Barefoot Wanderings

Cut It Out 2

Firstly, to everyone that left me a comment on my stamp carving posts (last month's crusade) I just wanted to say thank you, your words were really great to read, very motivating and encouraging.

I have had a bit of fun with this month's GPP Crusade - Stencil Cutting.

Here is a something I did previously using acetate & a heat cutting tool.   

I found a chinese character for Prosperity, enlarged it on a photocopier and then cut the image out of acetate. The image on the right is a canvas that I used this stencil on.

Sizzix have Alphabars in a Stencil Font that are great for making word stencils. I have marked a line under each letter of the alphabet on the alphabar so it is easier to line up the paper to get the words straight. When marking the line you just need to ensure that the line is the same distance under each letter. It is much easier to do this with the upper case, the lower case alphabet needs tweaking on some letters, such as those with tails (g, y, q etc..) and the letter 'm' is on it's side.

For spray painting, these can be attached to acetate. Simply cut out a window on a sheet of acetate slightly bigger than the word but smaller than the card stock and attach with tape.

As these are cut from card, once they have been used a bit they will be wonderfully coloured and you can use the actual stencil in journals/artwork/etc...

I cut an image of a bird in flight that created both a stencil and a mask. Here is the incomplete page I am working on in my journal using these stencils & mask. (The stencils & mask appear on the left of the image).

 

I have also made a go-with solid stencil for one of the stamps I carved (here)....and I did get a mask from this cutting.
Here is a quick sample of how the stencil & stamp go together.....

My stamping is a little off but I just wanted to quickly try these out together.

I should admit that after the first stamp carving I did, and armed with the knowledge I'd be cutting stencils, I visited my local art shop to find a book with copyright-free designs or patterns that would be good for backgrounds and walked out with THREE! ......I figure I saved money as I put quite a few books back on the shelf....is there such a group as ASA - Art Supplies Annonymous I could join?!

Here is one I am currently working on. it is an image from one of my new books. I made it a bit bigger using a photocopier and then with Black & White pens I transformed the design into a stencil. (If you are not sure how to do this then visit Michelle for some great tips.)
I will enlarged it again to the size (or two) that I want, tape the image to the under side of a piece of glass, tape acetate to the top of the glass and use my heat tool to cut the design.

The heat stencil cutting tools are a BRILLIANT tool to have, especially if you intend to do a lot of cutting. It can take a little practice but once you have it down pat it is soooooo much quicker to use than a blade.

Tell Me A Story

The Art Girls are back in the swing of things.
There are three of us (Megan, Lysh & myself) that try meeting up once a fortnight to create art. It got a bit out of whack toward the end of last year and begining of this year but we are now back into the swing of meeting regularly again.

It is good to have something in mind to work on on these nights and so we came up with the idea of doing another round robin altered book but this time with a bit of a twist....to create a story in each book. The next person building on / spring boarding off the previous page. We are creatively cooking the books using these Creative Cooking books! They're great as they are all the same size and thickness.

There is no pressure to create and no deadlines. The idea is only to create in these books on the night and if nothing is coming we move onto other things. If there are others we want to or have to work on then that's what happens. Simple. Fun.

   

Here is the first page in my book that I created over two meetings. We have not done the covers for these books, we decided to leave it to last as we have no idea where these stories will go.

Each of us are both similar and different in our art, ideas and approaches, and that's what makes these eveings interesting. I really do appreciate the supportive and encouraging environment, I'm sure we all do, that's why we keep coming back for more!...that and the laughs!

Carving it out some more!

After seeing what everyone else has been up to in this months GPP Crusade, I was inspired to create some more of my own stamps...and my list of what I want to carve is still long!

   

The swirl design was taken from a tissue box!....nothing is safe.
I played with doing a couple of positive and negative carvings. These were done on the same piece of rubber, i.e one on the front the other on the back.

   

On a previous  post, I showed my journal where I had done leaf rubbings and took photos & notes capturing the scene with the intention of perhaps doing a piece in the studio ....well, I have done something ....not quite what I had thought but it's a start! I photocopied my journal page with the rubbings and then using tissue paper, traced over the leaf and transfered it onto the rubber.
I'm not that happy with the background on the negative space one, it needs something to make it not so square....I will sit with it for a bit.

