Swap One, Abandon 6

Why release only 1 ATC into the world, when you can release 6!

Tissue prints, stamps, inks, layers and layers and layers, washi tape, and text. The challenge was Swap One, Abandon 1, but it was so much fun to make a whole batch of them. When I work out how to up/download images from my phone, I'll put up the pix of the 'hides'. And when I get home, I'll put up a pic of the one that was swapped.

This is the 'official' abandoned card  - put in the Asian Foods section of the supermarket:

And this is the 'swap' one that was sent overseas:

"That is an astonishingly beautiful card!" Thank you!

October Resolution

I'm feeling inspired to blog.

I don't do New Year's resolutions - I never keep them for a start. But I am making an October resolution.

When I started doing theological studies, I found out I had to learn a biblical language. I decided I should learn Hebrew. Looking back, I can see that it was probably as much to impress the new 'big people' in my life, as it was a desire to learn something new. And I've been trying, off and on, over the last two years, to learn it. Then at the beginning of this year, I found out about an on-line e-learning course from an Israeli university. But it was $900! American! But the characters just won't stick in my brain - it's just so different from any language I know, and I'm mono-lingual!

On the other hand, Greek characters do stick in my brain. Because they're so much closer to English characters, maybe? I can look at a greek word, and work out what the letters are, and sometimes, what the meaning is.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I finally came to my senses last month after a conversation with someone who I hope is a new friend (and counsellor). 'How often are you actually going to use it?!' Well, when you put it like that ... there's only 1 person in my life who speaks Hebrew, and he's withdrawn from church life, so ... yeah, put like that ...

So, on to the October Resolution. Instead of studying Hebrew (or Greek for that matter), I'm going to study ART. Yeah! Really! I've got all these e-learning art courses which I've bought, looked at, but NOT ACTUALLY DONE! Plaster, Encaustic, Acrylic Painting, backgrounds, mixed media techniques ... (There's probably more, but damned if I can remember them all).

I have one more written assignment, and then a Theology exam in November, plus the remaining 5 study modules. Once they're done, it's ART TIME!

It's time to stop talking about doing it, and start DOING IT!

I've joined two wonderful facebook groups recently, which have really stimulated my desire - and in some ways my opportunity to actually create. These are Artist Trading Cards and Magically Mixed Art Community. The other site I recently joined is Swap Bot, which is an exchange site. All three are wonderful communities of artists. I've got seriously into making ATC's (Artist Trading Cards), which are 3 1/2 x 2 1/2" cards that are only traded, never sold. The small size means they can be done relatively quickly, and there's something to show at the end of it. You are not limited to a particular style or medium, which makes them ideal for mixed media.

Let's see if I can find some pictures of what I've done recently ...

Bookmarks - Embossed and decorated.

 

ATC Swap - Christian Letter C: Illuminated Chi-Rho. Metallic paints, gel pens.

 

ATC Swap - Pop-Up Card: Forgotten Memories. This one and Guadelupe (below) took about 10 hours + to do. The Swap Coordinator had a link to a You-Tube clip showing how to make this pop-up, but it was at least postcard sized, if not bigger. I had to reduce all the parts in size to fit the 3 1/2 x 2 1/2 ATC format (and I can't do maths!). I made a couple of dummy attempts before making the real ones. Then creating the 3D front decorations was another time-consuming effort - but so much fun! You hold the red part of the base, while sliding the pink striped wrapper either backwards to make it stand up, or forwards to make it lay down. The keys and clock are from cardstock. There's a little metal clasp from a fishing swivel attached to the fibres, clock and keys.

 

Guadelupe or Coatlaxopeuh.

The frame is made from corrugated cardboard, with diamantes and silver glitter glue blobs. The saint herself is cut in 4 layers, each piece separated by sticky-dots.

 

 

 

ATC Swap - Paper Free: acrylic 'skin' heart with metallic paints in the skin; held on to plastic sheet (from a notebook) by heart brads; polymer clay 'love' stamp held on by copper wire. Embellished with lace.

ATC Swap - Book Page and Stamp: This was taken from 'The Wind in the Willows' by Kenneth Grahame. I cut out the text on that page and used a selection to make a poem. The stamp is a New Zealand one from the 1920's. It's actually reversed, as I was intending to use it as an image transfer.

