A tribute to Hundertwasser.

I've just spent 5 wonderful days in Vienna touring art museums, crammed full with fabulous inspiration. It made my head spin with all the ideas and I couldn't wait to get my journal out.

 

One of the exhibitions we visited was by an artist called Friedensreich Hundertwasser who's paintings were so full of vibrant colour and pattern, I spent ages studying them. This is my tribute to his work.

 

I started with a basic drawing in the Hundertwasser style using my Sakura Micron pen. 

Next was the fun bit adding the colour in and lots of it. I used Neo Color crayons and had fun colouring in like a child.

I activated the colour with water. The colour becomes more intense and vibrant once you add the water.

Hundertwassers colour is anything but flat so I defined all my edges and lines with more colour and added some doodles on the page. It helps to have a bit of scribble paper to hand in case your pen comes across a patch of colour which is still waxy. 

The phrase reads "The horizontal belongs to nature, the vertical belongs to man" which is one of Hundertwassers quotes.

I added some silver leaf as Hundertwasser would do.

I hope you liked my colourful post. Maybe you can find some inspiration in the work of a great artist.

See you soon

Jaine x

challenge reminders...

You have this weekend to get your entries ready for the first " a sprinkle of colour" challenge. 

 Entries need to be in by midnight Tuesday - the 12th. 

It's also the halfway point for the Craft Stamper Take It, Make It challenge which we are sponsoring. 

Check out the halfway point inspiration here. 

The worst construction ever...

Hello!

Do you remember my last post? I made these skulls at the old cardboard piece. I didn't know what to do with them...I made ( tried to do ;)) a box.

More walls...

It's not the best construction ever but here we go...

I used:
- Andy Skinner mask
- black gesso
- white gesso
- Dylusions Ink Sprays
- Tattered Angels Glimmer Glaze
- Ranger Archival Ink
- Stampotique stamps
- Sakura Gelly Roll Pen

Magda x

Bookmaking 3- The Piano Hinge!

Hello!
Not much waffle from me today, just loads of pictures!
If you've tried simple bookmaking, how about trying something a little more advanced? Not difficult though, just a bit fiddly! A book with a piano hinge...

Now, I haven't done anything pretty with the pages at all.....this is ALL about the putting together! This book can be left to be decorated once its finished, or you could embellish the pages before you put it together. Up to you!
My finished book is a 4" x 4" size, but any size can be created using the exact same technique. Any number of pages can be created, as long as its an even number. You'll see why later!
So, I measured eight pieces of card, 8" by 4", then coloured them on both sides using spray inks...

The pages need to be scored next. You can't really see what I did on the real thing, so I drew you a picture....

Fold the page on its central score line (i.e in half!), and mark off in 1/2" segments...

Cut along these lines until you reach the adjacent scored line...

Next is the first fiddly bit. Take your page, and press down on each alternate 'tab'. This way, you will create a series of valley and mountain folds. (Valleys have a deep V shape, mountains a raised ^ shape)...

Once you fold the page down the central line, it will look like this....

Do all 8 pages. When put together, they all look like this...

As you can see, all the tabs are in perfect alignment. We DON'T want them in this arrangement, however. We need an alternate tab, space, type affair, so take each second page and turn it around....

Can you see the difference?!
Now, take two pages at a time and join them together. Gently ease a bamboo skewer through each tab. You will be going first through a tab on one page, the next tab will be from the other page etc etc ...

In this pic, the darker orange is one page, the paler orange the second page....this angle may help...

Do this with each pair of pages. Eight pages mean four pairs....

(this is why you need an even number of pages!)
So, you now have 4 separate sets of pages. These need to be joined together. Take some cord, and thread it in and out of the skewers. I like to use a big bulldog clip to hold everything together whilst I do this..

Go in and out of the skewers a few times, then tie off. Do this with the other side as well....

Now you can carefully trim the skewers, and add a little glue so they stay put!

That is hot glue, painted black! It looks uglier than I thought it would, with hindsight I would use superglue around the skewers where the cord finishes!
The skewers can be painted or decorated before you use them. The skewers will be on display when you open the book on every other page......

(the next page looks like this once open....)

So.....yes it's a bit fiddly, but its a nice sense of achievement once done! Have a go and let me know how you get on!

