Progress

I have been quite busy since leaving work early yesterday.

Earth - Some paint and glitter have been added to the original after a little (but not enough) experimenting on the copies. I just have a little text to add then this part of the project will be finished. I think I may mount it on some cardboard and papier mache a frame of some sort.

Soul Journal - I have missed out the house pages from Caspiana's for the moment and have been enjoying the collage pot pourri pages. Basically Caspiana gives a list of instructions to carry out on a page and you have to do them in a different order. The results are a little random especially if you are haphazard when selecting colours.

The first of the three spreads has an unusual look for me as I used the first paint I picked up to dry brush the two pages was brown. The second colour I picked up was yellow so the wash I did didn't really do much. I then drizzled and flicked some metallic paints onto the page. The last step will be to do a silhouette of a figure.

The second spread has turned out much nicer than the first. I blobbed primary colour paints onto the page before closing the book and squidging all the paint together. Over this I used some pinky chalky inky stuff which toned it down in a subtle way and coloured the white spaces. When I wrote the numbers across the pages I got as far as 46. This number is especially significant right now as a friend of my Dad's died of a heart attack last week. He was only 46. This page began to take on the essence of living a life fully and brightly, no matter how short, like a butterfly. I forked on some black paint and then drew round my hand with a glue pen before putting on some black glittery embossing powder. I heated this up and all the little left over bits of dust to so the page is glittery and colour full with black bits as well. I then wrote on some words in silver like Be, Blossom, Flower, Grow etc. The last stage will be to sew on some flowers made from felt.

The third spread was started using a dusky pink chalky ink pad which didn't get into all the folds of the paper and so highlights the texture of the pages. I used some wool to stamp on some copper ink. I wrote the alphabet in purple. For the metal I added some eyelets (which will be under the flowers on the other side) and some metal tape. I then gesso'd out a section with pinky gesso. More steps to follow...

Jewellery - I have had to pick upmy beads again after a three month break as I have demands to fulfill. I am currently 9 inches through a daisy chain made in size 11's (11 beads to an inch) in transparent glass in clear, pink and blue.

The worst thing about the journals is that many of the steps need drying after.... This also makes it hard to scan in as whenever I start I don't think about this until I have wet pages!

Earth Part Two

This is my Earth collage for Project spectrum so far...

The brown panels at top and bottom and the flowers in the bottom right are from an envelope.

The four triangular images in each corner are microscope images of very thin sections of rock, used by geologists to examine mineral content. (These are quite plain, many contain much more vivid colours as different wavelengths of light are used to identify the minerals - to look st more try 'thin section rock' as search in google images)

The central cloud like image and the image in the very centre are both fractals, mathematically generated images.

The stone ring is Men an Tol, an ancient stone in Cornwall.

I am really pleased with the result so far but have decided to experiment with some colour photocopies before committing to the next stage of altering the original. I will experiment with colours of paint mixed with glue and amounts. I want to bring the images together more smoothly before I begin working over them... I want to add a food circle around the outside of the stone, a haiku and some glitter, maybe in a nice triple spiral....

I like the idea of bringing the four finished collages together with the Goddess Reya mentioned. I am hoping I can find out who she is!

I can tell I am going to enjoy taking part in Project Spectrum and can't wait to see what others produce!

Earth

A little while ago I decided to look at the four elements and see what they meant to me, particularly as a scientist, and also their symbolism. I have just re-read my blog written on the brainstorm I did for earth, which you can see here. Reading this has sparked images and ideas in my head.

For each subject of Project Spectrum I want to complete several different projects and I would like to include an A4 journal style collage sheet on each. This is my current idea for my earth journal sheet and I shall start collecting images etc soon.

In the centre is a picture of Men-an-Tol (a Circular Cornish stone with a hole in the middle) Around the stone is a little food cycle with the animals flowing round the stone. This is overlaid on a fractal design which has been altered to make it faint. In the corners are nature patterns, such as those from rocks. There will also be a border at the top and the bottom taken from a pretty junk mail envelope. This is liable to change somewhat but it gives me somewhere nice to start from. I would also like to include some words on the page somewhere to....

Yesterday I also bought a pack of air drying clay and I expect to do something with this. I also like the idea of getting out my bead loom and doing something in earth colours. We shall see what else I get up to....

Soul Journal Update

I am still following this course but progress is variable! Although some parts take only a few minutes, drying can take a lot longer... This means that with the many layers in some pages, I get a little frustrated with the pace.

Today I prepped the next spread with white acrylic and pva. I also mixed in a little blue ink and discovered that ink makes the glue go stringy. It was useable but I wouldn't do this again. I also prepped a second spread with pinky coloured lottery slips. This afternoon I gesso'd the lottery pages and prepped another two, one with diary pages with a turquoise header block and the other with yellow bordered puzzle pages.

So nothing exciting to show right now...

Postcards Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen

Postcard 11 - Silver and gold pen. An town and road type pattern based on Aborigine patterns.



Postcard 12 - Card and glue. In honour of Ben Nicholson. I may not much have liked his displayed work at the Tate that i saw last week but I can appreciate some of his techniques. This was inspired by his relieves.


Postcard 13 - Watercolour pencils used by dipping in water first. Drawn for Word Wednesday - Fish. I love these pencils but I don't much like this drawing!

Postcards Nine and Ten

The effect of the postcards is growing and spreading across my wall....

Postcard Nine - A continuation of the doodle I started (which turned out to be a sort of maze) This time I doodled within a word.


Postcard Ten - this postcard was covered with foil insulation tape, words is made up of black foam letters and the butterflies were made using a punch and some magazines. I like the simple meaning behind this postcard. That words are a mirror and they are also fleeting like butterflies... It fits nicely with the theme for Creative Every Day this month which is words...

Soul Journal

I scanned in my last two pages and realised that scanning was much better so here is my whole journal from the beginning...

Page 1 - stamps and various pens



Page 2 - images outlines copied on to plain paper using fine line pen. Colour added using pens, inks and eyeshadow mixed with pva.


Page 3 - Violet and black inks sponged on. Images glues on with pva and then watered sown blue acrylic paint added. Some further detail added in copper pen which is not very clear.


Page 4 - Prompt - I forget covered in tape and quote made out of foam letters