Chookys and thread waste

After looking at the bag of thread waste hanging off my sewing table, seeing it get so full and I have another full bag in the drawer - decided to use it in a pic.  I've been sketching my Chookys again and have just sketched Singing Chooks - see below.

I traced this sketch onto tracing paper as a pattern and free machined it onto some tea-dyed calico.  Two layers for stability.  I used various colours of thread to match my sketch.  I always draw my Chookys in different colours each time; partly to give them all individual characters but also because I want to.  The last 2 years that I have spent studying Visual Arts at Marden have freed me up from artistic constraints.  This is the Singing Chookys in free-machining and waste thread.  I like the way they dance and the thread waste gives them movement, looks like it's flying around.

I have already made one book of Chookys, which you can't see until the Marden Cert 4 Exhibition next April at Pepper Street Gallery, but I am thinking of making a textile version now.

Browsing through some lovely hand-made artist book sites - love this:
http://www.cecilia-letteringart.com/artistbooks/dineke_basscoastdog.htm

Dyed paper

This is one of the papers I tie-dyed below, with a random string tie - I think one of the images looks like Catwoman and the one before it on the left, which was the sheet that I unpeeled from Catwoman, looks like a splayed-out cat!  Any one else think the same?

Making a journal from recycled papers and covers

First, another bird photo from Linear Park, Adelaide - an Eastern Rosella.

Just a thought - birds are inspiration - birds keep moving - keep the inspiration moving by watching birds - I used to go roller skating like Cherry the Chook but now I go for walks along by the river and get my inspiration from all the birds there.  Such beauty in everyday sights.

Cherry the Chook on roller skates - Cherry is my personal phoenix, a chook that I draw in many different poses.

This is the front page/endpaper of a journal I have just made.  This one I decided to make entirely from recycled things.  I bought a hardcover children's book in the charity shop and removed the text block to use later.  The cover is in good condition.  For the paper inside, I took from my recycle box old A4 notebook pages with notes I no longer need, and A4 paper with stuff I had printed from the computer but that I had now updated and again, no longer needed.  I can't throw away paper only printed on one side anymore.  The notepad paper was a bit thin but by the time I had painted it all with acrylic paints that I had leftover from last year's Fabric Painting class, that thickened it up a bit.  Some sides I left unpainted for variety.  I used lots of different colours and let them mix, and let them pick up paint that had transferred to my plastic sheet.  I used rollers for all of it.  The effects were great, and I will post more pix on my website when I update the Book Arts Page - currently working on that and hope to have it up and running by the end of October.  I still made it using Flat Back instructions (for strength) from Keith Smith, my favourite book artist, in his book "Bookbinding for Book Artists".  I have used this book so much since I bought it, it is very detailed and not just instructions in it but also photos of artist books.  Worth every cent of $35 U.S.

I will have more pix on my Book Arts Page once it is updated, hopefully by the end of October.

Bread tag art

I'm not the only fan of recycling bread tags as you will see shortly.  First a pic of my bread tag emu -

I used only white bread tags on a background, with black tissue paper on a piece of card; from that I cut out my emu running shape and placed over the tags.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/about-town/artist-finds-beauty-in-the-plastic-bread-tag-20110701-1gtxt.html This link goes to a page that is fascinating - have a look.

Another Tuesday post

David the (possible) Goliath Stick Insect

A bit more on my visit to the Adelaide Zoo - I'm not absolutely sure (there was no sign on it) but I think this is a Goliath Stick Insect.  It was certainly big enough, about 20cm/8" long.  Quite fascinating.  I gave him a name which was a bit obvious but he is rather cute.

Just some of a large quantity of dyed paper

I took advantage of our spring weather to dye some paper last week.  Some was white tissue paper and cardridge paper and some was brown paper bags (mainly Subway).

I wanted some solid(ish) colours which was the brown paper bags, and with the sheets of white tissue I dropped drops of contrasting colours on the dye-painted sheets to give random effects.  I started dyeing paper after I bought a little book from the charity shop called Tie-Dyed Paper, by Anne Maile.  It took my previous dyeing experience of fabric a step further, and as I now make books, journals and bookmarks, this technique is getting used quite a lot.  I tried to find out more about Anne Maile but couldn't.

I used Procion dyes which I get from Kraftkolour who I find to be extremely helpful, over the phone or email, and quick to deliver your order.  Remember these are not natural dyes but chemicals so you must be careful to use gloves; having said that, I have never had any problems with them.  You must wear a dust mask when making the dye powder up into liquid to avoid breathing the dust, but once in liquid form just wear gloves.  It takes ages to wear off skin - I speak from experience!  Procion dyes have wonderful bright colours in many shades.  I store the excess in plastic bottles left over from liquid soap, and it lasts for ages, ready to reuse.  I think there is a time limit once it is liquid but I have stored it for months and used it and it's been fine.

Inspiration at the Adelaide zoo

A trip to the Adelaide zoo produced some beautiful feathers on the ground - and a close encounter with a very tame Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, one of our native beauties.  This parrot flew close to all visitors and perched next to them until they stroked him.

Birds are such inspirational creatures to me; I have often embroidered them in a traditional manner and now I'm looking at ways to interpret them in a more contemporary fashion.  I have started using the larger and longer feathers that I find as bookmarks, by stitching some strong thread through the quill twice, and sewing the top to the book itself, on the spine, or if a spiral bound journal, attach to the spirals easily enough.

The three middle feathers are Eclectus parrot; the others I don't know

Sustainability

One of my most important concepts in my work and my life is the issue of recycling/upcycling.  Apparently someone called   Reiner Pilz of Pilz first used the term upcycling as opposed to recycling, because recycling often means smashing up items to remake them into something of less value.  Upcycling as a term means giving an item more value by reusing it in a different way.
With recycling/upcycling comes sustainability - for our own personal resources and cash, for the beautiful planet we live on.  There is much in our daily art and craft practice that we can reuse.  When we experiment with a technique and hate the result, we can use that as the backing layer for something else.  If we print an article that we decide is irrelevant after all, we can upcycle those pages into a trial run for a folded book.  You get the idea.  My own favourite is using bread tags as beads - yes those little plastic things around the top of the plastic bread bag.  More and more plastic, but this is something I collect and use to hang from the spine of my journal.  Use heat-protective gloves when heat-gunning; they curl up beautifully, singly or in groups.  Or use them as they are because even a small heat gun uses up electricity.

Bread Tag Beads, heat-gunned

I have been inspired often by re-reading the following post on "Slow Cloth".
http://www.handeyemagazine.com/content/slow-cloth
Jude Hill (Spirit Cloth) and Elaine Lipson (Red Thread Studio) are two artists who use and promote Slow Cloth principles, which you can read in HandEye above.