Insanity runs...

...and truly, that's all I can say about my studio week.

Not only have I played with embroidery until I'm near blind, I've been burning, burning, burning, and while there's little smoke involved it's definitely been an inferno in here.

Free-hand stencil cutting is an easy thing to do, and a leather burner is just the tool for it.  And doesn't that bright red handle look great with the grey?

The setup

Amorphous

Gridacious

Patternonia

City gridlock

Just in case you want to join me in my current/ongoing mania, this video will give you a good start.

While you're there, feel free to subscribe to my channel - I'm not only amused by house wrap and stencil burning, I get a kick out of seeing the number of subscribers increase.  In case you're curious about these stencils and their uses, check out the Layers of Gelli video too.

I've got four more of these to burn to reach my limit - you'll know I'm done when you feel the earth crack and rumble against your feet from the shouts of 

Yippee!    

Yahoo!!      

Hooray!!! 

Hallelujah!!!! 

Zowie!!!!!   

Yabba-Dabba-Do !!!!!! 

I want to see what stencils you've created, whether they're burned, cut or still in the mental preparation stage.  Let me know where I can find them in your comments below.  In the meantime, have a silly, playful, and fun week.  

Playtime is the best...

...time, don't you think?

Good friend and fellow artist Laura Leeder stopped by this past week for some playtime in the studio.  We'd been wanting to experiment with different uses for gesso, and we tore right into it.

Laura washing over a stenciled gesso floral...look at those wonderful colours!

The top leaves on the journal spread have been pounced through a stencil with gesso,
and then washed over with a pale acrylic.

This sienna-toned magazine page was stenciled with gesso,
and then washed over with quinacridone orange acrylic.

These images were stamped on to watercolour paper with gesso,
dried and then washed over with acrylics.

A credit card was used to push gesso through the stencil
before applying a wash or two.

Gesso was thickly applied and then distressed with a heat gun.
Washes of alcohol ink and ultramarine acrylic inks were applied.
White gesso was patted on with a paper towel over the black
gesso...nice pattern, right?

A house wrap stencil was used to apply the design,
and then it was spritzed with  Dylusions spray.

Laura's piece at the end of the session...I
suspect there will be more layers!

It was a most entertaining morning, and I hope we can do it again - soon!!

I'm always looking...

...for new ways to create interesting backgrounds, and I thought I'd share a couple of ideas with you this week.

I wound up with this, which I thought would be a good start to a painting.

The process started last week with a 6 x 6 tangle on fun foam (below right), and I immediately made a Gelli print (or ten) to see how it would look.

I liked it enough that I started a 9 x 12 piece (here) on fun foam,

and then went nuts with my beloved Gelli plate,

printing one

after another,

after another.  These ghost prints made with Golden Open Acrylics (have I told you how much I LOVE them for Gelli printing?) pleased me no end.  I thought this one would make a good start for the first photo,

so I created a house wrap stencil of vines that had been tickling the muse for a while.  I printed a first print on a clean sheet (not shown), and then over-printed the above with a ghost print.

I'm pretty happy with the results and just as soon as I finish my manic mandala fixation I'm going to be making more of both the fun foam tangles and the house wrap stencils.  I'll keep you posted with the results no doubt.

I'm in...

...the studio again, and it's chaos as usual.

Three piles of Gelli print fragments are strewn across one of the student tables,

a chair is stacked with paintings in progress,

and a folded book in stage three awaits hours of unfolding, and then curling.

A painting, recently coated with gel medium and then textured with a natural sponge sits drying on the drawing table,

along with stacks of mini canvasses from the Have a Heart series, in varying degrees of progress.

My 8 x 10 Gelli plate is anxious to test run a newly designed house wrap stencil, even though it's not yet completed, 

while a stack of 'Head Shots' wait nearby for some attention.  They want to be made into a booklet right now please.

So much fun...so little time.  Isn't the life of an artist the best thing ever?  I certainly refuse to argue that.

This week in the studio...

... I've spent a great deal of time working on a house wrap stencil (the wrap is actually  fibreweb by Typar).

I spotted the design on the bottom of a plastic tray for plants from the greenhouse...I stole it from long-suffering John, of course.  He knows that nothing is safe from my thievery if it's patterned, and knows enough to lock away any similar items when he thinks he'll need it later.

Transferring the design with a black pen, I then used my trusty stencil burner for hours and hours and then even more hours (it's a 12" x 14" stencil).

I love the pattern, cutting mistakes, warts and all.

While I'm rarely happy with the first print on a Gelli plate pull,

 I love the ghost prints,

which range from strong to subtle.

 And of course, after a while the stencil itself gains some beautiful colour.

Helpful Hint:  When using a stencil burner, ensure that your glass support is tempered, and that you use a steady slow motion.  It's particularly tricky burning a house wrap 'fabric', as they tend to be lumpy, bumpy and grooved.  I like this brand for its linear quality, though, which adds another dimension, particularly to Gelli prints.

I love these hand-burnt stencils for a couple of reasons - they are very thin and lovely to place underneath a commercial, thicker stencil, and because I cut them myself they have that hand-crafted look that is unique to the maker.  Check out Tuesday's post find out how you can learn more about Gelli printing!