Mixed Media Artist

Just playing around with bubble wrap one day, I painted this simple piece. No, it doesn't really look like honeycomb until you crop it and use it in a piece that suggests that!  But for lack of a better name, honeycomb has stuck :-) I morphed the colors in Photoshop and cropped it severely to use in The Pedigree of Honey , which I showed you a few weeks ago.  So maybe you'll find it useful to have a piece like this in your pile of papers, ready to use for digital or physical collage. Acrylic paints: Burnt sienna Raw sienna Red oxide Phthalo blue Phthalo green 1. Using a wet in wet technique, I covered the entire watercolor paper with the first three colors listed above.  Then I scrunched up waxed paper and allowed the paints to dry with it on top. 2. I mixed Phthalo blue and Phthalo green, and applied it with bubble wrap. 3. Add a raw sienna glaze, and before it's completely dry, spray with water and alcohol. 4.  When the piece is dry, go b...

The June/July issue of Quilting Arts had an article in it by Julie Booth on using dish soap as a resist on cloth.  I've done that before, and it suddenly occurred to me that it might work very nicely on paper as well, so I set off to experiment. Materials & Tools Dish soap (I used Dawn, because that's what I had!) Watercolor paper Stamps Black acrylic India ink Colored acrylics , Inktense pencils , etc 1. This first card was stamped all over, simply using my finger.  After allowing it to dry, I painted it with 1/2 India ink (left) and the other half thinned black acrylic. 2. After rinsing off the soap, you can see that both sides faded, but the ink side faded the most. 3. Because it's pretty faded, softer colors showed up really nicely when diluted and brushed over the piece. 4. In the spirit of experimenting, I made another piece that used undiluted black acrylic.  I really don't like the look of this one nearly as much, but i...

Hand Printing Studio by Betsy Olmsted is due out in the beginning of May, but I've been able to look through a preview pdf, and does it ever look good!  I believe that if you are interested in learning to hand print your designs onto fabric, paper, and other materials, this book will give you a fantastic beginner's overview to the process. Betsy covers how to create designs that will print well, the surfaces, colorants, and tools that you will need, and all the details of doing block prints, screen prints, and transfer prints.  Included are 15 projects along with 12 original designs that you are welcome to use if you don't want to draw your own.  One unique topic Betsy covers that I don't see in a lot of other printing books is abstract designs.  You'll find some lovely ideas for these in the chapter on transfer prints.

We're not talking about hand-stamping here!  Letterpress Now is for the serious hobbyist or for someone who wants to start a business.   This volume starts with the types of presses available and has a fun chart to help you figure out which is right for you.  Do you have "space to fill and $$ to burn"?  Then you might want to get a full-sized cylinder press! Letterpress Now takes you through the rest of the basics, including more tools, paper, ink, typesetting, clean up, and maintenance.  Then if you still are undaunted, come the step-by-step projects.  Can I confess that I couldn't do any of them?  Here are some of your choices: setting metal and wood type, lino-relief block prints, photopolymer plates, and die-cuts. The project portion of the book was really the only section that interested me personally (the pretty pictures, that is!), because I just don't see myself getting involved in letterpress.  But I could look at the beautiful...

With just a few tools and a little bit of inspiration, you could soon have your own special set of stamps, designed especially for your mixed media work.  Geninne D Zlatkis takes you through the process from start to finish: how to come up with a design idea, how to carve the stamp, how to print it properly, and how to move from simple to more complex projects.  Making an Impression is a totally delightful guide to this process, published by Lark Books .    Geninne explains the difference between negative and positive image stamps (something that I have always had some difficulty with, being dyslexic!), and shows you in great detail how to stamp your designs on both paper and fabric, but also on some other creative surfaces. What I really like about the projects is Geninne's emphasis on using the ideas as a jumping-off point.  You are encouraged to come up with your own stamp designs, and also to feel free to riff on her project ideas.  As an extra...

