Art math

It started with going out in the garden

and taking a look around.

 There was bee balm,

mint

 and lots of coreopsis

all just begging to join in the experiment.

 

On the way to the studio, pink roses caught my eye. 

Yes. They wanted to play too.

So I took a bit of this

and a bit of that,

 even a tad of this. 

Then put it all in the crock pot.

[adding more roses and coreopsis, of course]

The results were surprising...to me, at least. 

 Japanese red maple =  lots of potential

 Pink rose petals =  a soft, yet brilliant yellow

 Rust + layers of rose petals = one of my favorites

Coleus + rust = wonderful lines 

Coreopsis  = orange...lots of orange.

Can anyone tell me why it works this way?

Round 2 of experimenting with my garden took place Monday night. Less coreopsis this time, more coleus, bee balm and ferns. Need to get better photos before showing you those results. I played with folding the paper first - quadruple and quintuple folds, in fact, just right for cards or accordion books.

Tomorrow is Thursday and that means boarding an airplane for London in the evening. My trusty iPad is accompanying me. Lap top too to store the zillions of photos I'll no doubt take. My husband showed me how to take a photo on the iPad and instantly upload to Facebook. So...if you'd like to follow my jaunt kind of in real time, just click here or on the Facebook link to the left and like my artist page.

Next post from London...

Art math - the answers

Roses {fresh this time} + 

a crock pot +

 

a stained t-shirt =

 a shirt given a new life.

The paper bundles are drying and will be shown tomorrow. Needless to say, given the great colors of today's batch, fresh roses are far preferable to frozen ones.

Kim over at Letting in the Light has been cooking in the studio too. Rather than boiling, she's been steaming her bundles with wonderful results. Take a stroll over to see.

Art math

Red roses

+ a stained, yet in good condition t-shirt

 + rusty bits [of course]

 + more rose petals

+ 300 lb watercolor paper

and more rusty bits

= 2 bundles of paper and 1 of cotton.

Submerge the small bundle in the cauldron,

add a few more rose petals

 then put the larger paper bundle in

and add more rose petals [of course].

 

Don't forget the t-shirt...it yearns for a new life.

Oh! And a plumb bob for weight.

{Thanks for the idea Pam!}

 Top it all off with...what else?...more rose petals

and 2 more plumb bobs, just because.

Put the lid on the cauldron, 

set the heat to low and walk away. 

Try not to get too curious throughout the day. 

Lifting the lid too often may just hinder things.

I'm wondering when my little urchins are going to realize 

that the roses have disappeared from the kitchen counter.

Cooking - studio style, part 2

Barry, he of the Rustnstuff blog - and Fiona's husband in case you didn't know - left a comment on yesterday's post that gave me quite a chuckle just now.

J-it is unbelievable what you paper and textile lot get up to

Oh Barry! You have no idea. Then again, yes you do. You're married to a member of the lot after all.

My mind immediately goes to my week at Pam's, knowing what the two of us got up to...and knowing that this whole studio cooking experiment came out of Pam's what if about the crock pot. Now, just imagine throwing Fiona into the mix...and Susan of Tracemarks. Ooooh! What delightful mischief we could get up to. 

Speaking of cooking in the studio, care to see a few photos of my favorites from yesterday's experiment?

The red is from eucalyptus rather than the roses and there's a lovely yellow in some that I've yet to figure out what caused it. The black from the rusty bits gives great contrast to the more muted colors.

I used 140 lb cold pressed and 300 lb hot pressed watercolor paper. Above is 300 lb. The thickness of it was perfect for creating [accidentally since I had no idea what I was doing] separate patterns on both sides. The photo above is the front, below is the back.

And then there are those little sections:

Not bad for a first try, huh? I want to play with eucalyptus, fresh roses and rusty bits on white paper as well as some that has green tea on it. Then again, there's a stained white t-shirt patiently waiting in the studio for a new life that may just find its way into the cauldron this week.

On a personal note - I owe several of you emails. Bear with me please. Life is exceedingly hectic at the moment with the little urchins graduating preschool, relatives visiting, birthday parties, the trip to London, etc. I will write back. Promise!

Cooking - studio style, part 1

Wondering how many times I got up last night to check on the crock pot not quite simmering in the studio? Even I thought the answer would be at least twice, but it was actually only once, around 12:30 am. When I woke at 4:30 am, however, rather than glance at the clock, groan and roll over to go back to sleep, well...my curiosity won out.

After a quick trip downstairs for a pot of tea, it was back upstairs to the studio! Tongs in hand, bundle 1 was retrieved from the murky depths of the cauldron [sounds much better than crock pot, don't you think?], set aside to cool off for a bit and then

the pages were laid out to dry.  Not so pretty, huh? You're not alone in that thought. Actually, given the color that India Flint had gotten with her rose petals, the browns were a bit of a surprise. Maybe it was because mine had been frozen...although they had retained their lovely red color beforehand. Maybe it was because some of the paper had been green tea dyed. Most likely, it is simply because she is India Flint, the eco goddess. Yep, that's it.

 The cover has beautiful lines and looks quite aged.

A few stray eucalyptus leaves produced a lovely red. [note to self - buy more to play with]

The rusty bits seemed to have loved their steamy bath...which has only produced more what ifs.

The pages are drying. Some of the petals have been removed. Others will have to wait until all is dry...and hopefully, they'll come off then.  If not...well...they may just get a bath.

Now...time to lay bundle #2 out and see if tossing a green tea bag in with it had any effect. Enjoy!

What if...

When was the last time you had one of those Well, duh! moments? You know the kind I mean. The proverbial slap up side the head over some simple idea that you didn't think of. I had one just this morning while skyping with Pam.

My little urchins had their very first ballet recital last Saturday and, as all prima ballerinas do, received roses after their performance.

One dozen red roses and a half dozen pink roses each, in fact, which the girls insisted be put in separate vases once home. As the week progressed and the petals began to wilt, I popped them in a plastic bag and put them in the freezer.

So there we were this morning, Pam and I, in our respective studios, discussing the week, etc. I told her about the roses in the freezer and my plans to bundle them between sheets of paper a la India Flint, maybe even toss in a rusty bit for good measure. The hot plate would need to be located and a new pot bought first...and I'd have to figure out how to leave the hot plate on all night without burning the house down, etc. And that was when the Well, duh! moment happened.

Pam looks at me and asks why a crock pot couldn't be used. Oh, now, the snickering can heard, you know. For many of you, this is probably old news, but for me this morning it was a revelation. One of those earth shattering ideas that once said seems so simple, so...so...well, duh...a whydidn'tIthinkofthat?!? sort of idea. It definitely fits the what if category because I have no idea if it will actually work, but...

the roses were retrieved from the freezer.

A piece of green tea dyed paper was cut into smaller pieces along with some plain white. 

Rusty bits were added

as well as a few rusted pages.

All were bundled and wrapped with the waxed linen threads that normally secure my rusty experiments and placed in the crock pot which is set on low. Fingers crossed that this actually works. I'll let you know in the morning.