Marsbarn Designs...

Monthly art, would it be so difficult?

One of my goals for this school year is to have a monthly art day.  Production isn't so much my goal, but I want designated time to explore and play with different mediums, and I want to share this with friends.

This is another of the collages I made on Labor Day.

This collage was made by my sister, the Lovely O.

I really liked the play on tones and the cut out circle she created in the chocolate packaging.

For the first time ever, my sister, the Artful I, joined us in our art making.  This is one of her pieces. She brought her collection of watch parts (see the metal circle in the upper left hand corner?).  It was a real treat to have her here with us.

Little e spent hours creating with us.  She as focused, and remarkably non-wiggly.  She created several paper collages as well as a couple of paintings.

Whenever I see Little e paint, I think "This is something I should encourage more."

This is one of a series of Elf cards Sweet G made. I love the texture of the wings.

More of our collages can be seen here.

End of Summer Collages

To mark the end of Summer Vacation,  we had an all day art event.  Fueled by homemade cinnamon rolls, and inspired by the presence of Auntie I and Auntie O we collaged the day away!  The whole event was Sweetheart G's idea.

Here are three of my finished collages:

These collages are all postcard sized, and are backed by watercolor paper.

 

Most of the elements are sewn on, but I also used my sticker machine and some acrylic medium.

 

What a fabulous way to spend the last day before school!

Thanks to Sweetheart G, little e, Auntie I, and Auntie O!

Giving and more Valentine daring

Before I get into the frivolity of Valentine's Day, I wanted to mention the efforts by Serendipity to raise money for the Australian Red Cross on behalf of the Victorian Bush Fires.  Giving to the Australian Red Cross is easy (it took me under two minutes) and entering the drawings at Serendipity just adds to the feeling of goodwill!

Okay.

Valentine's Day.

I think it is fairly obvious to anyone who has seen my craft area, been in my house, or passed within a mile of me on the street... I collect things. Bits. Bobs. Shiny, dull, sharp. I hoard. I gather.  And occasionally, I try to use.  I have reams of paper remains I have collected to use in collage.  Books, calendars, letters, photos, adverts, chopstick wrappers.. But there is this... problem I encounter when it comes to cutting into my treasures.  I hesitate, I wait, I gather but never use.

Enter the 2008 Nikki McClure calendar.  Now, I bought this calendar last year with the specific plan to enjoy and then destroy reuse it, and to my surprise that is exactly what I have done.  In a fit of bravado I applied my scissors to not just the calendar but to one of the maps given to me last year.  A lovely European tour map from the late 60s.  Madness, I tell you! Madness.

And this is the Valentine I came up with. 

Happy Day After Valentine's everyone!

Ghosts

My day: Valentines delivered, flowers remembered (after a week of procrastination), strawberries to be picked up, two class parties to go, three more valentines to make, some kitchen cleaning while listening to Taylor Mali (thanks Bunny and Claude!) then feeling vaguely underachieving (which isn't necessarily bad), being glad that my sore throat is feeling better but really hating that metallic taste at the back of my throat which climbs up my sinuses making the whole world seem faintly vile. 

It is not a bad day.  It is just a day with reservations; a day in transition between work-a-day and weekend.  There are all of these ghosts around me... ideas unfulfilled, thoughts lost and found, projects untouched, people missed.. it is one of the rarest of days where I truly miss having a dog to pull my day forward.

(The valentine garland reads "Even miles apart our love is with you".)

Play with words collage

This is the last of the collages I made with the Wonderous O. It is my entry in Cloth Paper Scissors "Play On Words" challenge. 

 

I included a three dimensional element with these doors that open onto the "other side", and of course I had to use some sushi grass.  (After all, I now have more than 200 pieces after my shopping adventures with Chrysanthemum in November!)  

I'm happy with how it came out.  I don't normally associate much "content" in my collages, preferring to play with color over message, so this was a bit of a stretch for me.  I don't know that anyone not familiar with my life will "get" the imagery, but it talks to me, so I guess that's all that matters.  

a collage diet lacking in fiber, but heavy on color

This collage is an early attempt at a valentine.  I was thinking about sending this into Fiberart's Valentine contest.. until I actually read the submission guidelines, and realized I hadn't used any Fiber in the card.  Ya.. reading comprehension was lacking yesterday.  I suppose I could try again with.. um..fiber. (Geesh! Some days I don't know where my brain is.)

