Origami

 

The origami bald eagle above was made by my friend Claire Murphy and enclosed in a birthday card sent from her new home in upstate NY.  Claire was always clever with her hands -- unlike me -- and I consider myself an origami drop-out.  But seeing this eagle made me think of my growing stack of Gelli Plate prints as well as other prints, all made with stencils.  In my imagination, if not in reality, I can see these papers being folded into clever shapes like this one of Claire's ...

 

 

 

 

Just scroll thru my jillions of "Older Posts" to see how the above papers -- and many others -- were created.

Stencils used in making the above papers are available here:

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/category-s/1832.htm
 

Mimosa Again ...

Above is the lovely birthday card -- made by my friend Cindy Powell -- that arrived in today's mail. 

She created it using my 9"X12" stencil Mimosa 9 -- and as usual, I find that artists like Cindy do a better job of using my stencils than I do! 

KALEID shows up again...

My 6"X6" stencil Kaleid --

-- found at StencilGirlProducts --

http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/product-p/s085.htm

-- came in handy when I was creating a collage for an online class I'm taking with Jane Davies.

With this stencil, I used a Gelli Plate and red acrylic paint to make a print on deli wrap.  When the print dried, I cut it into two pieces and added them to this work in collage and acrylic:

ABOVE:  A NARROW STRIP OF THE PRINT WAS USED IN THE UPPER LEFT ARM OF THIS CRUCIFORM, AND THE REST OF THAT PRINT WAS USED IN THE CENTRAL-RIGHT AREA.

It's not easy to find in the photo above, but the close-up below shows where I used another stencil-made print, elsewhere in the same collage. 

My substrate was a piece of polka-dotted black-and-white scrapbook paper.  With red acrylic paint and the Gelli Plate, I made a print on that paper with my 9"X12" stencil Twinship --

The results are subtle, since this print was made on a busy and finely detailed background paper, but subtle was what I wanted in this area of the cruciform, since it wasn't meant to be the focal point.

Personalized Gift Idea

There are several blank readymade calendars available online; here's one that's 12"X12" and has cardstock pages --

http://smile.amazon.com/Adorn-It-Blank-Calendar-12-Inch-Pages/dp/B00BOWVOKS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1413809279&sr=8-4&keywords=calendar+blanks

Or you can download free printable calendars -- lots of online sources exist for that option; but I think many of us would rather skip the challenge of printing generous-sized calendar pages on cardstock. 

Why blank calendars?  Because it's fun to make a gorgeous calendar to give as a special personalized gift!  At Christmas, especially.

Below is a start of a layout that still has far to go till completion; my next step will be to lighten selected areas with layers of paint.  Then I can add words and/or photos to work toward creating one page of a brand-new calendar.

The starting layers above were created in a workshop I took in Oct. 2014, in South Orange, NJ, where a roomful of us had the pleasure of learning under the guidance of the energetic, entertaining and very knowledgeable Jane Davies. 

After a first layer of collage, I brushed areas with a mix of Golden Fluid Acrylics in Manganese Blue and Titanium White.  Immediately, while the paint was still wet, I pressed down my 9"X12" stencil Facets.  Using the reductive/subtractive technique that I've shown in earlier posts, I quickly rubbed off color in the open areas of the stencil.  Then I lifted the stencil, turned it over and applied pressure, creating the reverse-print which shows faintly in the lower left of the layout above.  (Click on the image to enlarge it.) 

To apply that pressure, I covered the stencil with a sheet of scratch paper and rolled firmly over the scrap paper with my hard rubber brayer.   The scratch paper has a dual role:  It keeps paint off the brayer, and it protects the stencil from the possibility of damage as the brayer's pressure is applied.  The stencil I used, Facets, has no unconnected/unanchored lines, so there was really no need to protect it from the brayer. 

But other stencils, such as Branching Blossoms Silhouette, were designed to have some fragile areas which are not connected to those anchoring lines that we designers call bridges.  This creates a more attractive stencil but also a more fragile stencil.  Ya can't have your cake and eat it too!

Rubbing Plates re-visited

Today's topic:  rubbing/printing plates made by my friend Mary Ann Russo.  In that post, I detailed her process, using my 9"X12" stencil Twinship. 

In today's post, I'm showing another rubbing/printing plate made by Mary Ann.  This time, she used my 9"X12" stencil Vases.

Above:  Mary Ann has covered the plate's surface with two coats of a rubberizing spray to make it completely waterproof.