Love Trish xx

Halloween skulls

Hello!

Few more days and children will knock to our doors screaming 'treat or trick', I hate this! But I like carving pumpkins and eating 'halloween limited edition' sweets hiding in a dark room pretending I'm not at home ;)))

I found Andy Skinner skull mask in my drawer which is perfect for this week projects. I made a page on a piece of cardboard. I will use it later for an art journal cover or for something else.

I put a layer of white gesso on the cardboard. Than I used black gesso for the skull mask. When gesso was dry I put a thin layer of gel medium where the skulls are to protect them from other mediums. I waited few minutes and used three different colour of Dylusion Ink Sprays. I like to use red, pink and turquoise which are always blend and I have few more colours on my project. I also used Ph Dr Martin's Bombay Indian Ink - orange and Tattered Angles Glimmer Glaze.

Once again I used gel medium but this time with Dylusions stencil. When each layer was dry I stamped some Stampotique stamps using Ranger Archival Ink. For last touches I used Posca White Paint Pen and white acrylic paint.

Magda x

Add some colour

There are times when we all feel down and need a pick-me-up and this page is dedicated to all the friends who do just that and paint the colour back in to an otherwise dark and murky world.

My background is simply sprayed with Dylusions ink sprays turquoise and fresh lime through two different Dylusions stencils, Letter Jumble and checkered dots. I added lots of circles over the top using lots of different mediums, some splats, die cuts and gesso. I stamped and coloured Doolally Dorris to layer her onto the background and I was finished.

See you soon

Jaine x

Bookmaking part two - Cover story!

Hello!
Part two of my short bookmaking series...and it's all about the cover!
Remember last week when I showed you a book with just a few pages? This week we're moving on to a book with many more pages: how we close it, and how to incorporate a cover. Here is my finished book...

As with last weeks project, this is more about the 'how to make a book' process than what my actual book looks like, I'm sure you would spend waaaay more time on the pages than I have!
I started off in the same manner as my last book. I created a masterboard, chopped it up and added detail to each page before sewing to a black background....

This book has six spreads, so 12 panels needed. I decided to add the detail just to the right hand pages, the pages that face you when you open the book. So, six stamped, printed, sewed and glued panels as you can see above! Next, create the hinges as we did last time, and stick them together...

As you can see, this is going to need something to keep it closed when finished!
The next step is slightly different to last time. As we will be adding covers, the first panel we stick down will be the INSIDE left hand page. Like this....

(its a bit boring as its the left hand side!) This is the inside of the front cover. Carry on sticking the page panels in just as we did last time....

The final page you stick down will be the INSIDE of the back cover. If you look at the book from the other side at this point, it looks like this....

 Next choose something to use as a closure. I've chosen ribbon and eyelash yarn!

Stick the closure ribbons etc down using double sided tape. Doesn't matter if it's messy as it will be covered!

Make sure you leave enough hanging loose, or you won't be able to tie it together!
Now, covers. A little bit mathematical, I'm afraid! Close the book tightly, and measure how 'deep' your spine is, or to put it another way, how thick is your book?! Mine was just about 2cm thick, but this will vary depending on how many pages etc you have. The front and back are the size of one page panel, in this case 9cm by 9cm. So, the total length of card needed to cover everything  is 9cm (front) plus 2cm (spine) plus 9cm (back). Are you with me?
I cut a strip of card 20cm by 9cm, then scored it to give the 2cm wide spine shape. You can see what I mean by looking at the next pic....

The covers can then by stuck down, over the top of your ribbons. I always leave a 'glue free' 1cm or so next to the spine part, just to give a little flexibility. In the above pic, you can see the card to glued tightly up until that point!
Once you've done one side, flip over and stick the other cover too...

You can see from the top view how leaving that glue free section keeps the covers and spine in shape!
All that remains now is to add on a decorated panel to the front...

And tie the ribbons to keep it all together...

Now.... I have a question! Have you noticed my colour scheme??!! Yep, it's the colours of our very first colour challenge! Still plenty of time to enter, have a look here for all the details....
Hope that tutorial made sense, you know where I am if you have any questions!!
Next week, another fun way to make a book.....piano hinges!
Trish xxxxxxx