Iris-Folding and Stencils by Mary Ann Russo, Continued from Yesterday

Step 10:

Turning to your stack of foldable papers (scrapbook paper or anything similar), choose colors that correspond with the color-plan-diagram that's been established with lines, numbers and colored pencils.

Use the paper cutter to cut strips from the foldable papers.  Notice in the photo below that these paper cutters have inbuilt lines to enable accurate measurements.  Cut strips 1 inch thick if working in the same size as Mary Ann's sample piece, which is 8.8" x 11" and fits a standard-size 11" x 14" mat with an opening of 7.5" x 9.5".

If you have decided to enlarge your artwork beyond Mary Ann's size, take the added step of measuring the width of the lines in your color-coded diagram.  Mary Ann's lines were 1/2 inch wide, so she needed paper strips 1 inch wide.  If your enlargement has color-areas 3/4 inch wide, for example, then your paper strips need to be 1.5" wide.  The width of the paper strips is always double the width of the individual lined-out areas in the working diagram.

Step 11:

Fold these papers in half, lengthwise, as shown below.  Each folded strip, when working with Mary Ann's dimensions, should be 1/2 inch wide. 

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Click on the above photo to enlarge it and better see details.

Step 12:

With scissors, cut the folded strips to lengths that correspond to the cut-out shape.  In this case, the Pair O' Parrots shape calls for narrow strips, starting at the head, moving down over the narrow body, and ending at the tip of the long tail.  So the folded paper-strips need be as long as the width of the cut-out -- plus enough gluing area on each side of the cut-out.  The exact measurement is up to you; once you've cut the first piece, you'll be able to just "eyeball it" in sizing the lengths of each paper-strip.

Again, keep in mind that you are working from the back-side of the cardstock that contains the cut-out area.

Step 13:

As shown below, add glue to the edges of the cut-out.  Don't add glue to the entire cut-out shape, all in one go.  With each glue application, add just enough to secure a few folded strips of paper.

At this point, that clear plastic page protector does its intended job -- keeping the pencil-colored diagram free of glue.

Continue adding folded paper-strips -- making sure to slightly overlap each paper-strip with the next.  Alternate glue applications with paper-strip applications.  Follow the color-guide-diagram that was mapped out by number and by color pencil.

Step 14:

The "iris" is a piece of paper cut to fill the small empty space that remains after all the paper-strips are in place.  It is added as the last step, with a gluestick.  

Below is the back-view of a finished piece, when all the paper-strips and the finishing touch (white) "iris" have been added.  Now that the demo is over, we return to the original project, in which white cardstock is used, not orange.

Notice in the photo above that the finishing touch, the white "iris," has been cut from a separate paper and added with a gluestick after all the overlapping strips have been added.

Turning this paper over to the right side, we see the finished work of art, below.  It fits into the standardized pre-cut mat of 16" x 20" that comes with an 11" x 14" opening.

The stencil Mary Ann used to launch this project is Pair O' Parrots --

To see all my stencils, just visit here.

Please join me in hearty applause for Mary Ann Russo letting me post her project on my blog!

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