but... then it occurred to me that I could go back to the supermarket and pick up another copy of the mag.

This is a wonderful project idea. I can see it working well for artists of all levels of experience and in various types of setting.

Angels and Demons

This is a spread I did in Claire's "Angels and Demons" journal. Needless to say (I hope), we were not dealing with the forked tails and wings type of entities. There isn't a lot I want to express about my entry, except that I found it as (surprisingly) difficult as others did, and that we seem, for the most part, to be part of a community of like souls, in many respects.

Prayer Box #1, 2007

This is another of my Prayer Boxes. I find I'm making them more and more often with specific people in mind rather than "just because".

Again, I used an oversized matchbox (11 x 6,5 x 2 cm) to work on. The first layer on the sleeve was watercolour crayon (reds and yellows) blended using a baby wipe. The second layer is tissue with a swirl pattern. Someone in one or other of the groups I'm in uses this tissue to wrap art, and it's one of my favorite art and collage materials! Talk about kids playing with the packaging rather than the toys...

For the next layer, I tore strips of handmade burgundy mulberry paper, which looks rather regal. Earlier on I'd pulled three pieces of colored glass from my stash: one burgundy, one clear light orange, and one in an opaque Naples yellow. They matched the colors of the paint and paper very closely. The idea I had in mind was to show progression and transition, the movement of communication between the worlds, and also to show the absolute (solid) and the shifting, relative (gradients and patterns) of the worlds.

I painted the inside and outside of the drawer for unity, then collaged scraps of the same papers used on the outside, plus a scrap of bodhi leaf, onto the inside. The box contains a tag booklet stamped with an alphabet stamp, to symbolise "the word".

I finished the box by punching holes along one edge of the sleeve and stringing through a spiral of red wire onto which I threaded beads as I went along.

Tag Booklet Tutorial

Decorate the tags: First, do something arty to the tags, so you have a background for later. I colored mine (yesterday) using watercolour crayons and baby wipes then stamped on them. I simply dabbed an ink pad onto the tags in the example. Work on one side of each tag completely, then turn them over and do something at the top of the tag around the hole.

Fold the tags: Lay the tags on your workbench with the holes at the top (short edges at the top and bottom). Fold each tag so that the bottom edge touches the bottom of the ring (hole) reinforcement. In other words, do not fold the tag perfectly in half; fold it so you have a narrow tab.

Create the booklet: Open the tags out again, and lay them face down (undecorated sides up) on your workbench. Spread glue on the smaller flap of the (undecorated) back of the first tag. Stick it to the larger flap of the (undecorated) back of the second tag. Repeat until you have only one tag left.

Make the cover: The final tag will become the cover of your booklet and will cover the spine folds of the other tags. As you work, you'll see that you have to glue the final tag on to what was your first tag. Glue the small flap of the first tag to the large flap of the final (cover) tag.


Cover the spine: Judge how much tag you'll need to cover the folds, then score a fold. Stick a strip of double sided sticky tape onto the tag where it will cover the spine folds. The sticky tape provides better adhesion than glue here. Spread glue on the remaining part of the cover tag and stick it down to form a booklet. Apply pressure to the spine to make the tape stick as firmly as possible to the folds.


Embellish: All that remains is to embellish the journal as desired. As well as a writing/visual journal, this would easily make a nice little friendship booklet or phone list. It's also a suitable format for decos. If you cut your own tags, you can scale up or down as desired.

Tag Book

Happy New Year! I hope 2007 will be a year you can enjoy: a year in which you find the inspiration, willpower, and energy to create a life you find productive and satisfying on all counts, especially in connection with your art.

I spent yesterday playing with ideas for my upcoming library project. I'll write more about that in late January or early February. Anyway... one of my arty friends, Gena, was home in the USA in December, and while she was there she picked up a box of 500 shipping tags at an office supply store. Most European-based paper artists will know how delighted I was at this news, especially as the box wasn't all that expensive. (Artists from the USA might need to know that craft/scrapbooking supplies in most of Europe are nothing like as good or as easily available as in the USA. I can't even get simple things like shipping tags in Germany.) PayPal and email are great for things like this: Gena emails to tell me what she's found and to ask if I can use it, and I PayPal the necessary cash to pay for it.

So there I was yesterday afternoon, trying to come up with one or two "success guaranteed" ideas for first-timers that also don't make a lot of mess or need a great deal of clean-up materials/facilities. This tag booklet is a prototype of one of the ideas. I used eight tags here, and I think this model would work nicely with anything between three and thirty tags (think phone list to mini journal).

I'll post a picture tutorial tomorrow.

Colour Me Happy

This is a pocket I created for Shakti's color Me Happy journal. Instead of sending a completed journal around, she sent all participants a pre-cut pocket to work with.

The background for my pocket is done in watercolour crayon (Caran D'Ache Neocolour), which I scribbled on then "painted" and fixed with baby wipes. I love this technique. It'S so simple. but the colors are stunning and you can achieve lots of gradients and effects with next to no effort. Over that I stuck scraps of lampmaking fleece left over from another project.

I then punched some holes around the edge of the pocket and sewed on eyelash yarn and big, bright leafy sequins.

My leftover box contained a few sentiments from a paper pad, so I painted over some cards and stuck them on before popping then into the pocket, so it wouldn't seem so bare.