Lutradur Texture from Digital Print

Book of Forests 1 also contains a set of lutradur pages.  Depicted here are the front and back of these pages.  The lutradur has been printed with the same print as the watercolor paper from the previous post.  It is then lightly heat distressed, and attached wrong sides together with another piece of lutradur printed.  The prints are then attached with small stitches of metallic thread.

Textures of Book of Forests 1 Continued

Textures featured here are another back to back section of Book of Forests 1.  The top page is a digital print on watercolor paper.  On top of the watercolor page is a pattern taken from the other print.  This pattern is printed on a bark paper purchased from an on line paper company.  It doesn't have the same texture as my amate bark paper, so now my bark paper prints come from my hand made bark paper.

Here is the opposite side of this group of pages.  It has a watercolor paper digital print base. Pieces of watercolor paper are cut with crochet added around the cut shapes.  These elements are then attached to the watercolor print base and attached to the front side before folding and adding these pages to the accordion style book.

Textural Journal Pages

These pages are from my Book of Forest Series.  As usual this collage is based on the textural elements of the forest.  The prints for this page are on Organdy and small bits of watercolor paper.  The page is put together by hand with a variegated thread with twigs for accents.  Here are both sides of 4 pages of the book.  The composition you see is folded in half to add to the accordion signatures in the book.  The treads are loose and hanging, fringy.  This is one of my all time favorite assemblages for my books and is the reason this book remains in my permanent collection:)

Look for more posts this week and next on the textures of Book of Forests 1. 

Metal Mesh Collage Details

Creating textures from digitally printing metals and metal mesh is challenging.  Metals are mostly smooth surfaces.  When you get into metal mesh the grid of the weave shows textures on it's own.  Then there are the surfaces that are such a wide mesh that the ink flows right through when digitally printed.  These need to be altered before printing.  Beverage cans are smooth but have their own individual look when printed.  Regardless how you handle metals the textures are wonderful when treated correctly and printed on an archival ink jet printer.

These detail prints are from one of my pages in a giant Forest Book.  These are studies as I work out any solutions in putting a book of this size together.  Completed pages are posted on my KathyAnne Art Blog.

Digital prints on aluminum screen make up the top left corner. Fine copper mesh is the base surface.  small pieces of printed printers plates and printed mesh are strung with beads and without to enliven the surface. 

Cut outs of prints on aluminum screen are attached to the surface with waxed polyester thread.

Pieces of printed aluminum mesh are crocheted together with waxed polyester thread.

Recycled printers plates riveted over fine metal mesh prints.  For a look at the finished visit go to my KathyanneArt blog.

Encaustic with Paper Clay Textures

The last few months I have been experimenting with other surfaces to print or assemble with printed surfaces.  These encaustic pieces are the first of a group of around 50 that will be attached to a 4 foot x 2 foot panel for one of my forest books.  The are used in a stack of digital prints, dyed fiber, metal mesh and assembled with encaustics.  The affect if the colored wax on the surface of the clay can be altered as you melt the wax and it moves around on the clay.  The fired clay piece is rigid and prevents the wax from cracking.  The background for the clay pieces is in the works and will be printed on lutradur.

The stacks of texture start with a bottom layer of metal mesh,  then dyed and frayed burlap, fired paper clay, digital prints on lutradur and/or paper, pieces of fiber and encaustics wrapped.  These pieces are wrapped with waxed linen.  In the detail pictures you can see the wax lightly coloring the clay  on the screen and encasing some of the textures.  

Digitally Printed Amate Bark Paper Textures

In working with a new series of large size books (see post "A New Idea about Digitally Printed Alternative Surfaces" on my KathyAnne Art blog ) I created some bark paper with the amate bark process.  I used a pound of kozo fiber from Japan, boiled, simmered and cooled the fiber before pounding it into paper.  These pieces are details from a larger piece that is collaged from the prints created.

The bark paper is printed, layered with other prints.  When the paper was made, I left holes and spaces.  In order to keep this see through idea going throughout the collage, I used large pony type beads to separate the layers of paper and tied the beads inside with waxed linen thread.

Textures in Photoshop

When I work with digital images to print on my alternative surfaces, I usually create textures within Photoshop before printing my surfaces.  Putting together a new project this week, I will be doing a lot of printing and am beginning to experiment with images to see what will actually make up to surfaces in the final piece.

Here I have combined 2 photographs and used them to texture each other and blend them for the composition.

