Pompanoosuc Mills in Thetford, VT is a wonderful venue for exhibiting art.  Unable to attend the opening, I recently drove up to view the exhibit.  How interesting to see art work hung in homelike settings, surrounded by beautifully designed and constructed furniture.  The exhibit, "A Celebration of Upper Valley Artists," was a delight to be to a part of.  The exhibit continues through September 22.  Here are some tea bag and joss paper pieces that were included in the exhibt:

Loving Joss Paper

It's been a long time since blogging but I have been working away.  I'm really into joss paper at the moment, enjoying its texture and colors.  These two books are currently being exhibited until September 7 in the Unbound Vol. III exhibition in Woodstock.

Experimentation has led me to tearing and dipping the paper into beeswax to get a wonderful texture and different quality of color.  These pieces illustrate some different ways of assembling the pieces:

This piece, titled Fields of Gold, is part of the Pompanoosuc Mills exhibition in Thetford, VT that opens tomorrow night.

Sydney Writer's Festival installation

During my stay in Sydney earlier this year I had the great fortune to join Sydney Book Arts Group (BAG).  What fun to spend a couple of hours each month sitting in a circle of interesting, creative artists whose passion is to make books!
While I was there the group decided to create an installation, a joyful piece called Life Cycle for the Sydney Writer's Festival 2013 (which took place in May).  743 pages from abandoned books were each individually made into a piece of art, then attached together and hung from a Hills Hoist clothesline, one that is found in backyards throughout Australia.

 I made a small contribution compared to the other artists as I had to return to Vermont.  But it was great fun to participate and then see the photos of the finished piece.  Wish I had been there to help put it all together!

Ladybugs greet me!

So, back to Vermont and settling into the studio again.  Hundreds of ladybugs were hanging out there, ready to welcome me home.  It's so good to be back to this beautiful part of the world!

I returned with a duffle bag full of work in process and lots of packages of joss paper.  I don't think there is a source any nearer than Boston's Chinatown to buy more, so I came home prepared.  I believe I have just about reached the right length on this book made with the yellow joss paper made in the shape of a large coin.

Back to the tea bags, I am continuing to create small boxes out of two bags sewn together.  There are now over 100 pieces to the collection and I still haven't figured out how they will come together as a work, but eventually I'm sure the idea will surface.

This week I also completed a piece that I had started in December before I left.  I need to decide how the two separate pieces will attach to one another....for now I have used large paper clips to hold them together.  I also may want to use some gloss medium on the piece to finish it, so there are still decisions ahead.

I like the combination of working with the joss paper and the tea bags.  It gives me a little more variety
  rather than working with just one medium.   But clearly it is the joy of manipulating paper that is holding my interest.

Joss Paper Explorations

For the past several weeks I've been exploring a new kind of medium, Chinese joss paper.  It is sold in large packets in most Chinatowns and used in ceremonies where it is burned to honor departed ancestors.  I first used it many years ago in mixed medium works and recently constructed a piece using the joss paper and tea bags:

When I went back to buy more of the paper I wasn't able to locate any of the same size and color, so decided to buy what I could find and do some investigating.   I bought several kinds, different shapes, sizes and colors:

It seems to be a good material for book making and I am enjoying exploring ways to tear and fold the paper.  Here are some examples of some of the work that is evolving:

I'm still working on some large tea bag pieces, but the joss paper work is giving me something else to focus on and I'm enjoying it!

Tea work continues

Blogging seems to have gone off my radar, but I am still working.  I have two long-term rather slow pieces that have been in progress over a month now.  The first is quite simple, small sacks sewn out of two teabags placed across one another:

I have almost 100 made now and plan to keep going....I'm not sure yet how they will be displayed, but I know that I will need many of them to make any kind of impact:

The other project is a kind of hanging curtain where each teabag is reinforced with cut-off toothpicks on each end and threaded together.  I'm imagining something about 6 by 8 feet when completed.  I brought a good supply of bags with me, but without my usual volunteer contributions I am quickly running out of material.

I'm also playing around with small sculptures of various kinds of containers, but don't know if this will lead anywhere.  This bowl is all held together with hand stitching:

Next post I'll talk about the latest work I am doing which uses Chinese joss paper.  I'm just in the beginning stages with this material, but i'm enjoying the change.

Message from Down Under

It seems like such a long time since I blogged.....I have gotten out of the habit but hope to remedy that! Now I am settled in Australia, have passed through the holidays and am ready to report on recent work that I've been doing.

Before I left I made a pair of boots out of round tea bags.  For the first time I used an iridescent medium on the bags to give it a bit of silvery shine.  For the form I paper mache seemed the best option and after some experimentation it worked well:

I also worked on a sculpture made of wooden rods, tea sacks, beeswax and red thread.  The rods are flexible so move easily:

Finally I constructed a box made of rolled and waxed tea sacks and the red thread again:

Now that I'm working in my studio here, it will be mostly small pieces.  I brought a great supply of materials along.  More later.

After the Exhibit

Once again, it seems a long time since I've written.  My show, The Art of Tea II, at AVA Gallery in Lebanon, NH, has finished.  After all the work that went into putting it together, it feels good now to be back in my studio, working on some new pieces.

I reflect back on the highlights of that venture.  It was very satisfying to work with AVA staff to hang the exhibition.  The pieces chosen very well fit in that lovely venue and I was pleased with how it showcased a variety of work created over the past three years.  I also found that giving a gallery talk was an excellent experience.  With Carol's help I learned to use Keynote to prepare a slide show that highlighted the influences in my work, my process of learning to use tea stained paper, and what I have learned.  It was very gratifying to experience the appreciation of many who viewed the show.

Above are a few photos from the exhibition.

