I couldn't resist...

Some papers, cardboard and recycled string....

Powdered ginger...

Tea leaves...

Sprinkled between damp pages ...

Wrapped in an old bandage, freshly boiled eucylyptus bark straight from the dye pot

piled on top...

Someone's old curtains have found a new purpose...

As an EROSION BUNDLE on the top of my clothesline ofcourse!

Kris is at it again, hosting another round of the Erosion Bundle Project. I only just found out about this so I am a little behind. It was hard not to over think this project. It should be easy just to put stuff in a bundle and see what happens when mother nature comes to play...but this is the 3rd time I have done this project (one Erosion Bundle and one as part of Seth's DisCo Project) and I have learnt that something just don't erode or disentigrate well in the kind NZ climate! The first year I tightly bound the bundle and found the middle to be mostly dry and untouched. The outer layers were dry and a bit wrinkled but suprisingly little happened. Last year I thought I was clever and made a little book from papers and placed it in a fabric bundle, unbound. I thought that the looseness would really get things going, but I only got some wrinkling and some small mold spots. Then my son got sick and I never finished the project (by making something from the bundle contents.) So this is my 3rd time around. It's not that I wasn't happy with my results, it's a case of this being a learning process and I'm not quite done figuring it all out yet!

I am hoping to end up with beautiful collage fodder, lets see what mother nature has to say about that!

Just quietly, my photos of my collages drove me mad and I've replaced all the ones from my last posting with better (but still not great) photos. Something so flat should not be so hard to photograph!

NEXT POST: OWOH! Jan 31st

Erosion, Death and Secrets

Isn't that a cheery title? That is what todays post is all about though! Or rather, the chance for you to join in a new Erosion Project (think along the lines of Seth's Dis-Co) have your art shown in a Book About Death Exhibition or find out about the Art Secrets being revealed on Seth's blog each Sunday. Interested? Read on:)

The Erosion Bundle Project was inspired by Seth's Disentegration Collaboration project and is similar in nature, excuse the pun. The dates for your calendar are:

January 1, 2010 - place bundle in nature.

In between = share thoughts and photos.

April 15, 2010 - retrieve bundle from nature.

August 1, 2010 - finish art piece using your eroded stuff and rejoice.

The Book About Death is an unbound book exhibition of postcards. Part one is already being exhibited but due to it's success there's an open call for artists to send one postcard or one series of postcards to the organiser for a new exhibition opening 6th of Feb 2010 in Brazil.

The bits you need to know are:

 Individual artists are wanted to submit works, either a single card or a group of cards for exhibition at MUBE.

Ideal dimensions are approximately 6" x 4" either horizontal or vertical orientation, but variations in size are permissible. We would like to ask all artists to be aware that we need to easily install works on the wall, so consider this aspect of the exhibition. Artworks can be handmade or printed commercially. You can mail the card by itself or in an envelope. (Please make a digital capture of the works for your records).

A deadline of January 30, 2010 has been set for reception of all submissions, although we will install any cards received after that date. Digital works are not accepted, sorry. To be included in this exhibition, make a postcard on the theme of death and send it to:

MUBE - Museu Brasileiro da Escultura

Avenida Europa, 218 - Jardim Europa

CEP 01449 000 - São Paulo - Brasil

All works submitted to MUBE will become a part of the permanent collection of the Museum, and will not be returned.

Documentation online of all new works will be made over the course of  the next few months.

FOR INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT : Angela Ferrara (atelierferrara@gmail.com)http://angelaferrara.com/ or http://blog.angelaferrara.com/

Secret Sunday is Seth Apters new project. Be sure to check out his blog each Sunday to find out what arty-secrets your favorite artists have shared. It's also a good chance to discover new artists so there's nothing to loose and everything to gain!

And last but not least, a quick Pulp Redux update! All but one of our books have now been sent and recieved at there respective destinations (although mine was delayed by a search in customs!) and there will be updates on our own blogs as we play. The Pulp Redux blog will be updated when the spreads are completed.

