In an earlier post I showed a picture of my start on the Visual Journal page. This is a workshop I have been following online from Strathmore. Here is the final look of my page. We learned to use some art materials that I have never used before. It was interesting and I thank Pam Carriker very much for teaching it.
I got the idea to decorate the front of my visual journal from someone else who is doing the online workshop at Strathmore. Of course, I couldn’t just do it with paper…I had to use some cloth too…this cloth is rusted cloth and the rest is paper. I really loved her color scheme of browns, tans and red, so I worked off of that also.
Now as to what is inside…I have yet to finish Week #3’s instructions and Week #4 is where we are now. I will get it finished this week! And post it then. As for the Sketchbook Project I signed up…I have gotten as far as collaging some newsprint to the page. My plan is to do a sketch over that and then paint it. This has been percolating for some time…and January is almost over. A new theme will be announced for February. January has been a busy month, but I almost have my tax paperwork finished and will get it to the cpa early for once!
I had a commenter ask about where to get Thermofax screens made, so I decided to just do a post about it.
Thermofax screens are awesome to use if you don’t want to mess with the photo emusion process on silkscreens. They are great to use to make prints on cloth or paper with your own photography. I turn my photos into black and white and then darken the black as much as I can. The copies of these need to be toner copies when you send them off for making Thermofax screens. HOWEVER, I have an Epson CX4800 printer that uses Durabright inks. Believe it or not, I accidentally send these prints to my screen maker and she was able to make screens that work perfectly from them, SO that means that the Durabright black ink has enough toner in them to burn a screen with. I was amazed. But for most of you out there using an inkject printer, this won’t work. You need copies with toner in the ink, either from a laser printer or a copy machine. I hear the copy machines with toner are getting rare.
So here is the list of people that I know from the quiltart list who make Thermofax screens for a small fee. Get in touch with them! Your other option is to spend tons of money purchasing one of the old machines that does this and spending money on supplies for it. I find it easier just to make my designs or prepare my photos and just send them off to these gals.
Pam Relitz is in the Chicago area: rockitz@tds.net
Bobbie Vance is in the Indianapolis area: fiberartbv@aol.com
Lynn Krawczyk, I believe is in Michigan: tatgirl207@earthlink.net
7/26/11 Update…I just received a comment asking to add this link to my list of Thermofax screen makers: http://www.northwoodstudios.us/screen_making_services.html
Check them out!
My Visual Journals arrived just in time for the Strathmore journal project. I got a few other things in that order too….a circle template, Alfred Durer watercolor pencils, 2 sizes of Visual Journals and some Gum Arabic in powder form.
Some of you may ask, what is the Gum Arabic for? Well, I read online about how to use it mixed with Pearl-Ex powdered pigments and water. Guess what? I have a whole set of Pearl-Ex powdered pigments I have never used. I think it’s time, hence the Gum Arabic.
So in the Strathmore online workshops, the first video lesson was put up on Saturday. Here is what I put together for the first week. Mind you, this is only a start. It is not finished…there are three more weeks to go of work that will go into it. This is just the base.
I used a tracing of a windmill (I like old windmills) and some doodles from my sketchbook, a woman cut from a magazine, the torn strips are a photo of…cardboard! The words are from a magazine. It will be interesting to see how it transforms in the next few weeks.
We were instructed on the video to make sure to get all the bubbles out of the paper as we glued it down, but no, not me. I couldn’t get mine flat. Oh well, I’ll either use the bubbles as a design element in some fashion or I’ll cover it up somehow. That’s the way I work.
And here, I made some more felted wool beads. From the bottom clockwise, we have Lima Bean, Raspberry, Turquoise, Berry, Turquoise and Berry again. These are fun.
Art Journal---A Creative Journey 