Made it to Z in the A to Z Challenge!

 

 

I made it! The final day of the A to Z Challenge & I didn't miss a letter. 

One last artist to feature. This one not too far from me geographically.

 Judy Zeddies

 

She is in Chicago. Someday I may go invade my son & daughter in law's home to take a class at the 

Lillstreet Art Center where she teaches print making.  

Printmaking is something I am drawn to & have done a fair amount. 

There are always better ways to do things & much to learn from other artists. 

I plan to keep learning & making art. But first I need a nap!

How do you feed your creative muse? 

Have you enjoyed the challenge?

Deli Paper is an Art Supply #AtoZChallenge

Monoprinting on Deli paper creates fodder for collage,
hand made cards, tags, all sorts of paper art.
 I get out the Gelli plate and play with color, stamps, stencils,
and elements from my "Nature" stash such as leaves & pine needles,
anything that leaves an interesting impression.

It's sturdy & translucent.

The Gelli plate is lots of fun to play with.
There are tons of tutorials on ways to create your images.

The Deli paper holds up to lots of layers of paint
& remains a see through layer when used in collage.

One of the hand made stamps used in the above composition.
It's a cocoa bean.

The stencil below was used here.
When a second print was "pulled" from the plate it left a  ghost outline.

I love sharing my process & welcome questions about anything I talk about.
What inspires  you?

Small Ledger Page Journal

 

 

I always have a small journal of some sort with me. If it's one I made myself even better.

 

   I've had some old ledger pages in my stash for awhile & decided to use them. The cover is an old double sided mono print.  I decided to let the ledger page size dictate the size of the journal. I wanted to be sure to keep the rounded corner and the little numbers.

  

Here it is next to a traditional Moleskine journal.

 Added a pocket in the back as well. It's glued on the bottom and back edge. Comes in handy to stash those bits of paper notes.

 Inside the front.

I made the construction quick & easy by stitching on my sewing machine.  There is only one signature and not too many pages so it wouldn't be too bulky.  Guess that means I'll need to make more as it will fill up quickly with ideas.

Monoprinting with Georgia Deal at PBI

Already seems like ages ago PBI was my existence. Back to reality. But summer in Traverse City is proving to be a good one this year.

My other class during session one of PBI was a monoprinting class with Georgia Deal. I have admired her work since I saw an exhibit while at a Friends of Dard Hunter conference in Washington DC several years ago. In our class with Georgia we learned some great techniques using plexiglass "plates" as a base to run multiple color layers of ink through an etching press.

                                      

         Below is my first attempt with Queen Anne's Lace flowers, string, and some seed pods I brought.

           So much fodder out there to try as pressure prints. Plants, netting, bubble wrap, you name it.

We spent hours manipulated stencils, adding layers of color, doing reduction prints. 

 Later we learned how to do transfers from xerox (toner) copies. Gum arabic is used to get the toner to attach to the ink we rolled onto the copy. Lots of ink applications and wiping with water before it's ready to run through the press.The results were striking, especially in combination with other layers.

The gloves above wre the demo, the print below one of mine over top of a previous run with a pressure print.

 

 

I decided to use a sketch I had of a large fish.

 

Here he is after a few layers of color

   

                                  
& after about 8 layers. The colors in these pictures aren't great, but you get the idea. It definitely took quite a bit of time to create each layer.

Georgia was a delight as an instructor, and a classmate in the next session. I truly enjoyed her company.