Thursday, April 21, 2016

The First Week of #the100dayproject

The 100 Day Project ...

started April 19th and runs through July 27th. Each day you post a new piece of some kind of art or creation on Instagram with both the "project hashtag" and one that defines your uploads. Mine is #ARTINGfor100days...

Being a Mixed-Media artist, I couldn't decide on ONE thing that I wanted to do for 100 days....so, I decided to post something DIFFERENT every day. To me, that is a challenge.

DAY 1 -
I'm away from home most of the day and all I have is my iphone. Took a few photos in black and white and then used a filter in Instagram:

#the100dayproject

DAY 2
Another busy day away from home - very unusual for me. I went down to my Studio for inspiration and found a pile of deli papers I had experimented with a new Alcohol Ink technique. I picked my favorite one and decided to doodle on it with a blue and a white gel pen:

#the100dayproject

DAY 3 -
I spent part of the day preparing for an Alcohol Ink demo for my Cape Cod Mixed Media group on Saturday. I had recently purchased a set of adorable white ceramic glazed pears. I decided to use Alcohol Ink on one of them to show the group some of the possibilities with these amazing inks!

#the100dayproject


DAY 4 -
Took a cell phone pic while walking my dog. Later on I decided to work on it with my I-Pad art apps. Something I don't do often enough. Then I decided since it was day 4 of the project, I'd focus in on that number. The first photo is the original from my cell phone.






DAY 5 -
My Art Journaling group decided to experiment with some transfer techniques. This was my favorite. I took one of my photos from our trip to Monet's Gardens. This was his house which is now a museum. I made a toner copy and then transferred it onto watercolor paper with Citrasolv.

#the100dayproject


DAY 6 -
I created this during an Alcohol Ink demo with my Mixed Media group. I was trying to show them the ink and deli paper technique mentioned above. I put too much ink down and decided to stick one of the white ceramic glazed tiles onto it....basically transferring the extra ink to the tile. I loved the effect!



DAY 7 -
My girlfriend, Karen came back from Puerto Rico with a huge bag of gorgeous Sea Glass...some really big pieces, too! So, I took a photo with my iphone and will use the glass in a mixed media piece........some day. :)

#the100dayproject

Because of #the100dayproject I'm learning that I'm either going to come up with something wildly new for me each day OR I'll actually finish some projects.....WIN-WIN!

Monday, April 18, 2016

Paper Folding with Old Books

Back in the 6th grade 

    ...many, many years ago, I was seriously into paper folding. One of my girlfriends gave me a ginormous book on Origami. I made all kinds of little origami animals and gave them to friends. My most favorite project, and one I never photographed :( was a hanging door curtain for my bedroom made out of GUM WRAPPERS. I don't remember how long it took me to make, but it involved hundreds of gum wrappers. I had it up for a very long time and I was very proud of it.

I've been playing with paper ever since...

My most recent projects involve old books...upcycling them into pieces of art with paper folding techniques. Now, this isn't anything new, just new to me. See lots of cool art and ideas on my Pinterest board here: https://www.pinterest.com/scibellidesigns/altered-books/

My first attempt was a technique that I saw on Carolyn Dube's website (https://acolorfuljourney.com/how-to-store-stencil-masks/) for holding/storing small stencils and masks. She took an old book and with a very simple fold, made a sort of filing system for masks. I have a lot of small masks and stencils so I made one (in less than an hour) and I use it for storing masks and stencils I'm working on at the moment. And I like the way it looks, too!

upcycling an old book

As soon as I finished this, I had to do MORE! So, I checked out YouTube and Pinterest and have started a few more...

Birdhouse?

This one isn't finished yet and not sure how I'm going to "decorate" it, but I'm pretty sure it's a birdhouse.


 

Birdhouse or Fairy House?

This one is 95% done as far as the folding goes. I love the shape! It was done with 2 folds on every other page.  Although, people on YouTube call this a "Fairy House" I think it could be another birdhouse.....we'll see. 


I think my next book paper folding project will be an abstract!