The Other Gradients

All the gradient cards for our Tiny Pages Art Exchange are now with their new owners. I got Brenda's card in the mail just today....and I just love it. 

It's a soft and soothing leafy watercolor in gradient teals.

It's hard to capture the depth and texture in a photo....and the white specks add a touch of whimsy. 

Well done Brenda...on the theme choice and your card. It looks good on the disc rings.

Tracie's card went to Brenda. I love the Sunset/Moonrise theme and two gradient color stories.  

Tracie used crumpled tissue paper to create texture and a punched sun and moon. Well done Tracie! 

Becky's gradient card went to Tracie.  I love all the textures and designs in the gradient vases...

and the green to yellow gradient birds are cute. These are fun Becky! I chose next week's theme of "recycle or repurpose."

Tissue Paper Experiment

Happy Labor Day Weekend! The summer sure has flown by! September and October are my favorite months so bring them on!

It's been a long time since I was a teacher getting ready to start school....but I still think about it every year at this time! Good luck to any of you who are beginning a new school year. Bless you!

Many of the Devil's Bit blooms are fully open...and the bees are loving them.

And there were enough of blooms for the bees...so I brought one inside for the window sill. I'm wondering if the two smaller buds will be forced open inside.

 

I enjoy using tissue paper in collage....and I've discovered a way that I can sun print on art tissue....with a little special handling.

I coated the tissue on a slick waterproof service (I'm using an old metal pool sign)....and left it there to dry completely without touching it.  

The solution always starts out yellow....and on most papers dries to a light green....but the tissue dried to a darker dusty gray green. Once it was dry I could handle it easily.

I used the same technique I always do...and forgot to take photos. I arranged my plants on the tissue...and covered it with glass and placed it in the sun while it was still on the pool sign. It was hard to tell when it was fully processed...as the color was different than my usual papers. 

I brought it in after about 8 to 10 minutes...set it in the sink with it still on the sign.  That's the important part....because you CANNOT pick it up once it's wet...I tried.  It just falls apart. 

I carefully ran water over it until I felt the chemicals were washed out. It kind of floats around on the sign....sometimes I had to hold it in place so it wouldn't slide off. 

Then I mixed a little peroxide and water solution to pour over it to speed up the processing and rinsed it again. It's fun watching immediately turn blue. I let it drip in the sink for a few minutes...and carefully took it outside still on the sign. Once it was completely dry...it was study and ready to handle and use.  

I'm going to experiment with a little collage this evening or tomorrow...I'm curious how it will look over other papers.

I know book pages and print will show through the white parts very easily....but I'm curious how much it will show through the blue and how other colors underneath will work. Stay tuned.

Precious Paper Cuts

Paul spied this interesting wabi-sabi leaf this morning.....it was so full of texture!  I especially love that little hole...and those black speckles!

I think my looking skills have rubbed off on him. But he found me....so maybe he already had good-looking skills. Pun intended.

I was supposed to be picking up my studio yesterday...but I kept getting distracted by bright shiny objects and finding things to play with.

I came across some intricate paper cuts that Paul's sister Liz purchased when she lived and taught in China.  She bought several....and recently she shared a few with me. The paper is like tissue...and I can't even imagine how the artist made these fine cuts. I'm in awe!

I have a couple in frames...but when I came across the rest in my stash I wondered if I could sun print them. Luckily I had some pre-treated dry papers ready to go. I wouldn't want these to come in any contact with anything wet. My prepared paper was a little small....but big enough to let me know if it was going to work.

I sandwiched it between two pieces of glass so it would stay nice and flat and set it in the sun for about 6 to 8 minutes.

Here it is fully processed and ready to rinse.

And here is is after....it worked perfectly!

It seems like a wonderful way to honor...preserve...and share these very fragile paper cuts. Next time I talk to Liz...I'm going to get a little more information about what she knows about the artist. I prepared more paper last evening so it would be dry for today....and spent the sunny morning printing.

I tried the same paper cut with a couple of leaves as an overlay. I think I like the original better....it doesn't need a thing. 

  

Here's the rest of my printing session. Believe it or not....I'm still on my first bottles of solution. The four little vases at the bottom are also some of the precious paper cuts.

I also made more prints with my baby ferns...and this time with a very subtle second layer.

This was an underprocessed fern print that I didn't like. I coated the paper again and over printed with a wabi-sabi leaf. I love the deep dark blue I can get when I double print. 

