Happy Mother's Day Mom....!

This is Mom on her honeymoon in Hampton Beach, NH in 1952.

Rust!

Ok - who knew you could actually manufacture your very own rusty things? Well you can and it's EASY! Following the instructions from Cloth Paper Scissors, the article written by Leslie Riley, my husband made some super fab rusty things for me this week.

Step 1 - select some brand new or old metal things to rust. Some will work better than others i imagine. What you want is as much iron as possible - ie not stainless steel.

Step 2 - find a suitable container. Like a large glass jar or a bucket. Do not use your favorite etched glass pitcher like my husband did here.

Step 3 - create the potion. Two parts bleach (like Clorox) and one part vinegar. Do this outside for the fumes and be careful with the bleach - you know, like it will bleach your clothes if you spill it on you. Better yet - get your husband to do this for you while you are out of the house. Remind him not to use favorite pitcher.

Step 4 - insert metal things. Adding a rusty or partially rusty item apparently makes this go faster. We threw in some toilet seat bolts we found in the garage that had a bit of rust.

Step 5 - wait 24 hours. Remove rusty things to some newspapers to dry. Husband used BBQ tongs. Do not rinse. We worked on the concrete patio - if you use a table top - protect it with plastic and paper.

Step 6 - since we have the icky rusy solution - why add more metal things and do another batch?

Step 7 - argue with husband over ruined favorite etched glass pitcher. Husband will say, "if it was so special why has it been sitting out here on the deck all winter?"

You know how that is, you have a beautiful bouquet of flowers that sit on the dining room table until the flowers are dead and a toxic green sludge has formed in the pitcher, so you carefully move it outside and promptly ignore it.

Step 8 - agree with husband and move on.....

So some notes about the whole process:

Using the rusty solution for a second batch? Not nearly as successful as the first batch - see here the results. Compared to the first batch - there is just a hint of rust. The first batch was so successful - my husband was reminded of the relics from the Titanic on the ocean floor. I guess there must be an intial chemical reaction between the bleach and the vinegar that gets the rusting started that you don't get with the second batch.

So off to the store for more bleach and vinegar to do the rest properly. We scoured the garage for random metal things that might look cool attached as limbs on the book doll bodies. Like a spring, some hinges and some large discs. See previous post HERE that explains what all this rusty stuff is for.

(So yeah - i finally figured out how to create a link to a nother page or site - so much cleaner than the whole URL spelled out!)

Happy Rusting!

Beeswax Collage Workshop - Hinged Canvas

This is a small hinged canvas beeswax collage i made in a workshop with Tim Holtz a few years ago at Scrapbook Territory in Berkeley. It was a thrill ride of three workshops in one day with Tim, who is a talented and knowledgable instructor with Ranger Industries. He did a really fun thing for this class. He told us we would create a collage with a word - but we could not pick our word. We had to reach into a bag a pull out a letter. I picked an R. He told us not to worry about thinking up a word that began with the letter chosen. He had a special book for that. Oh yeah, special. It was a dictionary! DUH! You know, it really worked. It got people to think outside their comfort zone. Since i spied some paris themed elements on the "help yourself" table, i wanted a word that was French - actually a lady at my table helped me choose Risque - perfect!

The great thing about taking a class with Tim is his expertise about tools and materials. Needless to say you end spending a LOT of money taking one of his classes. Not because you are coerced into anything, but because his enthusiam for his products is so infectious it just makes you want to have it too! That is also a benefit of taking a class at a craft store - everything you might want is two feet away, sitting on the shelves, saying "please buy me"! I spent about $120, just managing to escape without buying a mini iron for ironing wrinkled paper. (oh yeah - at the time i REALLY wanted one!!)

Well, that is not the case at my classes! I teach in a lovely little picturesque town, Point Richmond, at the Nova Studio, which is dedicated mostly to teaching how to make soap and natural beauty products. It is filled to the brim with the wonderful scents and smells of organic additives like flower petals and herbs, essentials oils and sometimes, melting beeswax. And i don't sell anything! Well, other than i hope you enjoy the class, and tell all your friends, and that i see you again at another workshop in the future.

Sadly we had to cancel the altered book keepsake box workshop scheduled for this Sunday due to insufficient sign ups. Because it is a lot of work to gather all the supplies and set up the classroom, we request a minimum of 5. Generally though - I'll do the class with 3 or 4 just because i hate to dissappoint. But we only had two - so we had to call it yesterday. Then someone inquired today, but it was too late to get the other people back on board, you know how it is - people plan their weekends, so no class this Sunday.
However, we DO have a class NEXT Sunday, May 18th - Advanced Beeswax Collage. This is a really fun and challenging class designed for students who have taken the beginner beeswax class, but we do allow talented indivuals who can pick up techniques quickly to take this class without the prerequisite.

In the beginner class each student makes two 5" x 7" canvas board collages to hang on the wall. In the advanced class we step it up a notch or two. Once you have learned the basics of applying the wax, you can tackle a larger project. In the advanced class we take two 8"x10" canvases, you collage both front and back, and sides too, including creating a three dimensional effect inside the niche created in the back of the canvas. Then the final touch is hinging them together to create a folding diptyque artwork to stand or be hung as you like.

