ruthspitzer

Backgrounds and Texture

“Creating fabulous backgrounds for your altered books or mixed media applications with lots of depth and texture. An adventure in color for altered books.”  This class was created out of the need to use all the supplies and paper we’ve bought and never used. We’ll be taught how to maximize art supplies and your art making skills to create more with less.

Over the 3 days I attended all 3 of Bernie Berlin’s classe where we learnt a series of techniques, which I incorporated into an altered book. The overall theme was to create various backgrounds for altered books or mixed media or altered art, concentrating on creating depth and texture.
One of our classes titled ‘Layers’ started us of with creating just that … texture, texture, texture, utiliting old papers and supplies that you’ve never used or would usually throw away; such as old newspapers, magazines, patterned scrapbook paper etc.

The 'animal' piece below turned into my front cover and whilst you can’t see any of the underlying layers, there are torn bits of magazine print with several layers of acrylic paint, texture paste, animal images, acrylic glaze, embossing powder – all of the above creating texture and depth. This one is still a work in progress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 'eye' piece below, another ‘Layers’ piece. Here I pasted several pages together to make it stronger and tore an opening in the middle, pasted the eye image behind and adhered those pages together. Then came the layering. Thorougly enjoyable this process. Which initially I must add looks absolutely disgusting and disorganised and all wrong, but I kept thinking it’s all gonna be covered and purely there to create underlying texture, which thankfully in the end did. Not too shabby I might add …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one below didn’t quite turn out as initially planned, but I’m still happy with my dark and broody piece. The purpose again was to create layers as the pieces above and finish it off by covering the entire image with guaze, my initialy intention was to cover my front cover with the gauze, but in the end I just felt it would be an injustice to conceal my animals, so instead used the gauze on this page.

 

 

 

 

Another technique called ‘Profound Secrets of the Burnt & Bound’ was a series of many, many, many layers of paper, stamping, paint, ink, glaze, alcohol inks, etc. Without giving away Bernie’s secrets and going into too much detail, again the background on my two focal images on my orange page was created with a series of building up layers with various mediums, paper and stamps . Once done, rope attached, coloured and the image adhered over the rope sitting about 1.5 cm above the background paper, this is an incredible sample of amazing dimension.  I’ve never used so much gel medium in one go.

 

 

 

 

Close ups of the 2 dimension pieces adhered to the double page above.

 

 

 

Some additional pieces created over the weekend.  The bird image insert, I can't take credit for. This is the wonderful artwork created by DJ Pettitt, which I purchased at the retreat. And this was the inspiration for my orange tones.

Creative Soul Retreat 2009

How time flies.  It’s been a week already since the retreat where we indulged four days of sublime art, outstanding food, good friendships and the most tranquil surroundings in Victoria at Amberley, located 20kms from Melbourne CBD. This incredible venue is surrounded by acres of bushland, gorgeous gardens and overlooking the Yarra River.

The original residence of Amberley was constructed to the express requirements and exact conditions dictated by the owner, Mr .W. Darch during 1929 - 1930. At the time he was the General Manager of Shell Australia which included Shell’s operations in NZ.

After Mr and Mrs Darch returned to England in 1934 the house was purchased by a second family, and the area underneath the lounge excavated and incorporated a dark room, table tennis and dancing area, bar, bedroom and bathroom for his elder son. At this time there was also an orchard, vegetable garden and poultry house. Also added were stables for the children’s ponies.

In 1955 the house was purchased by the Christian Brothers to be used as a Novitiate for their Victorian and Tasmanian novices. The Christian Brothers added a chapel, sleeping quarters, along with a library, and joined these to the original building following its general character and lines as far as possible. In 2004 it was again sold and renovated and is now a conference and spiritual retreat centre. And so we were the lucky recipients to experience the suburb peace and tranquillity of Amberley. A perfect setting to encourage creativity and inspiration.

The patio leading out from the dining hall overlooking the river and a stunning array of bushland. A perfect setting for our evening socialising, nibbles and champagne.

Pictured L-R: Robyn, Margaret, Kirsty, Christine, Marina.

My personal experience was one of immense gratification and pure pleasure. Catching up with old friends and meeting new ones.  No time for sleep and the tutors, selected by our host and organizer, Bevlea Ross were incredible; Bernie Berlin, DJ Pettitt and Stephanie Lee.  The knowledge gained was invaluable.

Some photos of Amberley.

 

Book Challenge

My very last Book Challenge page for the retreat complete. The theme for this month ‘Words.  The first thought that came to mind was the poem embedded on my brother’s gravestone.

A perfect example of how words can bring comfort and acceptance to everything life throws your way.  The poem is titled ‘All is Well’. Unfortunately it’s not too clear to read on the scan, so I’ve included it below.

 "Death is nothing at all,
I have only slipped into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by my old familiar name,
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used
Put no difference in your tone,
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was,
Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow in it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was, there is unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near,
Just around the corner.
All is well."

Little Houses

A little project leading up to the Creative Soul Retreat in March was to make 50 odd little houses (above) for each of the participants who chose to play along. Instead of boring myself to death, I chose to make a few varieties. 

