Goodies arrived!

So here it is.

It looks pretty harmless, doesn't it?

It contained all my class supplies for the online mixed media class I'm taking right now...a real goody box in brown wrap.

I was good this weekend... ATCs notwithstanding. I quilted and bound two large customer quilts this weekend, so felt it would be all right to take a couple hours this morning and play...
Note #1:
There is a reason why we are to use the products recommended in the class requirements.


Thinking I could get this one started then work while it was drying, I started with the laminated paper surface which will become a cover for the book of samples I'm amassing.
I swear the hardest part of this was finding a book that I felt I could tear up...once I got going, however...

The book I chose, (well magazine, actually) was about weaving. I have two copies of this old (70's) mag, and thought I could part with one. And besides, it has all these cool pictures of looms on the pages, and diagrams for tapestry weaving.

I found this first piece really contemplative. It brought to mind all the sorts of loose thoughts I have about fibre, about it's continuing importance in our lives (in spite of plastic and other artificial constructs). We are so totally surrounded in fibre. Our furniture, our floor coverings, our homes, our clothing, our paper...try a little exercise in which you attempt to imagine the room you're sitting in without any of the fibre (this includes wood!) and see what you're left with. Chances are, not a lot.

I loved, too, the idea of the book being made of fibre and about (weaving) the use of (handmade) fibre, being laminated to fabric in order to become a book about (handmade, but transformed) fibre. Nice continuity there, I think.

I had my first play with both gel medium (though I have a hunch that 'way back in art school I used something similar) and Dye-na-flow.

Note#2:
Dye-na-flow is VERY liquid, in sharp contrast to the gel medium. Open jar carefully.

Once I got the dye on the piece, I found that it could be moved around quite well. At first I was sad to see how much the diagrams were obscured by the subsequent layers, but I'm starting to warm to the surface and am looking forward to the next steps with it.

I want to try a parallel project using Mod-Podge instead of the gel medium, laminate torn paper and see what kind of a surface that would give (for comparison purposes).

Note #3:
All these samples start as a Canadian fat quarter size. Ours are quarter metres, not quarter yards and are somewhat bigger than our American friends'.

Then, knowing that I had to see what the fuss is about with the Misty-Fuse, got started on another laminated tissue project.

This great tissue came with my vinyl. I guess it's supposed to be drawings of all the great purposes for clear vinyl...I just loved the 50's-esque pictures of household objects. This was the main focus for my next surface.

I started with a pink tissue layer, trying to stay in with the whole 'housewifely' theme that came from the household items tissue.

The Misty fuse is a totally new animal to me. I've used a lot of different fusibles over the years, mostly quilt focussed. This is really whisper-light, both pre-fusing and once ironed into the project. Seriously cool. I'll be playing more with it.

On top of the pink I did a couple of layers of the household tissue, along with some plain white tissue so that the images didn't get lost completely. My favorite parts are those where the pink glows through. I've since misted this with copper(?) radiant rain.

Everything's got to sit and dry now, and I'm going downtown for my mail run.

On my trip into the library I might have to look at their book sale shelves for more fun things to tear up...(hee, hee, hee)

Lisa