Paper making and altered books.

Paper making! It's my latest obsession! It's amazing how addictive it is once you learn to make stuff that isn't the same thickness and texture of an egg carton! In the time that I have been computer -less I've been experimenting with different mixes of paper, varying degrees of processing and different methods of colouring and adding interest. I've had mixed results and I am definitely 'into' continuing along this road! It seems to be a natural road to follow given my interest in collage and being environmentally aware. Its almost surprising to me that I have been here already! lol.

The top photo shows my spread in an Altered book that made it's way to my house. The theme was birds...lucky me! I made the birds eggs from my own paper and the background paper was also one of my experimental pieces. The yellow comes from marigold dye (I knew I would get back to that someday!) and as the (3rd from the top) photo shows it looks a bit sickly when being made but the results are lovely. The white paper has flecks of marigold petals in it.

The leaves are some of my autumn gatherings which I pressed for collages and you can see them on the AB page too. Last but not least, my AB "the Four elements" as it looked just before I sent it off on its long journey around NZ. The pocket held tags made from feathers (air) twigs (fire) brown patterned card/bird imagery (earth) and lovely blues and white patterned card for the water. I'm sure your recognise my 'world famous' sparrow by now!

I have more on paper making to post here...and more on my disentegration bundle so please watch this space!

International Collage Exchange #9 & 10

Well as you can see it has been a busy and productive few days since I last posted! I hope that it also shows how much I am enjoying creating these collages! I am loving the layering and playing around with bits of thread and paper! Thread as almost taken over the role of glue in this series, a method I am keen to keep up with once the series has finished. I love the 3D effect you get from the loose (but secure) layers that you don't get when you glue the elements together and squash all the air bubbles out. It's a bit like 'tacking' a sewing pattern together and then deciding to leave it all tacked up instead of sewing it! I took a few different photos to show the layers and texture that I am enjoying so much. As always your feedback is most welcome!

International Collage Exchange #9. Title: Winter planting, Summer harvest.

Laser copied nest photo, coffee stained paper, end page from animal behaviour book, junk mail, newspaper text, thread. I used a ruler to rip the edges on the photo because I love the roughness of it.

International Collage Exchange #10 Title: Waiting.

Laser copied photo, childrens book pages (The wood ducks nest) recycled brown paper bag, a 'to do' list I wrote to myself, white mulberry paper, thread.

I guess 'Inspiration' was a more likely title but I like the text on the childrens book page that spoke of the male bird waiting for his partner to return home.
I love these 'shabby chic-boho' look layers!

Last but not least I have recieved these 2 great things in the post these last couple of days. The tag was part of an Altered Shipping Tag Round Robin that I organised on NZ mail art. I sent it off as a gold/patterned tag and as each player has recieved it they've added either the image, word, embellishment or fibre (depending on there place in the group.) I am really pleased with what came home again! The triangle is a tip in page which I received as part of an "Off the Page" tip in swap. I was so happy to open the mail and find this nest and bird and bird eggs waiting for me! Arn't I spoilt!?

Portrait of a Nest

Portrait of a nest is a series of photographs I did today with the aim of creating images specifically for use in my collages. I don't have photoshop so I created these images by using a white sheet for the background and the black and white and 'contrast' functions on Picassa. I am especially pleased with the bottom image!
I made these eggs a while back by rolling lumps of air drying clay into egg shapes. I would love some real eggs to photograph (they're on my wishlist!) I have to nests that my kids found me, they were so excited to find them because they knew I would be stoked. Which ofcourse I am!! This nest is actually the thrush nest that featured in my 'baby birds' photo a few months back. The mother thrush was kind enough to leave it for me when her babies had outgrown it :)

Birds Egg Book...

The bird fetus image is the basis for the rest of the artwork. IT IS NOT my image, I found it online and have 'borrowed' it for inspiration.

I decided to alter another book, although this time I am being significantly more influenced and inspired by book sculpture. I came up with the idea of cutting a book into the shape of an egg and then carving a bird fetus inside. I may also weave a nest inspired bag for it to sit in although at this stage I am just going to cover the covers with tissue paper and add paint to it. Time will tell!

As with many of my 'great' ideas it's already proven to be harder than I thought it would be and it took a lot longer to cut the shape than I thought!My husband (who just quietly thinks I am a little mad at times...lol) did try to tell me before hand ofcourse! That said he was very helpful and after teaching me to use his dremel and cutting blades helped me to cut the egg shape. There was so much smoke pouring from the book I was more than a little worried about setting it on fire! Thankfully the fact that it was compressed meant we ended up with just blackened pages:) You can't see the smoke in this photo but at some points it was getting hard to see through it (hence the glasses to protect my eyes) and I had to stop and let the whole thing cool down. I couldn't have done the cover with-out DH's help to get me started but hopefully next time I will be able to do the whole thing myself. I felt like I was cheating a little but I did most of it and a painter dosn't make the canvas they paint on and a collage artist dosn't make all the images...so there's no harm in asking for a little help if it's needed!

The inside will be cut out today by moi with a craft knife and I have several ideas for creating the bird inside... I havn't quite narrowed it down to materials at this stage so watch this space!