One River, many views

I spent many a morning and afternoon exploring the city of Monroe while walking to and from my new job at the library.  The Riverfront really captured my attention and became the subject of many photographs and ultimately acrylic and fabric collages.

Fabric in progress...

And more progress...

Finished pieces in Landscape Show at Two Twelve Art Center

Landscape, Lace, and Long Ago

When I'm not working, I'm generally found in my studio...working!  Lately I've been obsessed with fiber.  My fiber guild decided to show some of our work at Saline library next week, so I've been up to my ears in fiber, fabric, and thread!  Here's a couple of examples of what I've been working on step by step......

Landscape

Did you notice the onion bag I incorporated?

Lace

Long Ago

This piece you might remember, was for the Paris Challenge.  I called it "Paris 1940's"

A Challenge called "Paris"

We were given a challenge several months ago during Cake Eaters, an art group I'm involved with.  It was a one word theme...Paris.  Naturally visions of the Eiffel Tower immediately come to mind.  However, my frame of mind hasn't been normal lately.  So I thought...and sketched...and dreamed.  The week before the deadline I physically started putting my ideas on fabric.  This is what I made...

I call it, "Paris in the 1940's"

Encaustic Marathon

Today I was in a creative zone with several encaustic pieces; new and in progress.  I finished 4 completely today.  I had one already complete and I have one in progress on my desk.

I remember reading about encaustic a year or more ago but it seemed too intimidating to attempt.  Until...I started noticing beautiful pieces in gallery's and little art stores.  The effect was ethereal and one I could never duplicate in another medium. 

At first, I toyed around with heating a block of beeswax in a small crock pot.  Although I was happy with the results I obtained in the following inchies, I was too limited by the one effect.  I wanted more options. 

 When I came across an encaustic class taught at 212 Art center, I jumped at the chance to really learn about this elusive art form.  Rob was a great instructor and showed us several techniques to try.  However I got stuck on my practice board and never finished the the two full size boards we were provided.

Night Bird is my practice piece from my first encaustic class.  I used a photo transfer technique with photo copies of a photo I took of a bird and had manipulated in Photoshop.

Today, I transformed my unfinished full size board from this...

To this...

The stone or egg shapes are from some lovely fabric I found at Quilting Seasons, a small shop in Saline.  I loved the fabric so much, that I also used some in this piece...

I also added beads by pressing them into the warm wax.  It is hard to get a good photo of this as the glare from the wax and beads was so distracting, I purposely lowered the contrast in Photoshop so the details could be seen.  The colors are not quite true.  It is better in person.

A small encaustic piece I finished a couple of weeks ago was enhanced by some interesting snap trim I added...

This late summer we had an art camp.  Lucky for me, Rob was teaching a mini encaustic course.  I signed up, of course!  It was wonderful, because I had time to try new techniques that I didn't have time to in his original class.  This is what I made...

This poppy is a carving, filling, and scraping technique.  I was really pleased with how it turned out.

The last piece I started and finished today is my favorite.  I used a medium copper printing plate I had picked up at a antique store for $5.  I didn't know what I would do with it at the time, but the copper printing plate was too fascinating to leave behind! 

Using my own photographs, I turned it into this piece of collage...

I have so many ideas and techniques I still want to try, so stay tuned for more encaustic to come!

Spirit Crossings

I've recently become involved with an art group that has really given me a jumping off point to get serious and disciplined about working in my studio daily.  I've taken several classes; from felting and stitching, to creating journals from recycled materials, and learning to set up a shop using Etsy. 

Today I finished a piece for a challenge called Peoples of the Earth.  My inspiration came from Jean Auel's Children of the Earth series; including "Clan of the Cave Bear", Valley of the Horses", and "The Mammoth Hunters".  Since I am involved with a gem and mineral club, I was fascinated with the items the character, Ayla kept in her amulet and the reason she thought they were signs from her totem.  This in turn made me curious about the spiritual beliefs of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon people.

I think this is the first project that I started from concept/idea to completion since college!  I am very pleased with it.  I feel like I am starting to unfurl my creative wings!  Let me know what you think.

Materials: Canvas, gesso, acrylics, book pages, maps, matte medium, modeling paste, rubber stamp impressions, match boxes, mica, various minerals, seed beads, craft glue, waxed twine, beeswax, and marker.

I actually used match boxes to hold mineral specimens and cut spaces into the canvas to insert the shadow boxes.  Here's a photo that shows more of the dimensional aspects...

Here are a few of the details of the collage...

My First Inchies

I have always been fascinated with these miniature works of art; especially mixed media pieces.  I had picked up a couple of miniature canvases on clearance awhile back - 2 inches by 2 inches and figured they would be perfect to continue trying my hand at encaustics.

 I still had bees at my screen as the beeswax melted!  Too funny.

  Using bits of lace, antique-style illustrations, fortune from a fortune cookie, oil pastels, glassine, and melted beeswax I arranged, rearranged and struggled to not melt certain areas, while smoothing out others with my heat gun.  I'm ready to proceed on a bit larger "canvas".  I'll have to check with my husband to see if he can spare a few blocks of wood from the barn.  :)

Clasp Dilemma

I am loving the way my short story and collage bracelets are unfolding....but the closures have become a stumbling block!  As much as I love finding a use for recycled items, the closures are another matter. I am concerned that the current closures (read: hair ties and buttons) will wear the edges of the bracelets through prematurely, so I am researching the possibility of a magnetic clasp similar to this bracelet that I purchased at Von Maur.

Here are two of the finally embellished collage bracelets that I am reworking to find an appropriate clasp solution.  Any ideas?  Please message me at: stacey.harper.35@facebook.com

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Sanctuary Series Continues

I am still fascinated by the mixed media and collage techniques I've been experimenting with in my Charleston photos of cathedrals.  I've decided to continue exploring using this theme -AND-I've actually named it the Sanctuary series.

My favorite new technique is working with melted beeswax in a very simple form of encaustic.  I actually just melted two small blocks of beeswax on low in a mini crock pot and painted away.

 

Here's a detail of the encaustic portion using beeswax:

 

I am really enjoying the process and I like this version better than the first one I created.  Look here to see it.