Monday, February 5, 2018

Lots of Glue

On weekends, I promise myself I will sew clothes for myself and Steve, but this weekend, I pulled out all sorts of paper, glue, wax paper and paints. I swept aside all the kitchen chores and refused to relinquish the kitchen table.


I tore paper, glued it back together, added other paper and glued it on to paper.


Watercolours don't work so well with the papers that I have been using. The paper is too thin and the colour just seems to fade away.  I am trying inks on some pieces.


Rayon paper is interesting to work with. It is fragile and tears easily, but once it is in place, it holds up nicely. There is a very pale mauve laid over the two stronger colours, softening everything a little.

On paper that had been painted this summer with disappointing results, I added more layers of paint, this time watered acrylic and then added a white wash over everything.


You have to squint a little to see that I added paint to the glue for one piece,


then everything hung to dry, along with two bras.


A day later, I hung it all up to photograph.


This is a very light tissue paper called Swedish Tracing Paper. It is supposed to be used for making patterns in dressmaking, but it is sooooo easily torn. I don't know how it wouldn't frustrate the hell out of the dressmaker. Since this will eventually be torn again, it doesn't really  matter.


When I was putting paper away, I discovered a roll of the pink, red and black rayon paper. I had left over glue and decided to add these colours to the collection. In a few weeks some more rayon papers should be delivered and I hope to add some greens and pale blues.


Underneath these colours are some truly awful reds and oranges in watercolour. After adding the blues, greens and yellows, I was still unhappy and decided to add white directly to the paper. The brush was a little dry and there wasn't much paint in the dish. The thin white glaze was just the thing to sort it all out.


I am happy with both these pieces. Above, torn strips of tissue paper glued over each other randomly, as well as flecks of the mauve rayon paper. A couple of blue bits blew in when the cat jumped onto the table to see what was going on.


This is the highlight of my day's work. This began as squished pansies and hydrangea petals. It is my next project (along with the other 4 or 6 or 10) . First I reinforced the back with a sheet of paper, then I took a huge breath and added some blue acrylic splatters and lines, then another deep breath and some light mauve lines and splatters. I think there are some soft green splatters in there as well. After my heart rate came back to normal, it went back up again. I think I've succeeded in making this a background that will be very fun to stitch into.

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