In our last class i brought everything related to birds - lots of bird themed papers, florals, leaves, and three dimensional items like nests, branches, butterflies and more. I went a little over the top creating a fanstasy of yellow birds and flowers. One student created a very zen-like composition using a buddha image she brought from home and the word BREATHE with the letters i brought for the class. Another student created the lovely bird and ephemera collage pictured above.

You can see the class had a great time and created something they were really proud to show off. I am not sure yet exactly what theme we will be making next week. It is too far away for my muse to decide. Suggestions are certainly welcome!

The romance of wrought iron

I just love images of ornately swirled wrought iron gates. What a fun thing to collect. I just found out how to create a mosaic with flickr pics. I will be sure to give credit to the talented photographers and also to express jealously that they live near or have visited these great architectural wonders. Click on the links below to go to flickr to see more of their work.

If you have wondered how to create a mosaic like this one - please check out Big Huge Labs. You need to have a good supply of "favs" preselected on flickr - which you can then convert to a mosaic like this one.
http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php

1. Door with blue iron gate, 2. iron gate, 3. Wrought Iron Gate, 4. Chelsea Royal Hospital Main Iron Gates Entrance, 5. Iron Gate, 6. Door With Iron Gate, 7. Iron Gates, 8. Iron gate and steps in stone wall, 9. Wrought Iron Gate, 10. Wrought iron gate, 11. Weeping Angel cast iron gate, 12. Vienna - baroque gate, 13. The Gate Of The Mansion, 14. to the gates, 15. Aged gates, 16. Gate into the present

Make it Monday - RED!

This week's challenge from gomakesomething.com's weekly challenge is RED! I used a 5" square canvas to make a little collage using a butterfly from Ten Two Studios collage sheets. This sheet is called Butterfly Cards and is made up of a selection of 19 reproduction cigarette cards from the 20's and 30's.
I seem to be using the backside of stretched canvases a lot lately! This one was perfect to create a small three dimensional specimen. the butterfly is actually pierced on a pin inside the niche of the canvas. Simple french script creates the background. A neat row of redish stamps creates a border along one side of the red paper glued to the canvas.
Please check out go make something's monday challenges and see some fun art:
http://www.gomakesomething.com/content/view/371/67/
Check out Ten Two Studio's collage sheets here:
http://www.tentwostudios.com/cs030/
Thanks for leaving comments!
Diane

Altered Book Keepsake Box Workshop

About two years ago i was filmed for a segment of That's Clever, the HGTV show that spotlights an artist or crafter in their home studio. I saw the "call for artists" on the HGTV website and thought i'd give it a try. Well, they contacted me and asked for pictures of the project i would like to make on the show. I had an idea for doing something to a book, but not a traditional altered book,with collage images throughout. The idea instead, was to make the book into a sort of box - like a jewelry box - with a lid and little feet.
Well, this was the days before i had a digital camera, so i had to make up the sample book and send them a scan. As you know a scan does not really capture the 3-D aspect of an art project very well, but that was good enough to get me to the "consideration" stage. To make it to the "finals" so to speak, i had to send better photos - so off we went to purchase a digital camera.

The producer said they wanted something rich in techniques - so in my accompanying instructions outline - i included hand painted and stamped papers, cutting a niche, working with mica, creating an air dry clay heart, painting and glazing and collage with ephemera on the cover.

Well - they liked it and picked me. And they were coming in less than a week to film. So this is where (if we were to document this visually) i would be thrust in to fast forward style overdrive to prepare 8, yes EIGHT versions of the book, at different stages of the project. Oh yeah - and totally overhaul the craft room to make it film ready. Not to mention clean the entire house, because as you know - they usually shoot sections of where you live to set the stage. Of course i got sick and wasn't able to do it on my own, but dear friend Denise answered the call to help me cut niches in 7 books.
The day of the shoot i slept in, relaxed did my own hair and makeup and waited. They were due to arrive at 3:00 in the afternoon after filming a pottery sculptor in the city. They came around 6:00pm. They left at 2 am!! The camera man, sound guy and asst producer all hung out with me in my little studio (former guest room). The director watched from a monitor out in the hall.

Of course with my history of teaching classes and being comfortable speaking in front of crowds, i naturally assumed i would ROCK as a TV star, and it would be a 100% sure thing that HGTV would give me my own show. Like right away. Nuh uh. I sucked out loud. Terrible. Really really awful.

Three simple rules i could not get to STICK in my brain.

Rule #1 - Look in the camera. Sounds simple, right? No - for some reason it seems more natural to look at the guy HOLDING the camera, rather into the camera itself."CUT"

Rule #2 - Don't talk and make noise at the same time. Simple? wrong. "next we take this piece of really noisy deli paper and ..." "CUT!" You have to say what you are going to do (while looking at the camera, not the cameraman) and THEN do it.

