A Scratchboard Border Design

After visiting Judy Jensen's Studio the other day and being inspired by her gorgeous illustrations, I am inspired to practice my scratchboard work again.  Since I found myself unexpectedly babysitting all day, I retrieved a 5"x7" rigid Ampersand scratchbord from the closet and began sketching.  My little ward was fascinated, so I had an observer most of the time.  This little piece was a three movie affair.  I took some (bad) photos of it in process and then scanned the finished design.

Here is the result after one movie: ("The Last Unicorn.) I've laid out the design as an eight panel border piece, sketched on the board with graphite pencil, and begun scratching out the design.

After the second movie ("Spiderwick")  I've finished the other side panel and the top center area.

At each corner I sketched a critter representing one of the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire, Water.

 


Finally, after sitting through "The Last Airbender," here is the final result.  Perhaps I will make this into a card or enlarge it for a frame.  I don't yet know.

More practice to come.  Stay tuned.

More and More Coloring Mandalas

Over the past few months I've been slowly creating mandalas in line format for coloring.  I have enough now to create two new coloring portfolios or a mandala coloring journal.  I haven't decided which.  I suppose, if I create a few more, I could do both.  I would love your thoughts on this.  Here are some of them:

My first coloring journal, "A Tangle of Flowers" sold out for the fifth time at my local bookstore.  At least in this region, it is a best seller.  Yay!

You can find my coloring things in Woodstock VT at Arjuna or Shiretown Books or online at www.EmerlyeArts.Etsy.com

2500 Tags

This piece has been in process for many months. Even though the canvas the large (3 x 3 ft) I didn't guess how long it would take to make it. And it became quite tedious at times and I found I just needed to put it away. But yesterday, taa daaaaaa, I affixed the final tag and can call it complete, minus a few coats of medium over the surface.

About 2500 assorted tags.....that's a lot of cups of tea!

In the Bag

Things are humming in my studio. I recently had new track lighting installed and as the days darken and shorten it is going to make such a difference! Today I completed a new piece constructed with Mighty Leaf tea bags sewn on canvas. The bags, which are made with a sheer fabric, allow the beautiful colors of the tea really show through. Here's the as yet un-named

piece:

I've also started another book piece which I am binding together with Irish linen thread. I'm about to run out of thread so have ordered more. This will temporarily slow down progress on this project, but I plan to keep working on another piece that has been hanging around waiting to be completed. I'm really savoring my studio time.

An Imperfect Solution

After trying several things, I came up with an imperfect solution to framing my 3D kirigami piece. First, I placed the acrylic box onto the piece of glass in a standard frame and glued it down.
 

I inserted some similar colored paper behind the glass with a quotation by Abram Urban:  "My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams."  The show is called "Reflections" so I thought this quotation fit the theme.

At first I used a standard glue but it didn't hold so I finally relented and used aquarium sealant glue.  This means that if you want to remove the papercut you will have to break the seal on the box.  I did not glue the papercut or its backing to anything.  It is held together by the pressure of the box on it.

Sheesh! When will I ever learn to consider the mechanics of finishing and framing during the design phase - before I create the work?  I am forever barreling ahead into some new piece, and only as an afterthought do I think of how I will display it.