Nature Experiments and a little bit of photography.

Unopened Fennel flower.

I am in such a FANTASTIC space right now that I hope these pixels turn into little bubbles of enthusiasim and POP all over you!

Spider's nest in the the weeds.

I resolved to participate more on the NING art groups that I belong to and this month's challenge could have been written just for me- to create mixed media paintings from natural and organic substances. Flower dyes, tree bark pigments, vegetable dyes...you get the idea.Everything about this is perfect...except for the painting bit, which as I have mentioned previously is not really 'good' with me right now but I've decided to feel the fear and do it anyway!  I have to get over this painting slump and what more exciting and inspiring way could I find that with the real colours of nature?

I was thinking about the next part I want to do for Lisa J's Pulp Redux book this morning when thoughts of the Ning swap entered my mind and suddenly I had a huge brain wave. Here's a sneak peak of where I am heading....

This nest was gifted to me by Mother Nature just in time for Christmas. It was the most wonderful nest and there's a bit of story to go with it which I will share later. Sadly, when I said 'was' the most wonderful nest I mean this nest has since 'passed on' and is no longer intact. It was dismantled by a cat and left in tatters on the front step. Stink one!

I kept it's pieces because I didn't have the heart to just throw it in the compost and now I am so glad I didn't! Here's what I did...

I took it apart and soaked it in hot water, sieved it and let it settle. It's now a nest coloured dye!Wahoo!

I didn't even see that brain wave coming!

I've been playing around with the dye and I will be sharing a bit more about that on another post too.

All that remains of the nest's remains....washed, chopped and dried nest pieces ready for inclusion in some paper making. I can't wait!

 I was actually sad to pull this nest apart even though it was well thrashed by the cat (not my cat I hope!!) who could no doubt smell the remains of the eggs I found inside. It was still a thing of beauty but it was disentegrating quickly outside and I am quite pleased it has this new life. It was quite an intimate thing pulling apart a nest with my hands, letting the nest dye run over my fingers and feeling the soft textures of it as I readied the bits for paper making. No wonder I am inspired!

We are camping for a few days tomorrow, I have some little bags ready for the nature gifts I hope to find while were there. I will *see* you all when I get back!

A sneak peek...

Here's a sneak peak of what I've been up to lately. I have been doing a 'piece' to submit for the Altered Bits Zine. The theme is black and white and although I did find it hard I enjoyed the challenge. I'd choose white paper yet it hardly ever still looked white when I put next to another white and the same was said for black...I swear that feather really looked black! Without giving to much away.. I will say I went back to my original concept of 'Society is a Nest' which was something I really wanted to do.

I've also been paper making again! It's drying as I speak and I'm trying to keep the cat off it. She's not to impressed that there's paper in her usual spot in front of the heater! It was a lot of fun dipping my hands into a paper making vat again...and I've gotten a book out on paper making and book binding from the library so I am rearing to go as soon as I've got a good stash of paper! Watch this space...

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:)

p.a.p.e..r.!

This is a page from my visual diary. You can see the embossed leaf paper (which I made from the paper from an expired cheque book) and the paper I made from serviettes and rose petals. While my computer was in the shop I had my birthday and DH gave me the most wonderful bunch of roses so I decided to re-use a few! Oh, I cut out a few birds eggs too!

Above: A selection from my paper experiments! The yellow paper is coloured with marigold dye and I'm pleased with it's intensity. I pressed a broken sheet of paper onto a green sheet to get the marbled edges. It also means it's green on one side and yellow on the other!

Below: These leaves are trapped inside 2 sheets of paper. I'm curious to see what happens to the leaves...will they decay without direct light or moisture? Will their organic-ness result in the life span of this paper being shorter than the rest?

This is so much fun! I just love the texture, the feel, the look of hand made paper! I am keen to do some ink/lino cut prints on some of my own paper and experiment with sizing it so it can be written on. I've bought the lino and already have cutters and ink so watch this space!

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!