Altered Composition Book

In the last few weeks I have been working on some paper clay pieces to experiment with textures and  combine them with my digital work.  The ceramics in this post is created from a regular composition book you can buy anywhere.  The book is covered in paper clay slip to saturate the pages before firing the book at Cone 10.  It is supported by a piece of paper clay slab so the book wouldn't fall apart in the kiln.  This piece is VERY fragile and tiny pieces crumble off if it is touched in the slightest.  At some parts of the book, it is strong clay.  There is an incredible amount of texture.  I photographed the fired book and also took several detail shots.

Another composition book is waiting to be fired.  Since there is so much water in the book it takes quite awhile to dry.   The slip in the new piece is applied differently and I am anxious to see if the results are similar or not.  This piece may be collaged with encaustic elements.  In process are other paper clay pieces and I should have most of them ready to embellish with my alternative digital surfaces this week.  

Paper Clay and Digital Prints

For the last few weeks I have been creating elements out of paper clay.  The purpose is to find a surface to combine with my digital prints and encaustics to create bundles.  I am starting to build up my ceramic pieces to start studies of my ideas. The clay is fired at cone 10 in a final fire only, no bisque and no glaze.

This piece of paper clay includes a digitally printed cheesecloth skin and a piece of printed and melted tyvek.   Still in the works, not sure where this will end up, but I hope to have several studies done by the end of next week.

Textures of Crochet

Crochet is often used in my work to develop textural layers. In my spare time I love to crochet for fun. Awhile ago one of my friends sent me a picture of a large work that Prudence Mapstone an incredible crochet artist from Australia. My friend, Carol Wiebe, said that Ms. Mapstone was to crochet like I am to printing assembling my surfaces. Since i think Carol's and Prudences work is amazing, I loved the compliment. (Carol's new ebook Turn a Series of Small Quilts into an Art Book shows her innovative crochet binding for journals and books.)

Playing around with a small free style crochet project shows the amazing textures in yarn and the process of this type of fiber art. This piece is being created with one yarn color and type. The yarn pictured is nubbly, lightweight and variegated. Once all the random elements are finished they will be randomly attached together to finish the piece.

Work in Progress

A couple of weeks age (see Five Layers of Texture) I posted the pieces encompassing the layers for this piece.

The piece is still in  progress as I have been melting and tearing the layers to put them back together again.  In the detail you may be able to see the beads that help separate the layers.  I am still at the -pulling the sections apart stage of the process.  As I pull them apart and reposition the layers, I use beads to give depth to the layers.

Hemp and Burlap

This weeks texture comes from a new idea in the works.  This new idea will be a group of installation type books.  In order to see how this idea can develop I am working on 10  pages.  Each page will measure 2 feet wide by 4 feet in height. The construction of the first book is being worked out moment by moment.

For the start of one of the pages hemp and dyed burlap are combined with crochet.  Once this part of the page is finished,  digital prints of patterns from the Waipoua forest will be cut and assembled into the finished piece.  The books theme is forest textures constructed by mixed media and digital prints on alternative surfaces.  Right now I am experimenting with putting the first of the books together before going forward.  Starting an environment of pushing the digital print further then I have before and continuing to use my prints in textural ideas.

 This piece is 4 feet long and 8 inches wide.  It is composed of dyed burlap that has been cut and crocheted into the piece with hemp.

Detail

Amate Bark Print Textures

One of my favorite textural surfaces I create from Kozo Bark that is pounded into paper using the amate bark process.  When coated with inkAID digital grounds, it makes an incredibly beautiful textural print.
In the next couple weeks I will be creating and finishing a 2 foot by 4 foot piece using my amate bark paper that is in the works.

For this process the bark is soaked in water and boiled, separated into fibers that are woven together and pounded with a flat rock to create the surface.  Once the surface dries, the surface is coated with inkAID Clear Matte precoat and printed on my Epson 4800.  When pounding the paper it has to be the correct thickness to fit through the printer.

Five Layers of Texture

Combining crocheted hemp, a digital print on cheesecloth skin and 3 digital prints on lutradur this piece will be assembled using beads and silk yarn.  The print is the same, although there are differences in the printing of the different surfaces.  The bottom layer of the piece will be crocheted hemp and the other 4 layers will be assembled using beads as spacers to separate and add depth to the layers.  Once the top layers of lutradur are completely assembled with the cheesecloth and hemp a heat gun will be used to melt out other sections of the lutradur.  This allows the cheesecloth skin to show through and changes the configuration of the lutradur texture.