Here's a close up of one of the small paper cuts. Isn't it precious! 

Gradient Week

It's gradient week for our Tiny Pages Art Exchange!

At least 20 years ago I purchased a set of "Color-aid" cards. At the time I didn't know much about them....other than I thought I needed them in my stash. 

I've always been drawn to the full spectrum of color...and the depth of color on these cards is amazing. They were invented by Joseph Albers to be used a tool to teach color theory. At the time I wasn't a "student" of art...but I was smitten.

 

They've been sitting in a box for all these years...and curled a bit. They were pretty expensive....so I think they kind of intimidated me. The paper is thick and the finish is matt...so not a clear choice for collage.

I never had the nerve to cut into them....until now. It was way past time!

I chose papers from aqua to teal for my "gradient" card that I sent to Becky....and she just got it today.

I painted the very top of the card with acrylic paint to keep the mushroom holes free...then layered the gradient papers into a landscape of sorts.

The papers are a bit thick..so I wasn't sure how it would work to layer them...but it was fine. I glued one layer at a time and weighted it down before I added the next layer. In the end it didn't feel as bulky as I feared.

For the back...I painted some copy paper with pinky rose acrylic in a gradient swatch...then cut out the daisies. In hindsight...I wished I had painted the background in more of a gradient.

And of course....there's a little gold bling....I just can't help myself. I'll share the others as they get to their new owners...and I have photos. 

Checking on Bessie

Paul and I walked a morning route that took us by Bessie...the hackmatack tree we've been watching. I was a little sad someone had pruned it....but there were still plenty of branches to explore. 

It seems to be turning a silvery green color as it rounds the corner of summer.

It was November 18th last year that we discovered this tree....so pretty soon we'll have watched it for a full year and sometime in the next few months it will turn yellow and lose all of its needles. 

We had some rain...and this morning was quite foggy so everything was covered in beautiful little water droplets. And I was excited to see that the tiny pinecones are starting to emerge....I'll be keeping an eye on them.

Oh how I love the all the circles of life. 

Yesterday's sweet little heart print turned into a sweet little card today.

I auditioned several bits and pieces of other prints to go along with it...but in the end it was better on its own.

Little Sprout

Look what I found!  

I couldn't believe this little leaf sprout was topped off with a heart. It stole my heart and this print is going to make an adorable little card.

I'm guessing Mother Nature was pretty tickled wih it too.

I've have been playing  around with my stripes. At first I was laying out several columns...but that was too confusing and too many decisions at one time. So I'm just going to work on one column at a time until I get a scheme and arrangement I like. Seeing it in a photo helps because I can crop an image and get an idea how it will look with clean edges. 

This is NOT in final form...I'm just getting started...it's going to take some time. 

 

See what I mean! This is how I started....and it was way too much going on. I'm well aware that there are so many things wrong with this layout.

But it did tell me that I want vertical stripes and I can see that the lights and neutrals...as well as varied widths and value are all very important. 

Once I get the first column good enough...that will inform the second column so it may get easier. For now I'm not fusing anything. I can tack the strips lightly with the tip of my iron if that helps keep things in place.

Stories of My Life

I have dozens of projects in progress that I could have worked on today...and I did tend to a few of them. But I also chose to start something new.

I tried to snap off this mountain ash sprout in the woods for printing and I couldn't break the stem....so I pulled it up by the roots.  

And much to my delight...the root is more interesting than the leaves! And that gave me an idea.

Back in 2018 and 2019 I was wrapping all kinds of things in sock yarn. I wrapped sticks...and wheat...and grapevine. If the sock yarn was variegated....it created its own stripes. And you know how I love stripes.

I think my favorite are these curly sticks. The yarn was variegated...but had a long repeat between colors so each stick is a different solid color.

  

They are still in my living room...in a striped vase or course. 

So when I found this fabulous tiny tree with the root attached the first thing I thought...I should wrap it in sock yarn! 

So I parked myself on the patio for a little while this afternoon and got started. It's a little hard on my hands....so I'll have to do it in short little bursts.  

It's kind of a silly project....but being easily distracted by silly new projects is one of the stories of my life.

It's going to get tricky up around the actual roots and I certainly won't go to very ends.  I'll just cover the chunky parts. 

Time will tell if it will be worth it or not...but that's another story of my life!  

Sometimes you just have start something new.....

even if you're not sure how the story will end.