I loved Julie's tree so much I had to carve one of my own.... I started out by roughly tracing an image of a tree from a book but had to improvise as part of the tree was not in the photo and another part had a fence post obscuring it. I also wanted it bigger & longer, so after enlarging my image on the photocopier I then extended it further.
It measures 15cm x 10cm (6" x 4").

This is another one I want to sit with for a bit as I'm not sure if a few areas could be imporved, but with anything it is good to step back for a bit and then reassess.

Here are some journal pages I am working on (in an A5 size journal). I actually stamped my leaf in the background on the page to the right.

Inspired by the roses done by Lisa and Kim, I just had to try a flower. I use the waterlily / Lotus flower a fair bit so it would only be right to carve one of these. My dilema was what size?' ... well, go big of course! ..and maybe do a smaller one if I still had the craving for carving.

These are some quick initial stampings. The black is with a dry ink pad! and the pink is acrylic paint. I think it may need a bit of a tidy up. I had used the biggest block I had, the final image measures 16cm (approx. 6.25inches) across the flower x 15 cm (approx. 6inches). The majority of the carving was done with a stencil knife.
After doing this I truly think that I am insane!

I actually found the best way to transfer an image onto the rubber was pencil rubbing. The image came out clear and didn't rub of as easily as the blender pen transfer. I had a bit of a dilema with the flower as I used a clip art image. For this I did a gel medium transfer. I left the paper on the rubber for quite a while, until it was completely dry and then very slowly and gently removed the paper with water. My first attempt did not work, firstly I had not let it dry long enough and then I was chatting to my sister and not concentrating so rubbed too much in one area and removed the image. Another thing to note is that you really have to remove ALL of the paper. Leaving even just a slight film of paper in areas creates resistance with the carving tools.

Some other things I found:
The decorative borders (repetative line designs) were all carved from erasers. I would highly recommend only using erasers for designs that won't get used a lot or for short term longevity. They are brittle.

I would also like to add that straight lines are harder than curved, much less forgiving....but as my sister would say "It's handmade!"

Go slow, particualrly with large intricate designs and take breaks.

All stamps, except the tree, were carved from Soft Cut Carving Block, from an Australian company. It is white, was really easy to carve, and is quite flexible.
I carved the tree from the pink Speed-ball Speedy-Stamp Carving Block (these are pretty hard to locate down-under!). Compared to the white block, this was a little harder to carve, perhaps saying there was a little more resistance is better, but I think this was better for the intricate tree. Doing it on the white block I think I would have lost branches...and then my sanity!!

Hmmm, now let me see, I'm running out of carving blocks but not ideas ....there was that amazing eye, some hands, flourishes, a bird or two .....

Cut it out!

GPP Crusade 18: This month Michelle has put out the challenge to cut & carve our own stencils and/or stamps. This post is about my attempts at Stamp Carving.

'Here's one I prepared earlier'......
The one and only stamp I had carved previously was inspired by the musical RENT (I loved it so much I saw it three times...wow, that's years ago now!!) and in particular the song Seasons of Love. I had planned to do a piece inspired by this song, and will get to it one day!

I have always intended to carve some more of my own stamps and thought this crusade would be a good chance to do just that. Here is my second go at stamp carving:

 

As I still have my training wheels on I thought it would be easier to take a clip art image, enlarge it on a photocopier and transfer the image onto the rubber.

I then took my lino cutting tools and began to carve... hmmm, yes there were thoughts of why so many curves? why didn't I choose a straight edge design?.. Oh well, why start too easy!

.......I then inked up and tested the stamp on a scrap of paper. A little tidy up, and another test stamp and that's the best it was going to get. Not perfect but I am relatively happy with it, particularly since I mainly use paint and this will hide the flaws....or should I say the unique features!

These are samples of some pages I am working on using the new image:
This carving was all done before reading the posts Michelle put up on her blog, here and here. She has some really cool tips on carving which I will certainly remember and do next time.

Hopefully before the end of the month I'll do some stencil cutting.

Assemblooks....

.....a workshop by Michael de Meng .