And not to forget the additional 3 little houses for the tutors, Bernie Berlin, Stephanie Lee and DJ Pettitt, who I’m hoping will overload me with creative genius, well Bernie anyway as I’m doing all three of her classes. Pity the retreat wasn’t longer to accommodate you doing all three classes with each tutor.

Book Challenge

You’ll notice my last post with images of my Book Challenge for the Creative Soul Retreat 2009 was in October last year. To say I’m behind is an understatement. Where the time goes I can’t really say. 

 

Nevertheless with the retreat looming literally around the corner, can’t wait !!! Our house move over and my craft room almost unpacked, my goal is to set aside time to complete my houses and book challenge with my limited supplies as half of them are still tucked away in boxes somewhere.

 

This month’s Book Challenge theme is ‘All Things French’ or maybe it was ‘Paris’. Not really my favourite theme, but I do what I can. Now on to the next one and counting.

Journal Collage cover

March 2009

My much deserved time out, a Creative Soul Retreat in Melbourne organised by Bevlea Ross. Money paid up, supplies purchased and ready to go, my flight booked and this time I decided to spoil myself and go Business Class. Whoo Hooo. Gotta love those frequent flyer points.

Although the only and most important reason for booking Business Class being the simple fact of a luggage allowance of 30kg, and I needed every kilogram if my art supplies are any indication to go by. A weakness we're all prone to. Always packing far more than we need. But from past experience, I’d rather take it all, than end up wanting to apply a technique, use a particular medium, needing that one unique embellishment only to realise that I haven’t packed it. Hence the need for all the baggage allowance I can grab.

In preparation for the retreat, a few of the NSW delegates got together  on 7 Feb for a ‘meet and greet’ and to create art, of course.  Leading up to our meeting, we participated  in a project – to create an art journal in which we’d store our fabulous creations during the retreat.  In summary, we had to each make a front and back cover in bookboard.

My contribution: The front cover (left), starting out as a blank canvas, always scary, even after adding in my tissue paper mould. And slow progressed into yet another green enaamble. What can I say, I love green. Or maybe it’s my comfort zone – I’m hoping this retreat might  help me with bolder collours or at least a variety of colours.

Left: the inside of the front cover. The main objective of this one was collage using papers as seen in the first image, but as usual it didn’t quite turn out like that. This one is far from finished. Only a small amount of the collage patterned paper is still visible through all the layers of paint (2nd image). But I guess with art, there is never a right or wrong way and so it evolves as my mood takes me. This one definitely a work in progress. I aim to try and have the front cover finished by the time I leave for the retreat on Friday 13 March 09. The back covers, well I’ll get to those eventually.

Nicho

This month I was approached by Sarah from Inkurable Stampers to participate in a Nichos Challenge in celebration of their new sponsor coming on board, Paper Forest Designs. As part of the challenge, 5 artists were asked to decorate a Nicho in the theme of ‘Seriously Spooky’, in keeping with Halloween season. This challenge was a few firsts for me. A first time attempt at tin and certainly a first time Nichos decorator. Prior to this, I’d never before heard the word Nichos and found some delight in researching them on the web. So what is a Nicho?, you might be wondering, as was I. They turned out to be little shrines. Beautiful and interesting little designs made from either wood or tin, all encompassing a niche and are commonly displayed in Mexican/South American homes.

The theme ‘spooky’ - not quite my thing, but it did get me thinking. I recall having great ambition on creating a real Halloween scene with blood dripping and cobwebs and a stabbing, but somehow couldn’t find the right ‘accessories’ to fit this tiny piece of wonder and hence opted for a dismal death/grave yard/creepy crawly scene instead.

My favourite part of this little gem was deciding what to put into my niche. I liked the tombstone and initially had my little skeleton hanging from a noose, but two issues arose here, too morbid, although not possible even if I wanted to, as his legs wouldn’t fit into the niche, they didn'tt bend once he was ‘suspended in air’, and so he was relegated to resting beside the grave.

Above is the raw Church Nico. To decorate, I first covered my raw tin with Lumiere ‘Pearl White’ acrylics, then using my fingers, added touches of ‘Emerald’ Metallic Rub On’s randomly across the surface to blend in the white. I sprayed Fixative over the top to seal in the Rub On’s, then added a layer of Goldens ‘Micaceous Iron Oxide’ to give it a rough metallic look.

For my arch, I stamped Michelle Ward’s ‘Building A Mystery’ architecture stamp from Green Pepper Press onto tissue paper and adhered to the tin with Liquitex. Bling and silver charms were glued to my two towers to add a little sparkle to my dreary grey church. Now my favourite part, the niche, I mounted an image of a tombstone to the inside and painted my little man white and neatly sat him in the corner.

For my door, I stamped an image of a gate onto transparency, cut out and adhered to the inside of the door to add a little mystery, trying to emulate a cemetery gate late at night. The only thing missing was a little mist and some real cobwebs … To finish off and add a little brightness to the outside of my church, I added a few more touches of ‘Silver’ Metallic Rub On’s

Surrounding Wonders of Nature

This year Bevlea Ross and Barb Thomas allowed me to host a Collab Book swap for Paperarts online Yahoo Group.  My first as host and an interesting experience, intriguing, frustrating, exciting and all those myriad of emotions that come along with hosting a rather large swap.

