Recycling Paper with Digital Prints

This new piece in the works combines digital prints on recycled dictionary pages, ice resin, cotton cording, and crochet to create an extremely textural surface.  The words play against the colors in the digital print.  Once the prints are torn and strung on the cotton cord, the prints are crocheted.  There are over 120 prints that have been lightly coated with ice resin that takes them to a shiny surface. Not sure how many prints are in this so far, but there is lots to go.  The interesting way the prints and random shapes are connected assist me in wanting to push forward.  I'm loving the textures as they combine with colors and shapes.  Slow going, but fun!

More Encaustic with Digital Prints

These studies include digital prints on alternative surfaces with encaustic. My inspiration is observing the effect of combining digital prints and other elements to build textures with the wax.  In the previous post the base of the encaustic collage was paper clay and the base surface of the clay was fluid.  These compositions are built on Ampersand clayboard which is flat.  Descriptions accompany each image.

6" x 6" clayboard, dyed cheesecloth, dyed burlap, waxed linen, digital print on lace paper, encaustic

Detail

4" x 4" clayboard, digital print on velum, encaustic

Detail

3" x 5" clayboard, digital prints on cheesecloth skin, dyed burlap, dyed cheesecloth, encaustic

Detail

6" x 6" clayboard, digital print on velum, encaustic built up for texture

Detail

5" x 12" digital print on torn kozo paper, encaustic  

Detail

Encaustics and Digital Prints

Encaustics create a wonderful companion medium for digital prints.  Last week I finished a page for my  Forest Book (see my KathyAnne Art post) constructed of digital prints on lutradur, melted and layered with encaustic pieces that have a base of paper clay with an assortment of digital prints and other textures. 

The process of using digital prints with encaustic has inspired me to create small studies combining textures, digital prints and paper clay with other textural elements in the wax.  In using one of my paper clay bases, I am able to have a foundation that flows and is more organic than flat. There is something beautiful going on with the combination of these surfaces which leads me to continue to pursue their partnership.  Here are a few of the results and a few comments on construction.  Later this week I will post additional pieces.  

Digitally printed water color paper, torn and layered.  encaustic, the grid is in the clay and the wax is melts into the grid texture.

Detail

The 2 pieces just above have digitally printed lutradur layered with encaustic.  The top piece uses  dyed cheesecloth on the paper clay base and the one below has a lace paper digital print on the paper clay under the lutradur pieces.

Detail of second lutradur piece

This piece is on a paper clay piece that is dyed before firing.  The digital print is on silk threaded paper and the print is on both sides of the paper before it is torn and layered with the wax.

Details

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.

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.

Crochet as a Main Textural Element

Crochet is something that appears in my work often.  When I was 7 my mother taught me to make my first ripple afghan.  While the ripples were not exactly in the same place in every row,  it was a great learning experience.  Of course now I know the experience taught me to stay away from patterns and ideas that were measured and you could visually see the mess ups. but when I was 7 it was frustrating and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get it right.

These textural surface were created with alternative digital prints that have been cut and then crochet has been used.  The first piece (above) has digitally printed beverage cans, strung on thin hemp and randomly crocheted with a double crochet stitch.  The piece measures 5" x 9".

This piece is created with a base of crocheted paper wrapped wire. There is an added element of a cutout of digitally printed watercolor paper with hemp crocheted encasing the cutout.  It measures 4" x 8".

The other part of the watercolor paper cutout from the proceeding piece, was encased in crochet of heavy hemp and mounted on painted board, with a digitally printed cutout on watercolor paper.
It measures 4" x 6".

Textural Pages

Funky stuffed books or journals intrigue me. Could be the nostalgia of my grandmothers old recipe books, with papers attached everywhere.  Notes, new recipes written out, all sorts of joined treasures inside the book as the pages overflowed.  This is probably my obsession towards textures in my journals and art books.  Assembling them is a free and flowing experience.

The subject of this textural post depicts the sides of stuffed and collaged journals.  Always a bit of texture that explodes from the sides of the journal.  At the end of August, exploration will start on textures coming alive from the side or journals using paper ceramics mixed with my digital textural surfaces.