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.

Textures on Digital Overprinted Skin

The textures for this digital overprint on a skin came from both the skin that had elements added when it was created and the digital image printed on the skin.  This skin is constructed with pieces of leaves and thread that are imbedded in the gel medium of the skin.  Clear Matte Precoat from inkAID is used for the precoat before printing.

Skin base

Digitally printed skin

Details of the skin print- some of the texture is from the texture of the printed image.  The rest of the texture is from the leaves and thread.

Art Fest 2011-Layered 3d Collage

On April 8, 2011 I will be at ArtFest  teaching - Layered 3D Collage.  This workshop will be full of all sorts of ideas on building layers and 3D elements.  One of the way I use little pieces of layers, textures, 3D elements and the like are in my journals.  This is an example of a journal that has been in the works for awhile and I have just finished the cover by finally putting it all together.  I love these things because they have all sorts of neat, fun pieces in them.  The journal is a little thick, but it always seems I like it that way.

You can get more information about my workshop Layered 3D Collage and also another one I will be teaching- Printing Alternative Surfaces by visiting the links above.  Click on the workshop titles in this post.

Some of the materials used are- digital prints on recycled beverage cans, cheesecloth skins,
an assortment of papers, buttons, beads, applique, what ever digital prints I found in my studio scraps and more.

Textured Lutradur in Melted Layers

As my work exhibits more and more textures, some of the surfaces, that are my favorites to print, evolve as I use them.  This section of lutradur has a watercolor paper base and the lutradur has been melted with a heat gun.  Two different pieces of lutradur have been used for the effect.  Then beads have been strung on 6 strands of embroidery thread and crocheted into short pieces that weave in and out of the melted lutradur.
Beads are also used as spacers to separate the layers of lutradur.  The lutradur section appears first in the pictures, followed by the finished piece.

Melted lutradur, embroidery thread, beads

Detail

Materials 

Digital prints on canvas, lutradur, wire mesh, beverage cans, watercolor paper and vellum

Encaustic, dyed burlap, dyed canvas, metalic thread, crochet hemp, beads

Materials

Digital prints on lutradur, watercolor paper, vellum and crinkle paper

beads, embroidery thread, metalic thread

Texture with Digital Prints on Beverage Cans

One of my favorite elements to work with are pieces of beverage cans that have been digitally printed.
The surface is beautiful when printed and after cutting the surface and weaving pieces together it has a inviting textural look.  Handling the work has the feeling of chain mail to me.  This piece is small at 29" x 14".

The yarn in the picture is the beginning of the bottom layer.  This layer will be crocheted with the depicted dyed silk yarn.  Yummy stuff this yarn, it's from RedFish DyeWorks.  These girls are great and have beautiful Yarns and fiber.  I met them at the Handweavers Guild of America in Albuquerque this July.  Once this piece is finished, there will be more places in my work to use their fiber. Even thinking of adding some of the silk yarn to the encaustic layers as I experiment with that medium.  See my Encaustic and Digitals post on my KathyAnne Art Blog.

Forest Surfaces 17, 29" x 14"

Digital prints of beverage cans, digital prints on metal mesh,

waxed linen, crocheted fine silk yarn