 

 

 ATC Swap - Summer: 3D pohutukawa tree, beach and sky. 'Summer' rub on transfer. Not happy with the word, but never mind. Added 3 fluffy red balls - meant to be pohutukawa flowers! I think this was one of the first ones I did!
 

 

 Work in progress - minibook - skewered pages. Really need to get this finished.

So part of doing more art is also getting back into making the minibooks - it kind of fell by the wayside with everything else (particularly study) getting in the way.

ATC SWAPS COMING UP:
With Swap-Bot: Steam Punk; Victorian Mourning (3 cards); Christian Alphabet Letter D

With FB ATC group: Fall/Autumn; Coffee Lovers; Alternative Hello Kitty; October Lottery; NYC; George Tooker; Completely from a Magazine, book or newspaper; Carousel Animals; Tattooed Owls; Steampunk; That Jolly Old Elf.

Wow! 13 Swaps - most are 3 card swap - I have to make 3 of each theme. That will get me working, won't it!

So the intention is to blog about each ATC as I do it. I'd also like to try to put up some tutorials of stuff I've learned, that others might be interested in. Maybe I'll get more followers - who knows! It's all about me on this one!



Environmental Stewardship is Good Theology

Link to Russell Article

I think Russell is correct in his reasoning. His theology is contextual and correlational in that it is Christian faith trying to understand the things of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. All humans share this same creation. Scripture is at the very centre of God's instructions to rule over, work and steward His ‘good’ and ‘very good’ earth and creatures. (Genesis 1:26; 2:15) There is a clear industrial and caretaking responsibility for Christian environmental stewardship of nature.

As Russell says, God delights in us enjoying his gifts. Genesis 1:28 commands us to create community and steward creation. John 14:21 calls us to obey – love for Father and Son cannot be separated – by respecting his good creation. Through Christ we have guidelines for properly handling and interacting with the environment that will prevent us from pantheistic thinking, and falling into heresy.

The sin of Adam changed nature from working in perfect harmony to a struggle and toil (Gen 3:17), and Paul affirms this (Romans 8:22). Genesis 1:27 shows there is an unequal relationship between man and nature – we have God-given souls, and are created in His image, separate from all other living things. We can act on this truth now, in the tension of now but not yet, and ease the pain of a groaning creation.

God will redeem the physical and spiritual, and that salvation is for all creation, which needs supernatural healing, reconciliation of all things – redemption. (Romans 8:5, 21; Coll 1:19-20) It is dualistic thinking to say that the world is evil or irredeemable. We can express our concern for creation as a gift from God, and desire for non-Christians to understand the infinite fullness of the Creator through our work and our love of Jesus Christ.

Teacher's Response:
Sue
And your post is another possible response to this article ! Thanks for building on the content and offering some further theological remarks
I think you are on the right track regarding Russell: that he is opening up soem of the characteristics of Christian living in the light of what Scripture tells us of God's character
One does not have to agree with all Russell's suggestions or find all of them equally well founded
thanks
Judith

Tui on Flax Stalk Postcard

The latest postcard to be winging its way overseas - this time to Arizona.

The background colours are blues and greens, with surgical gauze used to create the pattern. I've never done a 'still life' painting like this before,so I'm quite pleased how it came out. Here's the original photo:

Citra-Solv + National Geographic Background Images

D-Limonene is my new playmate!

I discovered a 'new' technique while trolling the interwebz the other day. It involved using something called citra-solv and old National Geographic magazines to make interesting background pages. Now, I don't know how I ended up seeing these backgrounds, but one site I got to was that of Pam Tucker who has done some amazing pieces using these backgrounds. But there was almost no information as to HOW to do it.

Googling Citra-solv got me to their Art Pages, but again, no instructions (They've put Pam's name on a label on the bottom for handy artist tips! How about that for fame!). Found a few other sources of images, and finally, a discussion group. Now, it turns out that this is only new to ME - it was really 'in' around 2010 - figures - only 2 years behind the pack, lol. Anyway, of course it's really hard to find Citra-Solv in New Zealand. It contains the citrus oil D-Limonene, which you find in a lot of cleaning products. We have something called De-Solv-It (made in Australia), but it's 70% Hydrocarbons, 20% D-Lim, and 10% other stuff - not strong enough!

