My Mane Blowing in the Wind: November 2010

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 246

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 246: Working It

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 245

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 245: She Wasn't Sure

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 244

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 244: She Dreamt of Designer Sheaths

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 243

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 243: Waiting for Inspiration

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 242

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 242: Full On Feminine

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 241

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 241: The Cleopatra It Deserves

Collage Cafe on November 13th

Barry's Show and Tell

Playing workshop catch up! The photos here are from the Collage Cafe workshop I held at Stage Dor on November 13th (my apologies for there poor quality). One of my altered book students brought her husband to participate. In spite of Barry's initial misgivings ("I'm not creative", "I'm a klutz when it comes to art"...etc.), he soon got into the swing of things and later told me he had a surprisingly fun time. After Barry completed his spread and looked it over, he realized what the images were referring to a pivotal moment in his life, and shared this with us at the session's closing show and tell.

Judy's Pocket Spread

I always find it interesting the variations on my exercises that people come up with. Such is the creative process! I showed people in this workshop a simple pocket construction. Passing by Barry's wife, Judy, I saw that she had placed a beautiful woman in an evening gown under her pocket. She hadn't glued it down yet and I said wouldn't it be great if you could bring her train around the front of the pocket. She figured out how to do this and her spread became a striking creation.

Judy's Completed Spread

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 240

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 240: Saint Jimmy

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 239

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 239: Sparkle!

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 238

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 238: Get Caught Looking

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 237

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 237: What to Serve with Cocktails

Monday, November 29, 2010

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 236

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 236: Ginger Cat moon

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 235

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 235: Nobody Is Going to Rain on My Parade

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 234

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 234: Don't Try to Make Sense of This

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 233

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 233: Or Something Better?

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 232

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 232: Sherbert

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 231

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 231: Stay Off Balance

Altered Book Techniques: Tip-Ins

Tip-In: Transparency & Double-Stick Tape

Tip-ins are a lovely way to add interest to your altered book spreads. Here I am showing you three examples. These spreads are color and materials charts that I created for my students to become familiar with different types of media you can use in book alteration, and how each one is affected by the surface paper. One side of the book page is gessoed, the other is plain. I draw horizontal lines and then within each space use a different type of media (acrylic, fluid acrylic, watercolor pastels, etc.). In the tip-in above, I used a transparency print out of a photo I took in London (it was a poster on a Metro wall). I applied double-stick tape to the page first running the tape right up against the gutter, and then pressed down the edge of the transparency. The transparency can be lifted up to view the media sample beneath it. Transparencies are cool to use because they allow you to see the text and the color underneath it.

Tip-In: Greeting Card & Masking Tape (Front Side)

Tip-In: Using Masking Tape (Back of Card)

In this second example, I tipped in a colorful greeting card by running Japanese masking tape along both sides of the card. The masking tape overlaps onto the page (close to the gutter as possible). On the back of the card I added a photo of my cat Angelina and me -- kind of a similar feeling and color palette the greeting card. This is a very crude way of making a tip-in -- but it works! Just make sure to stick part of the masking tape onto the book page.

Tip-In: Between Two Ripped Pages (Front)

Tip-In: Greeting Card Between Two Ripped Book Pages (Back)

The third tip-in example is done by ripping out two book pages, but leaving each one at least one inch wide. You tip-in your picture, card, photo, or tag by gluing your chosen item between the two torn pages. This was a greeting card that seemed to work with my mermaid theme.

Friday, November 26, 2010

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 230

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 230: Analyze This!

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 229

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 229: Listen to the Music

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 228

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 228 A Force of Nature

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 227

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 227: Question Your Perceptions Two (Too?)

Express Yourself! at Once Around

Busy Altering Books at Once Around

Another Express Yourself! collage and altered book workshop successfully held at Once Around in Mill Valley. There were 7 attendees, including a family of three. I was a little nonplussed when the daughter of one of the attendees turned out to be 8-10 years old -- I was expecting a teenager! But after my initial reaction, I figured I used to teach young children how to ride -- how much more difficult could art be?