Drum Rollllll Please! Dis-Co Winners Revealed!

A very big thankyou to everyone who came and commented on my DIS-CO postcards. I really appreciate your kindness! As you know I decided to play a game of LUCKY DIP and as promised I will be sending these postcards to the 4 winners! They are of course... The Green Stone Woman (postcard 1) Shari (who signed as anonymous...if you know Shari please let me know! (Postcard 2) Annie from Ink Haven (Postcard 3) and lucky last is Wayne Pitchko! Must have been that smile Wayne! Thanks for playing everyone! If you missed one and would like to swap mail art with me you can find my postal address on my side bar. Speaking of which.. you may remember my post showing what I received from Debrina...well she's been busy and has updated her blog with her most recent goodies, including what I sent her so please drop by and take a look! Last but not least, a little while back my blogging friend Mick added a new piece of art to his Birdhouse series and GUESS WHAT?? He dedicated it to me! I am still smiling:) Please follow the link to see this great series!

Be well!

Lisa:)

PS: Special thanks to my youngest for coming in from her game outside to do the draw for me! She even did a drum roll! The postcards were allocated in the same Lucky Dip fashion as the name draw.

NZ Mail Art postcard book swap

I'm currently doing a NZ Mail Art post card book swap and these postcards are the first 4 (of 5) that I am sending out. In return I will get 5 postcards back from the other players. The postcards will become the pages of the book. We picked our own themes and mine was 'collaged ephemera'. They're shown here in the order I made them.
Gold serviette, raffle tickets, lino cut teasel, rescued encyclopedia images. I made this one before the DIS-CO cards and I can see how it was influenced by the space I was in at the time. To me the others are quite different. I made the bottom 3 in the same day.

Rescued bird images from an encyclopedia, raffle ticket numbers, old ledger paper (thanks Debrina!) paper scrap (the black and white paper is from the inside of a business envelope.) Butterfly image.

Leaf prints, dictionary definition for "natural..." rescued wild flowers from an encyclopedia and recycled fantail from a children's fact book. I love that bird! This is my favorite out of the 3 I made that day!

Vintage cigarette card, raffle ticket numbers, ledger paper scrap, serviette, recycled book images, dictionary definition for 'nature.' Those cigarette cards were such a great score!

So there they are. I will make the last card when the muse takes me, although these are being sent out a one per week so I have plenty of time!

Today's the last day to enter the LUCKY DIP draw for the DIS-Co postcards....check back here tomorrow to see who the lucky winners are!

Dis-Co!! The final reveal...who wants to play?

It's Dis-Co day! This journey started by Seth has been a wonderful one. It's been more than I expected and led me up paths I hadn't yet realised I wanted to follow. Thanks for that Seth! In brief the story goes something like this... I gathered up a bundle of bits, mostly paper, and bound them in wool and hung them out to enter part one of the collaboration with nature. Part 2 involved unwrapping it and discovering what happened during the months it was weathered outside. The results of that were then further disintegrated when I ripped it up into thousands of pieces to make my first sheets of paper. Part 3 saw the sheets of paper bound up again and given a second weathering...and part 4 is this one. The last step in this journey is nearly complete. I used my collection of paper and string to make postcards...I've shown them here in the order that I made them.


Postcard 1: Pandora's box. The text says 'Yet from the bottom of the box flew out a shining bird and as it flew around Pandora's head it twittered sweetly " I am Hope; as I stole into the box so will I also steal into human hearts.." I've used thread and the paper made from my bundle as well as a teasel lino cut and a digitally altered photo from my ICE 2009 image collection.

Postcard 2: The Crow. As luck would have it the words "The crow" survived two weathering's and a dunk in the paper making vat! It also worked out beautifully that I had recently added some vintage cigarette cards to my stash and one of these had a crow and nest on it! Perfect! Also included in this is a recycled book image, thread and a leaf ink print.