THE TECHNIQUE So, assuming you can find some D-Lim or Citra-Solv, what do you do? You find copies of old National Geographic magazines, and paint the pages with this stuff. The theory is (which may be urban legend) that NatGeo uses a gold-based paint on their nice glossy paper. There's a chemical reaction that occurs when you paint it with D-Lim, which causes it to 'hubble, bubble, toil and trouble' - and the original pictures becomes unrecognisable, changing into something quite unreal. Humidity and temperature made a big difference in how long it takes to 'cook'.

Out in the garage, sitting at 10degC, it took a couple of hours for any change to happen - bring it inside, at 18-20decC, and it only took about 10 min - it was a lot more humid in the laundry than the garage too. Wear gloves, and make sure there's plenty of ventilation - this stuff stinks! Also plenty of newspaper (which you'll need to get rid of) is useful.

Grr - went back to Citra-Solv's site - and guess what I found - a tutorial!!!!

I tried another glossy mag I picked up yesterday too, (a Japanese interior decoration one!), but the magic didn't happen.

So, here's my first attempt:

[Original image: fisherman & fish]

[Original image: women in burqa holding child - I deliberately kept the child's face visable]

[Original image: water and fish (I think!)]

[Original Image: bow of boat and fish]

[Original Image: dog and water]

Oh, and because I couldn't bear the smell, I actually put the pages into the bath, sprayed with Spray-n-Wipe (which also contains Citrus oil), and hosed them down with warm water. It got the excess oil and a bit of the smell of.

Specialist Cleaning Supplies in Palmerston North have 750ml bottles of D-Limonene for about $30 + shipping.

A friend has said I can have their collection of old NatGeo's (thanks Theresa!), so more to come. I'd love to see what they look like under wax, and also done as ATC's.

Circles and Cycles - going round and round

I am a mixed media artist. Name it and claim it, girl. Been reading up on using a product called citra-solv, which is basically d-limonene (orange peel) used to alter pages of National Geographic's for mixed media backgrounds. Each of the people I have come across also work in encaustic. I'd just said to darling hubby that their art and mine seems to be going in circles and cycles and then the last site I hit on said: "It seems I work in cycles, and put aside one media for another, and then resurrect it based on what inspires me, or if I have a specific idea or goal to work on." That's exactly how I'm feeling at the moment. I'm doing a couple of swap challenges (ATC's and postcards), and Random Acts of Art, and I keep coming back round and round - gotta get that hot plate out! I've joined a site called Swap-Bot and am taking part in two ATC card swaps, one a 'Summer' Theme, the other Christian Alphabet B is for ... Theme; a postcard swap whose theme is based on the 'likes' of your swap partner. I've had buzzy brain about the first two - ideas started popping into my head immediately! I'm making the ATC's in batches of 6 (that's what I can get from an A4 piece of card), so I'll choose the best one to send for the swap, and the rest in the series will be released as RAA's. I have also promised to send 3 postcards to RAA friends in the USA. Starting to get ideas as to what these will be - phew! 6 Postcards have just been sent to the USA for another international swap:

Now I'm hanging out to get a couple of NatGraph's, some citra-solv (or it's imported equivalent), and to get the hotplate going, and to get some baby wipes so I can use those, and and and ...

Piano Hinge MiniBook - woven skewer version

It's the binding that makes it a 'piano-hinge'. A number of notches are cut along the edge of each signature. Alternate notches are then pushed forward, and skewers are threaded through the tabs, locking each signature into the next. The skewers are  bound with black linen thread, and decorated with gold open-weave yarn and beads.

The covers of each signature are scrapbook card, pink with dark-pink glitter circles. The signatures are coloured copy paper. I used 'postal' pattern scissors to cut out the image, and press-on words.

Page painted with interference colours, colour copy image transfer of vintage New Zealand stamp, and stamped tree.

Quote, washi paper 'Paris', stamps curlies.

'Postage' cut image, rub on flower, stamping and paua.

rub on quote.

Zentangle - just learning to do this - fun!

I gave this to my friend Lindsay, who'd had a long and stressful day. I hope she likes it.