Last weekend I attended another fabulous workshop with Michael de Meng, this time the whole weekend was on one project....well, you could do more than one if you wanted....and as the title suggests it was assemblages using books.

It was great, it reinforced some of the things I had learnt in Perth last year and of course I learnt some new things.....even if it meant leaving with an overwhelming desire to buy another tool or dremel attachment! As always Michael is so generous with his knowledge and time, and ever present is his ability to help guide individuals when required and in doing so bringing out everyone's indidvidual style. It is amazing to see the diversity at the end.

Another added bonus was the great group of people who attended. There were thirteen artists in this workshop who were all talented, generous and supportive. It made the weekend even more amazing. There were a lot of laughs which is always an essential component for me. I had the same fabulous roomie as I had in Perth and can truly say that it makes for a more enjoyable and relaxing weekend when you share it with some one who gets you, and likes to share in the laughs and good food, all that was missing were the caprisokas!

Thanks to the lovely and talented Janine for organising this great event, the hard work is much appreciated....and a big THANK YOU for being so generous, the goody bag everyone received was unbelieveable, so many yummy goodies - both edible and non!!

Below are a couple of images of my unfinished book. The colour in these photos really didn't come out very well at all, I will take better photos once I have finished the piece. The book when closed measures approx. 22 x 29 cm.

Art Sydney

Last Friday I went with a friend to The Weekend Australia Art Sydney fair which brought together over 80 galleries from around Australia and overseas, and incorporates Off The Wall (which is a selection on unrepresented emerging artists). There were some really amazing pieces of art on display, all for sale.
The artwork I loved the most was by Georgie Gall. Her pieces were large and textural, I really would have loved to have bought one of her paintings.

After walking our feet off I certainly went home inspired and created the piece below a few days later
(credit to Suzi Blu too, but I'll do another post about that soon)
 
Canvas 25cm square.
Collage of various asain papers, glazes, gold leaf and a hand cut stencil.
(it was a bit hard to get a good photo as it is a bit glossy)

Journal Pages

Neglectful?
Yes, I have been a bit neglectful of my blog lately. I haven't really been checking emails or visiting other blogs either. We went away during the school holidays and since coming back I have been a little busy and will admitt to enjoying time away from the computer.

The journal pages in this post were both created in my 'Travel' journal. That is the journal I take with me, not necessarily on holidays nor is it about travel!

The blue page was a piece of 'Car Art' that I finished in the studio with the stamping of the beautiful swirls.

The Black & White page was mainly done in the studio as a warm up. The background is a crossword puzzle that I have gessoed over. The swirls and tree image are all stamps.

Journal Page

A bit of fun in my journal,
playing again with paint combos, new stamps and some texture.

Colours: Golden Heavy Body Manganese Blue and Quin Magenta, and Matisse Flow Antique White

Art Between Art

Following on from Making Art Everyday, there is also Making Art inbetween Making Art. You know those times when you need to wait a few minutes for something to dry (and the heat gun isn't appropriate!), this is when I have now decided to move to one of my journals and start to create something. I work between the two. It is also good to turn to play in this journal if I am a little stuck with the piece I am working on, it gives me a break and time to just play.It is also a great place to play with colour combinations.. 
This journal is another excerise to try to free myself up. To stop THINKING and just do. It does not matter if it doesn't work. It doesn't matter if it gets finished in one sitting - which is sometimes better not to get finished as there is not a blank page to start with.
I often see what other artists have done and am inspired and influenced by them. To use similar things in this journal is fine because it gets it out of my head, I try something new/different and it enables me to eventually make it my own.

Colours used are Golden: Quin/Nic Azo Gold, Titanium White & Cobalt Violet Hue

Car Art

I have continued to do a bit of art in the car whilst waiting at school pick up.

Day One: Select something from a magazine: eyes. Stick it down, paint background (this took a while with such a small brush).

Day Two: Outline in the flower and paint it in, in white.

Day Three: Use pencils to colour flower. Cut & Paste word from Magazine.

Tips: Have a water bottle and wipes (moist towelettes / "Wet Ones') in the car.
Also, it is better to have a magazine you have already read or are not interested in reading so as not to get distracted by the articles!