Household fix-it-yourself types are probably familiar with Napa Performix Plasti Dip spray.  Created to provide a non-slip, comfortable grip on tools and to provide protection against electrical shock and heat, it's available at SmileAmazon.com --

http://smile.amazon.com/Performix-11203-Multi-Purpose-Coating-Aerosol/dp/B0006SU3QW/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412684997&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Napa+Performix+Plasti+Dip+spray

Originally, this spray came in red -- the color used in this project -- and now comes in black, clear and gray-translucent.  The spray is to be used outdoors and its first coat must be allowed to dry before the second coat is added. 

The finished plate can be used to make impressions on a paint-coated Gelli Plate, for pulling prints on paper or fabric. 

It can also be used in two other ways -- with a Shiva stick and fabric to make rubbings, as well as with acrylic paints to make prints. 

Today's post will focus on the last of these three options.

Above:  The work surface has been covered with freezer paper, shiny side up.  To the right of the plate are a rubber brayer and a dollop of heavy-body acrylic paint. 

Above:  I've rolled paint out across the freezer paper, rolling back and forth until the paint reached a tacky stage.

Above:  I've rolled the paint-loaded brayer across the plate.

 

 After coating the plate with this paint, I pressed a sheet of pre-painted newsprint over the plate, using both hands across the whole surface, to make sure all of the paper made contact with the plate.  Then I pulled the print shown above.

Mary Ann used the same process with black fabric-printing paint to make the print below, on a piece of off-white fabric --

I used blue acrylic paint to print another sheet of pre-painted newsprint, as shown below.

Stencil-and-Scrape Technique, re-visited

Earlier, I've posted about a technique that I call stencil-and-scrape
-- on Jan. 4 , March 14 and April 2 --
where I've supplied numerous photos with directions. 

This technique is simply a wet version of the rubbings technique; traditional rubbings are done with soft-lead pencil or crayon, whereas I use acrylic paint and an old credit card. 

With masking tape, I secure a stencil to the work surface; then I tape a sheet of thin paper over that.  After adding a few dollops of acrylic paint to the top of the paper, I scrape the paint downward over the paper, pressing evenly to pick up the patterns in the stencil.

Just recently I made more stencil-and-scrape papers using my 9"X12" stencil Twinship.  Since I planned to use the finished paper in a multi-layered collage, I chose deli paper because it's thin; and its translucency allows underneath colors to show thru. Below is one of the completed papers.

After the paint dried, I cut the papers into shapes and added them to a collage on canvas, shown below.  To better see the stencil-and-scrape papers, click on the image --

Plastic Surgery on Stencils!

My 9"X12" stencil Branching Blossoms Silhouette appears in a delightful short video by Carolyn Dube on Facebook, here --

 http://acolorfuljourney.com/permission-stencil-cut/ Prima Marketing Flowers StencilGirl Products

Enjoy!

Easy to Resist

Some time ago, my friend Cindy Powell and I were exchanging ideas about different ways of creating resists.  I think she's the one who gave me the idea to trace around the openings of a stencil with a Sharpie oil pen -- available at Smile.Amazon.com -- and following this with a coat or two of acrylic paint.

These were my results:

 

 The image above and the image below were both made with Mary Beth Shaw's 9"X12" stencil Blackout Overlap.

 

 The page below was made with my 9"X12" stencil Ivy 9.

Speaking of Mary Beth Shaw -- her 6"X6" stencil Leaf Diamond works nicely when paired with my 6"X6" stencil Quilted Flower Garden.  Try using them together, and see what I mean!

Mimosa 6 Working in Harmony with Other stencils from STENCILGIRL(TM)Products ...

StencilGirl's blog-hop of the day includes a project by Beth Watson --

http://bwdesignstudio.blogspot.com/2014/08/eileen-hull-inspiration-team-blog-hop.html

-- that uses my 6"X6" stencil Mimosa 6 in a way that I never would have thought to try.  Her results are really nice.  While visiting Beth's blog, be sure to leave a comment because you may win a prize!  And enjoy visiting the other blogs on today's hop.  You'll find the links on Beth's blog.

Repeating Pattern Stencils -- Readymade and Customized

At http://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/category-s/1932.htm, you will find a new category-grouping of stencils:  Repeating Designs. 

