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Handmade book open to center page spread with inked background page of orange and green covered partially by printed autumn leaves.
Tree Specimen Book Update

Tree Specimen Book Update

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If you missed my other posts about this mixed media handmade book you can find post #1 here, post #2 and post #3. It’s a work in progress that I’m taking slowly, adding bits and pieces as I get inspired.

Handmade book open to one page with eco printed background and print of aspen branch with leaves and catkins.

As I was getting ready for my upcoming Level 4 Art and Design class which will involve printmaking, I was going through my stamps and also some previously printed papers that I haven’t used. I thought they would make a good addition to the book. This is a print of an aspen branch with leaves and catkins. I added the black outline with a felt pen. The aspen branch is printed on the back of an eco print.

Handmade book open to one page with brown painted background page and black print of weeping birch on multi colored paper.

I found a print of a weeping birch which I added to this painted brown paper page.

Handmade book showing one page with painted green background and glued cut out of aspen branch from multi colored paper.

While I was looking through my prints, I found a cutout of another aspen branch. I’m not sure what I made it for but thought it was perfect for this green painted page. I might add a few more details into the leaves with colored pencil. I’m not sure yet.

Handmade book open to center page spread with inked background page of orange and green.

The back of the green painted paper above, was white. I added some ink in orange, green and brown around the edges so the white wouldn’t show around the print I planned to add there. This is the center of the book.

Handmade book open to center page spread with inked background page of orange and green covered partially by printed autumn leaves.

Here is is with the print I added. I also finally bought some gesso and added it to all the white pages. Now I can do some painting or sketching on those pages with more ease.

Handmade book open to one page with brown wrinkled paper background and black and gree print of leaves hanging down.

Here’s the last print I added. I have more prints, but for now, I think I have added enough. This book has a lot of pages and I have a long way to go to get it completely filled. I think I will start sketching on the white pages next.

Collage of felted lotus pod created in online class by Glady Paulus.

And for those of you who think I haven’t done any felting for a long time, here’s a felted lotus pod that I created for an online class I took with Gladys Paulus. The class was marvelous and if you get a chance, it’s well worth taking.

Also, registration is open for Helene Dooley’s Hanging Felted Spiral online class. Click on the link and scroll down to the bottom of the page to register. This is a great class to learn more about complex three dimensional felting. You need to be an intermediate felt maker who has worked with resists and three dimensional felting. The class is online and can be accessed throughout the class period at any time. You don’t need to be online at any certain time. So join Helene to create wonderful felted spirals!

 

Felt and Stitched Moss on Driftwood with Close Up of Tea Bag Leaves
Adding Dried Leaves to Mossy Driftwood

Adding Dried Leaves to Mossy Driftwood

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I have been continuing to add more stitching and other bits to my mossy driftwood. You can see the progression from just felt to adding stitch in these two posts:

Moss on a Piece of Driftwood

Mossy Driftwood Continued

Driftwood covered with green felt and hand and machine stitched areas of moss.

The moss has been getting filled in by hand stitching and adding the machine stitched moss I created. I am trying to decide how much more hand stitched moss to add. I think it needs more “trailing” knots in the “bare” felted areas. But I also need to add lichen in places but I haven’t created the lichen yet. I’m thinking I will try Tyvek lichen.

Leaf shapes created out of tea bags and machine stitching.

The next step was to create dead, desiccated leaves. I found a tutorial for making them out of tea leaves on Youtube.  I had made them out of Lutradur before but not tea bags so I thought I would give it a go. I drink tea every morning so I started saving the old tea bags for this project. In the video, she used some type of stabilizer but I decided to try without one. I layered two flattened tea bags together and just started free motion machine stitching the veins. As you can see, you don’t want to stitch the outer edge of the leaf as it looks more natural without it. Then I cut them to shape with scissors.

Tea bag leaves, machine stitched veins and burned holes/edges.

The next step was to burn the edges and the holes. I found it was easier to get a more natural look when I was looking at photos of dead leaves. That way the leaves don’t all turn out the same. I used a wood burning tool for this operation (the video uses an incense stick). Obviously, you need to be careful when you’re burning things and it is pretty stinky too, you need ventilation. So I took mine to the stove and turned on the overhead fan to draw away the fumes. Plus the stove top is heat proof and won’t be burned or damaged.

Fiber art moss on piece of driftwood with three tea bag dead leaves.

So here’s the full piece with the leaves just placed on it. I will be stitching them down at some point to hold them in place.

Here’s a couple of close ups. You can click on the photos for a bigger view. I am happy with the progress and it is definitely looking very “forest floor”.

 

100 Day Collage Challenge

100 Day Collage Challenge

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My local art group doesn’t meet over the summer but we decided to do a collage challenge. The challenge was to create a collage every day using at most 3 pieces of paper and to only take 12 minutes to create the collage. I started the challenge on May 24th and reached my goal of 100 days on September 5th. The hardest issue I had with the challenge was the time restraint. Even with choosing my paper in advance, I had a hard time completing a collage in 12 minutes. So I ignored the time limit but tried to keep it under 30 minutes. No waffling around on how it went together.

Today, I’m showing you some of my favorite collages. There were some that turned out good and others, not so good. But it was a great way to work on color studies, composition and to do something creative to start out my day. If you would like to see all 100 collages, you can check them out on my Instagram account here:

Ruth Lane Instagram

In case you’re wondering, I have a huge plastic tub filled with paper that has been gelli printed, screen printed, hand painted, printed with block prints and whatever other techniques I have done in the past. So I have a wonderful source of papers to use for collage. If you are thinking of trying this challenge, you can use whatever paper sources you have. Many artists use magazine photos, open source online photos, wrapping papers, or whatever they have on hand.

So here are a few of my favorites. You can click on the photos to enlarge if you’d like to see them closer. I had a great time searching through my papers and creating a different collage every day.

Have you tried this type of daily challenge? We’d love to see your results and hear about the challenge. Let me know if you’d like to write a post about a challenge you have participated in.

And speaking of challenges, our third quarter challenge using botanicals as a theme is over at the end of this month. I think a few of my collages meet the guidelines! If you have something botanical to share for the challenge, please submit your photo here.

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