Sunday, October 25, 2009

Moving History

Moving History Journal--Cover Page. I like manipulating photos in PS Elements, so I used an altered personal photo here.

The lettering was done with oil based paint markers. Love them. Fairly Expensive, but that's the only downside I've found so far.



The background is done with Loew-Cornell chalk pastels. These are soft pastels suitable for students. I found the 48 color package at Goodwill on half-price day and got them for a dollar. They had never been used. It was my first experience with chalk pastels, so I had to do some research on how to use them. They are a breeze to lay down and blend, but the pages need a fixative to keep the chalk from smearing and transferring all over everything.



That day I also picked up a brand new set of Louvre oil pastels for a dollar. They too were unused. These are also student grade, mid-price oil pastels. Then, I found a tin box of Prismacolor colored pencils, just slightly used, for another dollar. I think an art student must have given up before even starting and gave the stash away. Anyway, this gives me the opportunity to try out some new mediums without the normal supply cost.

This page is done with acrylic craft paint over a gesso base. I found an old work note I had written 21 years ago, so I used it on the page. The note was full of past participles, so I just used that as the page highlight.

More acrylic over gesso. The figure is something I used as a mask on another page. This was the back side, which had paint smears on it. I liked the the way it looked so I used it here. The darker outline figure to the right is bleed-through from the following page. This accident was what started the idea for this page.

I'm really enjoying visual journaling because I need to break down my need for perfection. The idea of visual journaling is to not seek perfection but to be as messy and free and unartistic as you like. There really are no rules, just do what you want to do to express an emotion or idea. It's very cathartic.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Charming Obsession



Because of my seeming allergy to any type of jewelry, I haven't been interested in learning much about jewelry making techniques. But, when a Yahoo group I belong to proposed a charm collaborative, I signed up, thinking it might be fun. I tried out several ideas I had, but quickly discarded them as not feasible to make in the time I had. Finally, I settled on what I was going to do, and started on the project. It's a very simple idea, but kinda cute. I'll show the finished project after the trade.


Since I had to wait 36 hours for the resin application used in the project to completely cure, I started making charms with found objects I had in a junk box. Once I started, I couldn't stop until I had about 18 charms! I put them in little bags and will use them in future exchanges if possible.






So far, this is the only Halloween item I've done to date. The "fashion plate" in the ATC is from a 1957 catalog. She's carrying a tiny pumpkin charm as a purse.