Sam at Work!

Sam's Piece Close Up

As it turned out, not much more! And what beautiful artwork Sam created! I stuck pretty close to my 2-hour lesson plan...I just gave the class -- and me -- extra time for clean up and show and tell.

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 226

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 226: Question Your Perceptions

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 225

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 225: At Your Fingertips

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 224

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 224: Meet the Future

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 223

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 223: Soul-Soothing

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 222

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 222: Experience a Place

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 221

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 221: Let Your Muse Take Flight

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 220

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 220: A Jungian Encounter

Photo Manipulation: Tissue Paper Adhesion

My Apologies to Angelina, Beautiquina

Further adventures with the online course I'm taking from L.K. Ludwig....This was a color photo I took of my cat Angelina between the bars of an iron gate in our front yard. Angelina is contemplating some mystery as cats often seem to do. I adhered pale pink tissue paper to the photo with matte medium, then after it dried added a top coat of matte medium. I have never fooled around with color pencils, so this was a stretch for me. I think I would have freaked out if I had started with a black and white photo. I took pencils and scribbled here and there, added some oil pastels, and some iridescent chalk. I tell you, it's hard to color a white cat. Her ears weren't a problem -- they are pink -- but the rest? I ended up giving her a grease mark on the top of her head. She would not approve. And the side of her face looks like a dirty white pumpkin. Definitely not a gold star. I have to read L.K.s notes on coloring a bit more. However, all in all I like this technique, and am spured on to continue experimenting.

Friday, November 12, 2010

What a Month!

Opening night for "Under Cover" -- a Don't Quit Your Day Job dansicle I'm performing in for the next two weekends. I am in seven numbers -- SEVEN -- I can't believe I've made it (almost). The past month has been something out of Job's journey for me -- one obstacle after another. First getting sick with a flu virus from hell, then a lung infection that took me out of dancing for over 4 weeks. Major drugs that wiped out any endurance, memory, and motor ability that prevented me from remembering choreography, reduced me to a quivering mess of helplessness. Yukkk! The loss of a relationship that I don't think I'll ever get over. SOB! Major anxiety and wondering if I'd ever be healthy again. Then computer issues (aka pestilence) -- ants literally set up residence in my printer and my wireless router became the ant nursery!!!! No joke I lifted up my scanner bed one morning and it was like I was looking into an ant farm. Kind of fascinating in a very gross way. Unfortunately I had to replace both (I squished too many ants in my printer mechanism and I shook the router for hours and there was still egg larva pouring out of my router so I finally gave up on that). Now my DSL modem has been down for a week, resulting in even more of a delay in my posting my Daily Journal Pages and my experiments from the online courses I'm taking. I've been derelict in a million other ways. But in spite of a horrendous month, life continues...the show goes on...the spirit ressurects the body...and somewhere joy still exists. I'm living testimony of that -- ants, asthma, Alzheimer's -- I'm getting back on that horse!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 219

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 219: The Magic of Our Emotions

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 218

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 218: Perfection

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge...Day 217

2010 Daily Journal Page Challenge -- Day 217: Evolves

Photo Manipulation: Using China Markers

Shut Out Does Not Mean Shut Down

This is an experiment from an online course on photo manipulation (by hand) that I am taking. I took a photo from one of my trips to Mexico. Using a white china marker I blanked out the background in the lower portion of the gate. I like how it acts like a bit of wax paper covering a store front -- you can see something on the other side -- you just don't know what it is. Then I took a yellow china marker and colored in the middle section of the gate (originally white in color), then I took the red china marker and an orange waxy crayon and added more color the top and bottom portions of the gate. I went over everything with a graphite pencil (before adding color, and after), added the collage element last, blending the edges a bit with the white china marker.