Flowers, The Golden Rule of William Morris, and an 8X8...

This is a photo of the first 8X8 for an art journal that will be filled with collaged, hand-made papers which will eventually be written-on, also.   And by hand-made, I don't mean just painted or decorated by hand;  I mean hand-constructed from scratch.

 

The image on the left is a scan of the paper after it was finished, but before it was collaged.  The color is correct in this photo, but you don't get a sense of it's true translucency.  On the right you'll see the same piece of paper photographed on top of a light box.  The color on the left is not accurate because it was back-lit by the light-box, but it gives the best idea of how translucent it is in real life.

I was inspired to try making paper out of gel mediums ages ago, but it took a visit to a post on Sija's blog, which she links to instructions on Sharon's blog, to get me going.  Click on both of their names to see some other gorgeous examples. 

This Thursday's challenge, it's all about using the golden rule established by William Morris, which essentially says to have nothing in your homes unless it is beautiful or useful.  Translated into creative terms, this means that we were to create something we feel is beautiful or useful.  Theme Thursday's prompt for the week is "flowers".  Mentally connecting these two, beauty with flowers, and adding the necessity of sketchbooks and journals which I create and use continually, I began a project that has been on my mind for a while now, which is to create a series of entirely hand-made and collaged 8X8s that would eventually be bound into a book.  So the flowers are here, and so is something that I feel is both beautiful and useful.

I began by opening out a plastic shopping bag, making sure it was clean and free from nicks or chips, and was entirely smooth, then I covered the plastic with a coat of matte gel medium.  Onto this, I layered some very thin and translucent tissue paper, coating it also with medium.  I very meticulously hand-cut the flowers from a paper napkin and a scrap of vintage wall paper (a William Morris-esque design), and adhered them with more acrylic medium.  After that, I played with gel pens, a flower stamp and some blue chalk ink, more layers of matte medium, a wash of titanium buff acrylic paint, more medium, and my favorite "dots" stamp from Stampotique with blue acrylic paint, more medium, another wash of titanium buff, etc.  When I felt it was finished, I peeled it away from the plastic and had a stand-alone piece of paper. 

The back of this paper will be quite plastic, because the foundation is a coat of matte gel medium, which is basically acrylic polymer, which is essentially, plastic.  But no one will ever touch the back of this paper because it is intended to be mounted onto other paper and bound in a book.  The top of the paper feels to the touch, something like a cross between a bark paper and thick tissue - - not sticky or plastic at all.  I was able to eliminate the plastic look and feel by making sure that each and every layer of acrylic medium and/or paint was thoroughly dried and burnished by vigorously rubbing with a scrunched-up paper towel, before going on to the next layer.  The burnishing eliminates the sticky, plastic feel that so often accompanies things done in acrylics.  The key is to keep your layers thin, dry each layer throughly before progressing, and burnish each dried layer before moving on to the next.

This may be much more information than you wanted, or needed, but you never have to read it all.  I truly believe in sharing techniques as much as possible.  Each of us will always remain unique, even when we copy.  And talent can't be shared, even if we'd like to give some as a gift or get more for ourselves.  But recipes and techniques are meant to be thrown into a pool to be used by all with our own, individual artistic voices.  If you decide to try this, please let me know so I can stop by your blogs and see what you've made.

Have a great week, Everyone!

Comments

[Kelly B]

beautiful!

[Sandy]

Awwwwwwwwww wow Barbara this is incredible. Love the design.

[Fiona Whitehead]

This is stunning - and I learned a lot from reading through your instructions - tfs! Truly inspiring - thanks for joining in with This Thursday.

[susie]

wonderful work Barbara, thank you for joining in with us!X

[Tracey Dean]

Barbara Im insired to go out and get some get some gel medium today. This is amazing can't wait to try this myself. Thats what I like about This Thursday, every time I check through the entries I find laods of great new inspiration. thanks for yours.
Thanks for taking part in this weeks challenge and I think you have created something really beautiful and taught me about something useful gel medium

[Lottie]

Awesome - I have been reading your other blogs too - one very talented lady!

[Alberta]

This turned out beautifully, Barbara. I love the combination of robin's egg blue with green. Thank you for describing how you made the paper. Recently I've begun to get that feeling I often have after I've used the same process over and over. I'm still having fun with my collages and have so many ideas for composition I've yet to try, but I've felt the need to try something more sophisticated than my old cut and paste method. This piece of work is a great inspiration to me.

Love,
Alberta

[zuzu]

lovely lovely .. (and very W Morris inspired lol).. and I agree regarding techniques and sharing.. I always like to tell all the details if anyone asks.. I am just too lazy to type them out on every post .. lol

[RubyMay]

Thank you so much for sharing. I found your article fascinating and can't wait to try something new. I love the artwork you have created x

[Kim]

This is fantastic. Really beautiful work. Kimx

[Silvia]

Such a fantastic 8x8. So many details.

[shaz]

wow, this is great, I wouldnt have the nerve to start something like this, well done

[Rosie]

You really are the real McCoy, Miz Hagerty! I think that is one of the most beautiful papers I've ever seen... and sharing is wonderful. I was fascinated. To me, it sounds a lot less messy than paper pulp, which doesn't really appeal to me, but your technique, I may just have to try! That will be a gorgeous album when you're done!

[Barbara]

so marvelous, gorgeous and so much fun

[Carole]

Lovely paper.

I've always been a fan of the Mission/Arts and Crafts look and your paper really captures that.

I haven't made paper from scratch in a very long time.

Yesterday I spent some time working on the bandana technique. Lots of fun and certainly addictive. lol

[Janny]

Looks beautiful! I am also happy if I see a tutorial;o) I used the fabric paper for my house (on my Blog). This technique you can also try on thin cotton so you can sew it.

[Jean Zoss]

very cool! you've inspired me to try this at home!!

[gillian]

An inspirational 8x8 Barbara, I'm intruiged by your handmade paper, thank you for sharing.