Back in March I posted a review of Shelly Stokes's book Rubbing Plate Roundup , and ever since then I've found myself looking for new ways to use these tools.  Rubbing plates, or texture plates can be used in so many different ways and along with many different media.  The following tutorial is not a technique from Shelly's book, but I felt I should still acknowledge the inspiration that I received from reading it. Materials and Tools Watercolor paper Extra heavy gloss gel (I use Golden's) Rubbing plates Walnut inks Pearl Ex powders 1. Smear Extra Heavy Gloss Gel all over a piece of watercolor paper. 2. Before it has a chance to dry, use a texture or rubbing plate to pull up interesting patterns in the surface. 3. Spray the surface of the gel with various shades of walnut inks (I used eucalyptus and terra cotta).  You don't have to wait for the gel to dry first.  4. Allow to dry.  Apply Pearl Ex powders in various areas of the desig...

Sometimes I actually get around to using the samples that I create for tutorial purposes in an actual project...and this is one of those times ;-) In March, I shared with you a book review of Shelly Stokes's new book, Rubbing Plate Roundup , and I showed you some fabric that I stamped and foiled using her methods.  Well, I saw the fabric sitting on my work table next to some other fabrics, and the next thing you know, I was cutting out a small geometric quilt. Materials and Tools 2 pieces of black felt 1 piece of brightly colored cotton (pink) 1 piece of hand-painted fabric (yellow, orange, and pink with foil) 1 piece of fusible interfacing, shirt-weight Cutting mat Rotary cutter Scissors Iron Double-stick tape Beads Embroidery floss Needles   1. Cut the felt pieces to the same size.  The black felt pieces will end up a bit bigger than the colored fabrics.  Cut the pink fabric slightly smaller than the black, and the multi-colored slight...

Without any sort of plan for what these would eventually become, I spent an afternoon scribbling, stamping, stenciling, and painting on some silk dupioni pieces.  Each panel is about 8 x 9 inches, so they'll most likely end up being used in a larger piece.  We'll see! I painted in a variety of colors, but in only two main styles, both of which I'll show you below. 1. Gather your pens, stamps, stencils, paints, and fabric.  Prepare your work surface. 2. I used Koh-I-Noor Nexus Studio Pens to trace around my shapes.  I didn't worry about being neat, and I also didn't have to worry about the ink running once I added water media! 3. Add several thinned layers of acrylic paints over the ink shapes.  I finished with a bit of interference green which would help play up the shine of the silk.  4. My final step was to stencil through the waste paper from those reinforcement circles you use on notebook paper.  5. My second s...

Yesterday I showed you the process that I used to stencil and paint these fabrics .  Today I just want to show you the other two that I was making at the same time.  Having several projects going at once helps...while one dries, you can mess around with another! Maple Leaf Fabric:  Before copper foil added  Detail with copper foil Hickory Leaf Fabric:  With just a few layers of stencils and stamps  More layers, plus Interference paint and details added Copper foil added All posts on this project: Leaf fabrics - part one Leaf fabrics - part two Quilt instructions - part one Quilt instructions - part two This post contains affiliate links Copyright 2010 Cyndi Lavin. Not to be reprinted, resold, or redistributed for profit. May be printed out for personal use or distributed electronically provided that entire file, including this notice, remains intact.

Although I started out being inspired by the kirigami leaf patterns that I showed you last week, I ended up using mostly the individual leaves to make my leaf fabrics.  Each fabric started with a thin wash of acrylic paint (I used Quinacridone magenta ), which I allowed to dry.  Then I added about 6 or 7 more layers of stenciling, stamping, and painting.  Any wonder that it took a few days to complete?  I hate having to wait for fabric to dry! I'll show you the process with my first piece of fabric, and tomorrow I'll post some pictures from the other two pieces. 1. Wet your fabric (I used muslin) and paint it with a very thin wash of acrylic paint.  Allow it to dry thoroughly before beginning to stencil.  I also like to iron the fabric between each step to set the color well. 2. I added a layer of "shadows" using a permanent black ink.  Contine to iron the fabric in between each step.  3. Stripe the fabric with tape and sten...