So then I began to play with color.  This collage started with scrap of mum fabric toward the top of the card.  Then I pulled out the stamp, and went from there.  The bronzy colored mum paper on the sides at the top and bottom has a lovely coppery sheen in person.

I worked on all three of these color based collages a the same time.  As I go through my bits of fabric, photos, and paper ephemera I pull out different color bases and make piles.  This was my red/orange pile.  I threw in the cookie fortune as a reminder to slow down (you know those gnomes are headed for an  upset, right?)  I keep wanting to work more with words, but get intimidated by them.

This last collage returns me to my struggle with simplicity.  I feel a compulsive need to fill all the spaces with stuff, but occasionally I try to tone it down.  I was very happy with this final outcome.  The punch card in the lower left corner makes me particularly happy.  The tiny word "conductor" under the postage stamp featuring music?  It refers to a train conductor, not a musical one.  The paper is from a pad of vintage railroad forms.   

Edited to add: Typepad is being a pain in the butt tonight. I've had trouble with my images loading correctly, so bear with the multiple updates and internal cursing.

A return to collage

Next week the Kindergarten art classes start again, so this week I've been catching up on some sewing for my Etsy site and putting together some (brace yourself, it's been a while) collages.   

The marvelous Auntie O came over to spend the day, and we covered the dining room table in bits of detritus interesting papers, fabrics, and.. well.. stuff.  I finished my collages too late to take any fit photos, but here is a teaser.  Hopefully (no laughing from the Northwestern peanut gallery) we'll have a bit of sun tomorrow, and I'll be able to take some good photos.  

 (For the record, we did have about an hour of sun today in 5 minute bursts, you know, between the downpours.)

Thoughts taking shape

I was reading the latest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors, and one of the contributers recommended Golden Gel Medium as an adhesive for multimedia collage. It made me think of the Auction Quilt I made last year with Sweetheart G's class. I've been asked to make another art quilt like that for a pediatrician's exam room, but it would need to be able to be cleaned regularly. Do you see where this is leading? If I could make a sealed mixed media collage instead of an art quilt, it could be easily surfaced cleaned. So, I've started experimenting with fabric, gel medium, and canvas. This is my first try. I'm not very happy with it. It is flat. It needs more layers. But, I did learn alot.

This is my second try. Lots of layers, maybe too many. Sure the first collage is closer to the Auction Quilt, but this collage I like better. Obviously I need more practice. Luckily I bought lots of cheap little canvases yesterday! Any thoughts?

salvaging selvage

So... I have this pile (of filled quart sized ziplock bags) of fabric scraps that I just can't toss. The dice bags leave odd sized triangles in their wakes, and then there is all that selvage.. what to do with it all? Throwing it in the garbage just seems so.... wasteful? wrong? cruel? And then the piles grow, and topple, and get placed in a bag, which is put in a box, and then what do I do with it? Well, apparently, I do this with it.

These collages are all sewn, and each measures 4 x 6".

blowing the dust off of the "Collage" category

The Fan Quilt top is done. (Done, done, done!), and I need to go shopping for a backing fabric. I have a stack of dice bags I am working on, but I felt like I needed a bit of No Rules play time. All straight line sewing, makes for a very dull h., dontcha know?It has been a very long time since I've done any collage. So it took me a while to get going, and then I couldn't stop.. This first collage features on of the many butterfly photos we took on our road trip. I had a lot of fun matching up that wrapping paper butterfly with the real thing. And of course... sushi grass!
The second collage is a small one, about 3x4" (all the others are 4x6"). I have a lot of sushi grass, so I'm having a lot of fun with it. The "Play" tag and the color test strip are both from the same fabric's salvage. This is a fabric that I used a lot of in the Fan Quilt.
I love the little boys in the third collage. I have almost used up that fabric, all I have left are random bits. I liked the way the stamp tied in the colors of the boys, and how the cancellation mark that says "happy holidays" showed up so clearly.
This last collage in another road trip photo and shows Nay Nay as a woodland fairy. I used a printable overhead projector sheet, printed with a photo of Japanese maple leaves, to make the transparent leaves on the right hand side. Again, I had fun matching up the a stamp with similar wings to my wrapping paper wings.
I may be a bit wonky today from staying up so late last night, but I had a lot of fun.. I may do another round of collages before I get back to project sewing... maybe.