Happy Halloween - A Farmer and his Cow

My girl makes the cutest cow I've ever seen  :)

Be safe and have fun!

Handmade Paper Pulp for Twig Sculpture

This is the process I used for embellishing the Twig Sculptures with paper pulp.

I began by ripping my junk mail into small pieces (about an inch by an inch) and letting them soak for about 20 minutes in tepid water.

Notice how pretty my junk mail is?   It's because I save all my lovely invitations and note card covers and mix them with the uglies.   My son's best friend, Adam, has his wedding invitation soaking in my pile, it's the pink and black floral paper.  I couldn't throw it away Adam and bride Ashley, I had to do something wonderful with it, hope you like what I've done  :) 

Although this part doesn't look so good LOL, this is the pulp after I've run it thru my blender with lots of water.

Next I begin pouring thin amounts over the twigs until I have just the right amount coating them.

 The finished, dried piece below.  For you Adam and Ashley, next time I see you guys.  Love you!    

Twig Sculpture - My Work & Jim's

Two weeks ago I showed you this twig sculpture idea I was working on over the summer for a new assignment for my 3-D students, but I didn't show off the final result.  Well here it is, covered in handmade paper pulp .

I made the pulp from junk mail I'd been saving.

Here is my husband's foundation and his final result below.

I really like how his turned out, he thought they were kinda stupid, especially after he saw I had put them on display on our kitchen shelf above the stove.  LOL

I don't have him completely trained yet to be ok with arts/crafts hanging all over our home.   But he'll come around cuz he lovesssssssssss me!  :)

Wayfarers Wanderbook with India Flint - Day Three

Day Three

Started off the morning with a walnut and blueberry dye that India and Darcy prepared for us.  We were encouraged to use both to decorate Jackson Pollack/Morris Louis style on our large piece of watercolor paper we had brought along.

Here are both sides of my paper above and below.

And a few done by fellow students.

Then India took us outside, sat us in a circle and gave us a really fun exercise to do.  She had cut out various newspaper ads and we each chose one.  Then she told us to pick out 7 words that felt good to us and circle them.  We each took turns saying our words out loud.  Then she asked us to take those words and create a poem with them and to write it on one of our dyed papers.  Again we took turns reading our poem aloud.

Next while we were still in the circle, Darcy gave us each a silk bundle that she had made weeks in advance of our arrival.  Such a beautiful, heartfelt gesture and gift.  We all opened them up at the  same time, and found each to be unique and special.  Here is mine below.  Darcy above, about to pass them out, telling us how much she has enjoyed our traveling from far and near, to her home, to take the class with India, with tears running down her face.  Such a sweet and gentle lady. 

After lunch India shows us yet another folding technique using coffee filters, really big coffee filters!  First she folds the bottom quarter up. 

Turns the piece over then folds a quarter side in.

Folds the other quarter side inward.

Turns piece over and flods the bottom quarter up.

And then slips one curved end into the other to make a pouch!!!  Totally cool!

Then outside we went to collect more windfall and rolled our pouch and some other papers we had ready to go between sushi mats.

And plopped them into the cauldrons to make their magic.

Mine below as I unwrap it.

Above the coffee filter pouch and a chocolate bag full of yummies from Australia that India brought to each of us on that first morning with our coffee, along with my poem paper that were inside the sushi mat as I lay them out to dry.

Of course our day wouldn't be complete without a bit of show and tell by India.  Above a silk piece she was currently stitching on.  This is the backside.  Below is the front side.  Before our workshop she gave another workshop in L.A., and this I believe were the pieces she made as demos for her class there. She has layed them atop the larger silk background piece and she is in the process of stitching them down.

A close up below.  I believe she did this stitching as she was taking the train from L.A. to Santa Barbara.  Remarkable woman!!

Another close up.

And lastly our workshop came to an end as we showed off our Wayfarer's Wanderbooks.  We had a bit of time at the end to stitch many of our glorious papers into this book using a pamphlet binding technique.  The book that we stitched our papers into came from our walnut/blueberry watercolor paper that we map folded into a book.  I wasn't able to get my book completely done but a couple of the gals did.  Take a look see....