The Art of Tea II

It has been ages since I've blogged.  Somehow life has been too full.....of making art and all the other things that go into daily living.
The big focus has been preparing for my upcoming show at AVA Gallery in Lebanon, NH.  There was a big push to complete a number of pieces, and then the huge task of organizing and getting the word out.  Most of that seems to be done now.
So yesterday and today the show was hung.  It was a pretty daunting process, but Margaret and Kayla at AVA were terrific, very experienced and professional.  Here are some photos of the process (so glad I wasn't the one balancing on a high ladder!):

Now I look forward, after a bit of a rest, to the opening, which occurs on Friday evening.  I wonder what it will feel like to walk into the gallery and see all those pieces, work that occupied me so fully for almost three years, displayed together.

Sun and Rain

August already, in fact well into it.  I'm slowly working away, finishing some things, starting new pieces and still on hold with others that I am trying to figure out how to complete.  My show at AVA is just  two months away and I am hoping to have some more three-dimensional pieces to add to the mix.

Meanwhile Lisa, my artist friend in Sydney, told me about a book art show that was asking for submissions.  I'm quite pleased to be juried in, so now need to figure out how I will send the work so it arrives in time.  One thing to apply, another entirely to get it there!

I have completed the bees wax hanging piece that seems to do best in a window so the light can shine through:

This umbrella, made on the frame of a Korean paper umbrella, was challenging logistically to put together, but I think is fun!  Unfortunately it won't collapse and certainly shouldn't experience any rain in its lifetime.

Bees and Teas

I have recently been working with tea sacs, experimenting with ways to transform them into little pouches to hold my California pine needles.

Most of the energy has gone into filling them with various patterns created by the pine needles, then covering the sacs with bees wax.  That done, I punch holes in each sac and tie them together with red thread.  The bees wax creates a lovely finish that also strengthens the paper, so the bags will be able to form a sort of hanging curtain, once assembled.  So far, so good.  I'm not sure how big I can go without having problems with spacing, but I can surely stop at any time.  Here is the piece on my work table:

Book Art and......

It has been a long time since my last post.  Life in and outside the studio has been busy and I've been preparing work to enter into local shows.  At last the long book made with round teabags is complete.....I've called it "The Book Worm."

The other book, made with tea sacks kindly supplied by Laura at Mon Vert Cafe, is also finished.  I've titled it "Reading Tea Leaves."

Combining printmaking with the teabags inspires me, so I've experimented with teabags on paper, using an old woodcut as an overlay.  I'm not sure where this could take me:

Also interesting has been to introduce beeswax with the work.  My brother Greg in California has sent me long pine needles that are filling tea sacks.....I then seal the sacks onto canvas with the beeswax:

Today I tried painting the filled sacks with beeswax, then stacking the bags on top of one another.  There seems to be a lot of opportunity to play with different combinations and configurations of wax and the bags, so I imagine I'll spend some time exploring this option over the next days.

Back to Vermont

It has been wonderful to return to my old studio, clean out the cobwebs and get cracking again.  Most of the work so far has been completing pieces that began in Sydney.  The long piece that I am (at the moment) calling Book Worm just keeps growing.  I have almost run out of round tea bags and need to replenish my supply:

I have finished a layered work that I also began in Sydney and brought here in pieces in a box.  I've been trying to decide if I will keep the strings or eliminate them.  So far, they stay:

Looking to do something new, I'm experimenting with using printmaking techniques with the tea bags adhered to paper.  I have done some wood cut printing and plan to use the press soon to see what kind of results I might get.

The North Calls

Today was the first really cool day here, a harbinger of days to come and another indicator that it's almost time to head back north for spring. Sydney has been wonderful and has fed my visual reservoirs for some time to come.

I continue to work on three pieces, two of which I'll assemble when I get back to Vermont, as they won't travel well except in pieces. Here is one which I have just pinned together on my work board....I'll have to figure out how it will go together once in the studio:

I'm also figuring out how to box and roll up pieces to carry with me. It's always a challenge to manage to get work back to Vermont, but so far I've had good luck with it arriving in decent shape.

Working away

I've been working on a number of different pieces recently, partly to keep it interesting and partly because I have been needing to accumulate certain types of bags. I miss my Vermont supply team!

The "caterpillar" piece continues to grow, now about 30 inches long with much to go!

I've also been stitching small square and rectangle bags together. I plan to print the word for "tea" in many languages on it. (who would guess the Tamil word is the nee?)

Recently on a walk I collected a bag of wonderful seedpods and have been playing with them....I wonder what they will end up being?

I have been loving keeping up with my fellow art-wise women on the blog....it's wonderful to see what they are doing!

Time Marching On

I can't believe it's March, which means autumn is beginning here in Australia. In six weeks we'll be back in the northern hemisphere, enjoying a Vermont spring. It all strikes me as rather strange even though we've been doing this for a number of years. But work continues, wherever I am and whatever the season.

I've been working on two pieces that will take a long time to complete. The first one uses round teabags, many that I brought with me this time around. I'm folding them in half and stitching them together into what will (hopefully) be a long snake-like form. It's taking a lot of teabags and a lot of patience to do this, so I hope the end result will be okay.

The second piece uses standard flattened teabags that I am adhering to one another with gel medium. Here's the vision: a large (about 8 feet by 10 feet) sort of curtain that I will paint with many coats of shellac when it is completed. I envision hanging it in a window as a sort of curtain and hope to shape it so that will will be a bit 3 dimensional. At this point I am creating long strips that I can transport and assemble completely back in the Vermont studio.

I've put some of the strips on my studio floor here to see where it is going:

So one project is quite small, the other certainly the biggest piece I've ever made. If it gets too tedious to work on these two I'll start something else (?) to bring in a little more variety.