Postcard 3: Kakapo. The Kakapo is NZ native mountain parrot and I think this recycled book image aptly shows the cheeky nature of the bird. I also used my "part 2" paper, thread and a piece un-weathered cardinal brand playing card. Weathered bits are found in the paper.

Postcard 4: Gypsy. The vintage cigarette card with a Chaffinch and nest complimented the colours of the weathered paper and cardinal playing card to well not to use. I also used thread and a piece of material rescued from a book cover (it was the outside layer covering the books heavy cover...) dictionary definitions and a leaf print make up the background and the goldy-mustard coloured paper that appears in all of these is hand painted with a plastic credit type card.

Wheew! This has been fun! A postcard however, isn't a real postcard until it's actually been posted so that's where I thought it would be nice to play a little game of LUCKY DIP! If you would like to be the recipient of one of these cards then please let me know in your comment and I will put all the names on a hat (so to speak) and draw out one name for each card. Which one you get will also be lucky dip:) I will post the winners names on the 7th.

Thanks for Seth for organising and to you all for visting...I am on my way to see you now!

A bee, a hornet, some blues and a bundle...AB and Dis-Co

Book images, playing card packet, bread tag, plastic packing straps, raffle ticket, string, twisty tie.

I've complete my 2nd spread on the "New Twist" AB. I must say I am pleased with the results even if there are no birds or nests in sight! I didn't set out intending to work in blues or with insects, it just came out that way and who am I to argue with greater creative forces? The first spread can be seen here should you wish to see what's on the other side! Thanks to everyone who gave me so much feedback on my lino cut, I really appreciate you taking the time to let me know your thoughts!
August 1 is rolling around so fast! I have taken my bundle down from the clothes line and unwrapped it. It was actually a bundle made up from the remains of my first bundle, which I turned into paper! You can see my previous posts here here and here. The photos below show the rather delicate remains after a 2nd weathering. I'm not sure where it is leading yet...

This will most likely be my last post for a while (although I hope to be able to visit soon) I am going to hospital with my 11yr old daughter who's having more hip and knee surgery on the 21st (Tuesday in my part of the globe) and that will be occupying my time and heart space for all of next week and beyond, I hope to be home Friday the 24th when she can take over the couch and the TV. Seriously, when your sick or sore there really is no place like home...so, be well my friends, see you all as soon as time allows.

Disintegration Collaboration- part 2

For some of us the Dis-Co project is far from over. Seth has announced that there will be a call for artists to 'show and tell' what they did with their bundles on Sept 1. I am posting this now because my Dis-Co project is made up from 3 parts. Part one started and ended with the first bundles reveal (which you can see here.) Part 2 is this post and a definite continuation of part 1. So here goes....

Above: The unfolded and dried out contents of my first bundle.
Below: Yes, I did rip up all those precious pieces of carefully unfolded papers into a thousand tiny pieces. I hesitated for a moment...this was going to be irreversible after all...took a deep breath and started ripping! I really wanted to mesh all those paper goodies into one thing, one new thing that was a direct result of my scraps ending up in a collaboration with Mother Nature.

Yes... I made paper! It wasn't very good paper being my first attempt but my willingness to trust my instincts and rip up the contents of my bundle has opened the floodgates to a whole new path of creativity. Paper making! Although most of you will have seen my more recent attempts here already. I intentionally left little bits of the source papers visible but it did result in weak and sporadically bald paper! I liked being able to see little words here and there (even a complete...nest...wahoo!) but the project didn't seem finished so I.... reserved a few bits and bundled it up again!

Today, June 19 in my part of the globe my bundle went back out to the clothes line. Carefully bound in more handmade paper and tied with cotton to two seedpods my bundle has started part 3 of it's journey. Watch this space...SEPT 1 is the 2nd big reveal by artists all over the globe. The paper making journey is far from over too:)