 

As I love green, I decided on a ‘Surrounding Wonders of Nature’ theme. Rules were to use greens and/or blues and have texture somewhere on the page. This time I decided to forego my usually ‘look’ of layers of paint and gloss.  Instead chose a simplified version of images instead using dimensional magic, gauze, sand texture gel and chipboard to create my texture. Each participant also had to make their own front and back covers, naturally adhering to the theme, green and/or blue and texture, texture, texture.

 

My cover page above I wanted to keep clean and simple and just used tissue paper to create my texture.   My inner page below created using images mostly, with sand texture gel and gloss.

 

All in all, this was a fantastic swap to be a party of.  The participants pages exceeded my expectations. 

I was blown away by the creativity, but most importantly the amount of work that went into each page to create the various techniques. You’ll notice some pages are quite ‘busy’, others are less so, but one aspect is consistent throughout; every woman put in a concerted effort to produce the specified requirements ‘using texture’. You can clearly see the time, labour and love exercised in creating their nature themes & ‘texture’.

 

Unfortunately a scanned image does not do even half the justice these pages deserve and you lose so much of the 3D and minute detail, so I hope those that belong to stamping groups or get together with fellow crafters, I’d encourage you to show off your book for others to see it ‘in the flesh’. It’s well worth the look.

 

Vintage Keys

This set up keys was made for a swap using the Collections Keys from Julie van Oosten.  I made one in a vintage theme (below front and back view) and started making a cream shade set as well.  Although at this stage they’re still sitting in their little box under the table until I have that rainy day to give them the attention they deserve. 

For now I’m happy to be ahead with this swap and they can go postal and I’m ready to move on to my next swap, a Collab Book in the theme ‘Book of Shadows’.

 

Book of Shadows

I was initially intrigued by the theme for this year’s annual collaborative book. It sounded so mysterious and gothic.  The vision that persisted in my mind was the hit television series ‘Charmed’; the 3 wickedly sexy witches, spells, book of shadows and suddenly I’m definitely enticed and thinking this could work out rather well. There must be a hundred ideas I could come up with.

 

My final 'work of art' above. I can smile about it now, but at the time I thought I'd never get this project started or finished. Not from lack of trying, just unable to come up with one riveting idea. But it did eventually start taking form in my mind, and once I got started, I thoroughly enjoyed putting it together and watch it evolve into something completely different to what I initially envisioned.

 

Six weeks before the project was due, slight panic had set in as I still hadn’t gotten my shit together and come up with a theme or a draft for this project. No image, no colour scheme, no spell ... For all the hours I'd spent thinking about it, researching the net and prowling the library aisles for anything on witchcraft, spells.  Nothing jumped out at me.   15 pages to complete – not drastic, but time consuming when you have to consider layers of paint, adhering images, layers of gloss spray, kindy glitz, texture paste and drying time in between each.  And considering the only time I could steal was at night during the week.

Over several weeks I’d been perusing the internet for an appropriate image. Again I had no idea what that image should represent, but I knew I would know the minute I laid eyes on it, and how right was I. I came across it by chance whilst doing my regular obsessive trip to online stores for those items I most definitely didn’t need, but had to have … with the intent of using it one day.

And there she was, portrayed against a mystical background of sparkling colour and suspended in mid air. Upon first sight I knew I’d found here. Woooo Hooo ‘Writers block’ over. Well not quite, but it was a start, now I just had to incorporate her into a complete page. But she was perfect and coincidentally actually looked like one of the Charmed Ones.

Days later, I had my image and nothing else, writers block returns. My problem was the colour. Although she was perfect, I’m just not a red kinda gal. I detest this colour, but refused to photoshop her into another as the red was so becoming and suited the ‘Book of Shadows’ theme. It represented in my mind dark and mysterious, death, wickedness. Somehow I'd make this work.

 And so I plodded along and eventually got it right. My WIP doesn’t look like much but I’m amazed at all the aspects it took to pull the whole piece together. What started out as a lovely piece of carefully chosen red paper with a beautiful and apt pattern, got completely buried in the final piece. If you squint enough, you can still see a slight resemblance of a background pattern peeking out from layers of paint.

Next were a few pieces of white square cardstock adhered to the corner to create some underlying texture (again barely visible in the end). Then various stages of several layers of paint that seemed to have taken over the page. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To start giving it character I added my lady in red, a Stamp Anon ‘tree’ stamp, an rchitecture stamp on tissue paper, more paint, then a big smear of texture paste on the bottom portion of the page, this I was hoping would create an illusion of my ‘witch’ floating. Didn’t quite work out that way, but still a nice touch I think. My pentagram in 'the background' was drawn with a circle template and the lines penciled in free hand, outlined with black kind glitz to give it a raised effect and again painted over with various shades of red to blend in with the overall page.

I’m not overly disappointed with my page, but always interesting to see what you initially conjure up in your mind, never really turns out to be anything remotely similar.