I decided to try a new binding for a class project. I've done a couple of Keith A. Smiths's complicated single sheet bindings, with good success, I might add. I decided that for this project I wanted to work on panels then bind the resulting art into a large 11×14 book with about 13 leaves. I decided to try a binding that I hadn't tried before, one with linked stitches. 

Holy crap this is probably the hardest binding I've ever attempted. I'm about half way throguh this book and it's taken me over 2 hours. I've made a ton of mistakes, backwards links and looks, and have broek threads. Man, tough stuff.

Also a learning lesson. Next time I have a complicated project, I'll use a binding I know.

Of  57 total entries we have a winner of the can lid art! yay Free Art Friday!

The winner (and confirmed, she answered the winning email right away!) was Jean M of Michigan! I'll be sending a bit of brightness her way!

If you'd like to get your own can lid art you can find mine on Etsy pretty inexpensively. 🙂 I priced them to move. I'd strongly encourage you to get a safety can opener, a little liquitex super thick gesso (goes on soooo smooth and not gritty), and a Sakura Pigma Micron and start doodling!

In addition to my free art friday post I have loaded up some of my can lids to my etsy shop. they are original works of my art done on can lids. They are a super fun thing to do because they reclaim something that would go into the waste stream and turns it into something fun. Anyway. I'm having a blast making them between paragraphs in my papers.

Here are some pics:

Jean M. has won the drawing!

I started to make these little recycled mixed media mandal styled images. (The mandala is around the center image of a weirdo/automatic drawing.) I’m obsessed with the idea of “Free Art Friday.” I’ve written about it before so I won’t go on about My Dog Sighs and all his crazy good art. But I want to do some of that in my area as well as on the blog.

So I’m doing a rafflecopter giveaway where you can enter to win this piece:

You can enter a couple of times in different ways. Check out the raffle copter below. Enter, share win a little peice of my art!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I've been very very productive this weekend, both on my paper and in making lots of art. Not all of it for my classes. At this point I'm fighting inspiration and getting ready for bed. I've got a little light reading… Well, sort of light.Okay, not light at all.

Anyway. I worked on this little 4×4 inch gallery wrapped canvas. I layered some antique magazing (American Journal of Physics 1970) and then did a little automatic drawing on it once it was dried. The gelmedium I used for it was Liquitex Matte gel. My Pentel Hybrid technica worked on it just fine. granted it is matte and not gloss but not a skip or nasty line at all. Keep in  mind I waited until the medium was absilutely dry. After the drawing I started to add in some color. I built up layers of color. The backgroun has a light teal paint with small plus signs all over it in light blue. They can only be seen whenm you are looking for them. Fun. Again I'm messing around with colors that jive with one another. the color interaction does not photograph well.



I finished the last of the 3 small pieces for the small frames I posted about yesterday. I'm really inspired by medieval art works.

I also did a little drawing and paint background on a book page. The school library gets rid of all kinds of neat and funny books. either they are damaged or not needed. This one wasn't worth anything but had some self help inspiration. So i'm working with that.

I forgot to also mention that I picked up a Fabriano journal with a 50% off coupon at Michael's. So far it's really nice, but we'll see what it's like once I start to abuse it.
Anyway, the art will be up on etsy in the next few days. I'll probably load them up Wednesday. Scratch that, they are all loaded up here.

Last winter I picked up three 5×5 inch wooden frames with cute 2.5×2.5 inch openings at Michael's. I had planned on decorating them, filling them, then loading them to Etsy. Well life happened and I didn't manage to finish them. I'm working on that now. This past weekend I picked up a few more, larger frames, on a total whim. These measure 6×8 inches with a  5.5×3.5 inch window. I started each of the frames by applying antique paper with matte medium. Each piece of paper was crumpled, crinkled and torn to size. the paper was pulled from antique (but worthless) books or magazines. I snagged a copy of the "American Journal of Physics" from 1970 a week ago. I have had a copy of a German travel journal from the early 1900s. The paper is so interesting. Layers of it was built up to create texture. After the paper was dried I began to add layers of paint. The large frames were covered with warm colors- yellow, orange and red. I brushed the paint on and then scraped it around. again creating texture. In some cases removing the color entirely to allow the paper's texture to show. I then added layers of glaze. The small frames were roughly painted with shades of blue. I used some of my crapcut stencils (my own designs). through these stencils I scraped colored modeling paste.  I scraped on another shade of blue and teal. on the small frames I decided to make some colors pop so I mixed up a magenta modeling paste and scraped that through a stencil. I'm really digging how the colors play off each other and the stencils and modeling paste add a layer of texture. They feel so cool. I've decided that I'll fill each one with a black and white automatic drawing. I've made 2 of the smaller images and I can'twait to work on the 3 larger images.
Anyway, i'll have them up on etsy soon.