Studio Sunday

Counting down the days until Christmas.  Is it really here already???  A week from today???  Wow, how time flies!  I started yesterday very productively in the studio and had to take a break to run out to do an errand and ended up at the mall for hours.  I think I can safely say that I am done shopping. Ugh

I've been playing around with my Thermofax screens and layering them on fabric collages.  I think my main goal is to create the same effects that one would get if creating a painting or collage on paper or canvas with layers.  There is so much to experiment with; dark and light backgrounds, high contrast, low contrast, and focal point imagery.  This is a challenge for me as I could easily create this look and feel within Photoshop Elements but within that program you can change or undo anything you don't like.  I hate to waste materials but it's all a part of the process to be able to get to what you think will work.



This one I used 2 background screens on and then for my focal point, I used two of the mini canvas screens from Garden Party-1.  I started with a piece of white cotton fabric and spread Gesso across it randomly with a squeegee (use a credit card instead).  While the Gesso was still wet, I went into it with some acrylic craft paint in green that you can see in the background.  Then I used dark brown with my Checkerboard screen in brown and then went over that with ecru colored acrylic and one of my newer screens (the ones I printed on paper in an earlier post).



I waited for that to dry before screening the Garden Party minis on top, let that dry and then went in with the watercolor.  To finish the collage off, I  added hand and machine stitching making sure it didn't overpower the painted minis.  I'm really liking it!

I felt the need to spit some words out so I gathered my alphabet stamps and had a go at it.  I didn't have a plan in mind as to what I wanted to print so I kind of just let the words come on their own.  This is only half of the words I printed and I'm thinking about how I want to use these in a project. 


Deep down, I have a lot of thoughts and feelings built up but I'm not sure how I want to express them.  So for now, I will just play and let the words just come out without any plan.  I could definitely see a fabric collage journal using these.  We will see.....

I hope you are all having a super creative weekend or at least setting aside a little creative time for yourself as you get ready for the holidays!

Comments

HollyM said…
I love your Photoshop collages and I love this! I think it has a slightly different look and of course as you said the process is a bit different.
It must be fun to get your hands in the paint.
It would certainly be nice if we could layer and play with actual materials and undo what we don't like as easily as we can in Photoshop. I guess that is what experimenting and serendipity is for huh?