Working with Metal Collage

It's almost mid August and I have not posted here this month.  It's been kind of a crazy time.  Finishing a new ebook- Wrap it Up: journals with style and teaching 2 workshops at Art Unraveled.  So I'm in my studio now for awhile and anxious to get back to work.  While I am here I will be wringing an ebook on digital printing and working on new artwork.

Metal collage is on the agenda.  Collage-a combination or collection of various things.  Mine will be mostly metal, metal mesh, wires, beads and other elements.  Before leaving for Art Unraveled I printed 10 printers plates and now will be working with them to do textural surfaces.  Here I have posted pics on 2 things- one a beverage can box we created in one of my workshops last week and the 2 pieces that will start my new metal collage piece.  By next week at this time I will have the collage finished and post it.


As for the beverage can box, it is created from a digital prints on beverage cans using hemp, wire, beads a hole punch and scissors.

Texture on Surfaces

It's been a busy time around my studio.  Finishing a new ebook that should be ready next week.  Getting ready to teach at Art Unraveled and participate in their vendor day- Shopping Extravaganza.  Plus all the other things I am inspired to do around here.  Where does the time go?

Once my current ebook is finished, another ebook is in the works on the subject of digital printing.  Then to follow that one a second part with new and extraordinary surfaces to print.  Posted here are some tests for some ideas.

The surfaces have been altered in some way before printing.  Archival tissue paper has been used as well as sand, gesso, mica flakes, pumice gel and a few others.  It is hard to see this is photos and there are no before pics.  When the surface are prepared to print for inclusion in my ebook, I will have pictures of the flat image, textured surface before printing and textured surface after printing.  This way the pics will reflect the altered surface.

Monsoon Texture

Here in big sky country we see an awesome display in the sky during our monsoon season.  Since I crashed my hard drive several months ago that had my images from the last several years, I'm into building a library again.  This month will be nature around my studio and then creating as many images as I can to get my library going again.  Later this week I will get into what's on the ground around my studio.  Today it's whats in the sky:)

Finding Objects

So many things to keep me busy right now. I am writing 2 ebooks, one called "Wrap it Up : Journals with Style" and the other I keep changing my mind on the title, but it will be about digitally printing alternative surfaces.  I would like the digital printing ebook to be an action guide with lots of information and hints about successfully printing fabric and other surfaces.  I haven't finished the list of what will be in it yet, but I'm getting there.  Seems like my time flies by and then I wonder what I have been doing.

Well here is something I started a few weeks ago.  I live on 6 acres in Northern Arizona.  Recently I started thinking that there must be found objects or stuff that is on our property that could be used in my work.  So it started with finding something rusty now and then.  All of a sudden my pile of stuff has grown quite a bit.  It amazes me that after living here for 10 years I never saw any of this stuff before.  Yesterday I was taking something to my shed when found several rusty pieces on the ground right in front of my shed.   I have probably have stepped on them many times and just noticed them.

Then sometimes I think what was left here over hundreds of years, how many people passed through here and dropped things or camped and enjoyed the land. Oh well here is some of the things that I will use but I have no idea how quite yet.  There are a few things missing because I put them in a safe place and they are really safe cause I can't find them.  One of them is an extremely long nail sort of like a railroad spike.  

Wonder how long that rusty can has been here.  Can't wait to see what I'll find next. 

Working with Printed Metals

One of my new favorite things is using prints of printers plates, metal mesh and the usual beverage cans and mixing it up with other elements.  I have also been toying with metal mesh printed and then assembled into squares.  I'll show you the cube thing later, but for now here are a couple of the mesh pieces I have been doing for studies.

 This first pic is the study for one of my 2 ft x 4 ft book pages. Created with printed beverage cans-the base is a beverage can in a bark pattern, the next layer is a different can print attached to the top of the base can. I put the cans together with a crochet strip of a paper wrapped metal that I get from a bead store here in Prescott.  This makes the connection pliable and bendable.  Each square has hemp that connects it to the crochet.  I will be printing cans in the next few days to make a similar piece for my forest book page.

 This piece is created in a random manner.  It contains beverage can pieces and metal mesh pieces woven through a piece of black hardware cloth with copper wire.  Yes it is time consuming but pretty much most of what I do it.  Case in point is the piece below.

This has 3 layers- bottom in aluminum hardware cloth in its original silver state.  Over that is a piece of aluminum window screen attached to the hardware cloth with beads and stainless wire.  The top is cut out from a digital print on a printers plate.  The cut out has been wrapped with the same stainless wire that connected the beads.  This is a detail of the piece.

Getting it Together

After spending a week out of town, my to do list became long and mighty:)  Deadlines looming so I put myself right into it.  No matter what I do my table and studio ends up piled with all sorts of stuff I pull out to work on and then it keeps getting moved around.  Here are my tables as I put together some ideas for a workshop.  

Textures Around my Studio

Nothing better then taking a walk on some of the trails around my studio.  A few weeks ago I noticed some  piles of chopped wood that had been laying in the brush away from to road so today I took a closer look.  Some of the wood looks really soft and it all has been there for awhile and is totally weather beaten.  Took some pics and am spending time combining them with other images to print on handmade surfaces, cheesecloth skin and maybe some metal also.  

Mixing Metals

Lately I have been working with digitally printed metals for collage.  Printing recycled printer plates gives me a surface somewhat larger than my beverage cans to use as a base.  Combining other printed metals like metal mesh, beverage cans, wire and found rusty items makes a good mix for dimensional collage.  The pieces here are small and studies to enlarge as I work with metal.  Planning a new 24" x 48" page for one of my large books will start with a base of printed metal pieces then building other 3d elements to build the final page.

The Textures of Water

Merced River in Yosemite National Park is always wonderful for photography.  Constantly changing  water movement is mesmerizing. It's fun to imagine the sound even when you aren't there.

Textures in Bark

Using bark to create textures inspires me.  Plugging images into the shapes of the bark allows other shapes and dimension to appear.  Here are a few textural images from bark.