Many came up with creative closures...

or found wonderful pieces of bark to incorporate into the book cover.

I believe this is my good friend Lori's above.  She has opened it up so we can get a glimpse of the inside.

These were all of them in various stages of completion.

I had a lovely time learning so many new techniques and making new friends.  Thank you India for sharing your knowledge with us from over the big pond, and thank you again Darcy for you home and hospitality.  I've been inspired and have come away with so many wonderful memories.

Now I get to pass that onto my young ones here at Whitiney.  

Wayfarer's Wanderbook with India Flint - Day Two

It had rained on Night One, so Day Two was glorious with fluffy, patchy clouds.  India took us on a marvelous trek thru Darcy's neighborhood, and pointed out all the flora that gives off delicious dye colors.  We had all taken a bag and were allowed to collect only the windfall.  So after an hour wandering around,  this is the bag I brought back to work with on Day Two.  Lots of eucalyptus and other goodies.

Many of the participants made additional papers in their hotel rooms on Night One.  I'm embarrassed to say I did not, I was too pooped out.  But I was really inspired by their efforts, and the clever things they thought to do with stitch, thread and other fibers.

Below is the same paper after going into the eucalyptus brew.

Here are a few other cool examples.

I realy like how the gal below was couching various handspun wools onto her paper.

And the very beautiful paper below was done by my good friend and mentor, Lori Lawson.  She had thought to bring some vintage laces and framed them beautifully into her papers.  She and best buddy Margie also drove up from Capistrano for the workshop.  It was so nice to have friends there creating with me.

Here is my 3rd huge bundle after it came out of the cauldron, revealing most of my 2nd day papers below.

My favorite was this binder/folder paper that India encouraged us to make.  I loved the stunning marks left behind from my windfall that I had gathered that morning.

These next 3 pix were from my 4th batch.  Lori let me have a piece of her lace that I whipped into a pierced window area above.  But the new technique India showed us was milk resist.  She gave each of us a small cup of milk and told us to paint designs on our paper.  On the one above (front) I painted dots and dashes, and the one behind top I punctures holes and then put dots of milk over the holes.  What the milk does is make the dye go darker in those painted areas.

In this next one above (top) I painted a vertical line then dots on the paper edges.  And on the one below it's a bit hard to see but I painted another vertical along the fringed edge.  The reason some of my papers are embellished with handspun, beads and ribbons is that India encouraged us to finish them off with goodies we had brought along.

In the piece below which is part of my cover page for my Wayfarers book, I placed my paper on top of a bundled piece of silk that Darcy had made for each one of us.  And inside this paper I will dedicate my book to India and Darcy.

In the piece below India taught us a very complicated folding technique that I believe is called the hurricane fold because some lady thought of it during a hurricane when she was locked up inside her house waiting for the thing to pass.  I did it on a very thin piece of handmade rice paper.

In these two pix, India had us do an egg wash resist.  She scrambled a raw egg and gave us each a little of the mixture.  Then we dipped our fingers in it and printed them on the paper, dipped leaves in the egg and printed them, flung the raw egg across the paper willy-nilly, whatever we could think of.  Then we folded our papers up and put them in the ornamental plum vat.  The one below hasn't been dyed yet, one above has been.

In this next piece I was experimenting with some windfall, but you can see how it ripped when I opened it up.  And below I wanted to try some parchment paper I had brought.  It was a bit of a dud but the silk pieces I had sewn on came out very rich in color.

By the end of the 2nd day we were exhausted , but had learned so much and produced quite a bit as well.  So India had us sit down and gave us a bit of a show and tell about some dresses she had brought and the one she was wearing.  She told us she uses a lot of patterns from the Alabama Studio Sewing and Design Book by Natalie Chanin.  So of course when I got back home from the workshop I went right out and bought the book at Barnes and Noble.  I found that the book is filled with inspiration and I'm so excited to make several of the patterns.  

I hope you enjoyed Day Two, and hopefully I'll get Day Three up real soon.