A repeating pattern stencil enables an artist to lift the stencil after its first print, then place it back onto the printing surface and easily line it up with the earlier print -- to maintain even, seamless spacing of the overall finished design.  This can be done endlessly to cover a surface of any size.  It's commonly used by artists working in the fiber arts but it's gaining popularity among those into the paper arts, too.  I suspect the whole idea started back in ancient Egypt with hieroglyphic reliefs along the walls.

My stencils Quilted Flower Garden and Facets fall into this special new category.  Here's how the technique works:

Above:  Having made the first print (on the right) I've lifted the stencil.  In the upper left is the sponge dauber I used to apply the acrylic paint thru the stencil. 

Above:  I've placed the stencil down again, lining it up exactly with the first print.  I recommend using masking tape to get exact alignment.

Above:  I've lifted the stencil after making the second print.  Notice there is a space gap between these two prints.  I could choose to make the third, fourth, fifth, etc., prints with this same space gap between each print.  Or, I could approach the whole project, from step one, by eliminating that space gap.  To do that, I would simply overlap the stencil over the original print, as show below: 

Above is a distance shot, showing the stencil overlapping the original print along one edge.  Below is a close-up which shows this better.

I chose to make my second print using a color-blend that differed from the original print.  If I were to repeat this process again and again, I would continue to create color-blends across the entire printed surface, which could end up any overall size that I want.  But this is just an option, to create variety.  Repeating pattern stencils are often used with no variation in color.

Now that I've shown how the repeating pattern technique works, I'll show how some stencils easily lend themselves to customization, so they can be used in the same way. 

For example, you can create long narrow Repeating Pattern Stencils with my stencil Borders #1, simply by cutting this stencil into 3 equal strips.  Just place the stencil over a self-healing cutting mat pre-printed with a measurement grid.  The below photo, and its close-up that follows, show the stencil lined up with the measurements and grid-lines on the cutting mat.

Once the stencil is lined up where you want it, place a ruler where you want to cut the new stencil edge.  Use the mat's guidelines to keep the ruler straight and, with a Sharpie pen, draw a cutting line.  You can then lift off the stencil and cut it with scissors -- but better yet, for a perfect cut, you can leave the stencil and ruler on the cutting mat, and cut along the line with an X-acto knife.

Likewise, you can easily customize my 9"X12" stencil Wrought Iron Gate to make it a Repeating Pattern Stencil.  Just line it up on the cutting mat and cut off the "ornament" at the top of the "gate."  Below, I've used a ruler with a metal edge that will be useful in the next step, when I will use my X-acto knife to do the cut.  But for now, I'm just drawing the guideline for the cut:

Above:  I've placed the stencil onto the cutting mat, lining it up with the measuring grid pre-printed on the mat.  Those blue lines helped me place the ruler exactly where I wanted, to draw a line between the ornate "gate top" and the rest of the stencil.  This is shown better in the close-up below:

Click on the above image to enlarge it.  This will help you better see the ornate "gate top" that is to be cut off.

The above photo shows the ruler pulled away from the line that I've drawn.  The cut will be made here.

One important thing to note is that this stencil customization gives you an edge-free design.  This kind of raw-edged stencil is more fragile, but the lack of an outer border makes it easier to align prints side-by-side, for a seamless overall effect.

Stencils are tools to be personalized any way you want to achieve your unique artistic goals!

Pulling Gelli Plate Prints ...



The prints above and below were made with my 9"X12" stencil Mimosa.

The print below was made with its corresponding smaller-sized stencil --

 -- Mimosa 6.

 Anyone unfamiliar with making Gelli Plate prints with stencils, just click on the Gelli Arts badge in the left column above.  Lots of ideas there!

Gelli Plate Land

Another recent trip thru Gelli Plate Land brought me these two prints --

 

 

The upper print was created with my 6"X6" stencil Seaweed and the smaller print below it was made with my 4"X4" stencil Fern Fronds Silhouette.  Acrylic inks were my medium.

In a Green and Blue Mood ...

Awhile ago I made some Gelli Plate prints with acrylic paints sponged thru my 9"X12" stencil Queen Anne's Lace ...

 

Above is a print that I did on top of an earlier print that I had made using my 9"X12" stencil Twinship with the Gelli Plate.

 

After I'd made the two prints above, my stencil had a build-up of black acrylic paint around the flower shapes.  While that paint was still wet, I flipped the stencil over and used it as a "stamp" to imprint a sheet of acrylic paint-coated newsprint...