Rule #3 - Don't way "we" say "I". Well as an instructor, it is more familial to say,"next we will cut the niche". But apparently on TV this sounds stupid since you are supposed to be alone.

"CUT! Diane - please say I, not we."

Ok, "next we will cut the niche"

"CUT! Diane PLEASE say I, not we."

Ok, "next IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII will cut the niche". Watch for it on the show. I bet it will be hysterical.

When you might ask? Good question. I was filmed at Halloween in 2006. yeah 2006. So it was supposed to be on in January of 2007, then the spring, then Sept, then Jan 2008, then May, now it is back to September. Apparently this is all perfectly normal and related to programming issues, not the crazy altered book artist who can't take simple instructions.

So if all this makes you want to rush right out and learn how to paint your own paper and cut a niche and make your very own altered book keepsake box, please join me this Sunday, yes Mother's Day, for a full day workshop at the Nova Studio in Point Richmond. It is the perfect outing for you and mom to come and create together, or for you to create a special gift to send to mom, or to remember her by.

You can use images i provide - or one of your own. I have two examples shown here - one in rich greens and purples that i made for the show, which includes a clay heart that is painted and looks like stone. The other has soothing natural pastel tones with robin's egg blue accents. This one has a birds nest made of wire and fibers inside the niche.

I look forward to sharing this wonderfully complex project with you and sharing all my expertise about how to be a star. Not.

Attack of the Book People....!

I first saw one of these at the Marin County art festival a few years back, a doll (of sorts) made out of a book. The artist exhibiting them, along with many cool letter press items, was Elaine Benjamin. I loved this artists work - you can see more here:

http://bluechairpress.com/dadadolls.html

As an altered book artist and instructor i was intrigued by the possibilities of making a doll out of a book. I immediately starting buying up vintage doll parts on ebay to get a good supply of heads and limbs to make my own dolls. I keep them in a massive apothecary type jar that my husband finds creepy - but i think looks cool on the top shelf of my studio. (perhaps you agree with him!)

So anyway - i have the parts and many books but am really unclear how to attach them. Glue? -then they won't move like real limbs. Wire? - but they don't have holes. So this idea for a project went the way of the dodo.

Until Asilomar, that haven for crazed artists, crafters and wannabe artists! I met a lovely lady named Kit Davey who sold me this adorable book person. Ahh - so the secret is out. You just need to use wire to wrap around the parts. Isn't the spool of thread for a head a great touch? She added other turquoise stones and beads to repeat the colour.

So today after a lovely brunch al fresco on Grant Avenue in historic Old Town Novato, CA (ok - maybe that sounds WAY better than it really was) i dragged my husband to my favorite used book store to find some books. We had two criteria. They had to be OLD and they had to have a person's name on the cover, just like Marjorie here. Easy, right? There must be thousands of books named after people. But wait. Most books do not have the titles (as i found out) on the cover. They are printed on the spine of the book. Not the cover. poop.(oddly enough i have purchased this marjorie book before - probably gave it away in an altered book class)

So here i am in the book store sliding books out of the tightly packed shelves to see if they MIGHT have the titles on the cover. There weren't many - but i managed to find 8 - just enough for a sample and one for each member of my altered book swap group for our next workshop. Click to enlarge the pic to see the titles. I had to give up on names - found a few, but also added: Happiness, The Girl from Montana, Lancelot, The Man Nobody Knows. And won't this one be cool: Human Being!!

Next stop - the hardware store. The mission: to find large bolts and screws to rust to be limbs. The gals will have have a choice between poreclain doll parts, or rusty metal things. But since i don't have any rusty metal things we'll have to buy new and make old.
Thankfully we have Leslie Riley to thank for her magnificently detailed articles in Cloth Paper Scissors, who in the Nov/Dec 2007 issue explained exactly how to rust stuff. It was funny how my husband had to ask the hardware specialist which bolts would rust. Of course we know that stainless steel won't rust, but there were several other kinds. And imagine asking which one would rust "BETTER" than the other?!!

If you wanted - you could pay a lot of money for bolts, as we found out - up to $5 each! But we found some that were suitable for around 50 cents. I also picked up some copper wire - 20 guage, and few plumbing joints that were reasonably priced. Let me tell you - you could create something really awesome out of hardware store findings, if you had a big budget.

Just before posting this post, i read my email and saw a comment from someone taking a class at Art and Soul in Virginia this weekend. She was taking a class with Linda and Opie O'Brien called Who's Your DADA. In their class you are making dolls, but with a piece of wood for the body, rather than a book. Check out their wildly creative art here:

http://www.burntofferings.com/MMdolls/index.html

Here is an unassembled book person named James Joyce. I love how the copper elbow joints create nice manly shoulders. And he ain't gettin' my spool of copper wire for a head - but you get the gist! Cool, huh? I don't know who started Dada dolls - and who exactly I am "copying" but i can't wait to create my own book person and share this new way to alter a book with my artsy friends! I'll be sure to post photo's of the book people we create. thanks....!