I haven’t been working in my journal as much as usual this week as my ‘zine’s eaten my brain…I’ve been teaching myself InDesign while laying out the ‘zine, and, well, it’s trial by fire. Thankfully, I’ve got the design down and am to the point where I’m doing little tweeks here and there in order to get it ready. Because the printing equipment I’ll be using is being swapped out next week, the ‘zine will be printed not this Monday, but next Monday and in the mail by that Wednesday. We just heard today that this was happening, and I’m sorry for the delay.
I did decide to include a few cut-out sheets at the back to help facilitate the journal prompts I have in there, part to make the ‘zine more fun, part to say I’m sorry for the delay!
And I must say, I am OVERWHELMED and so FLATTERED by how many pre-orders I’ve gotten! I never expected such a response and love each and every one of them! I have a stack of envelopes that I’ll be decorating for mail art this week for each one of you!
Onto business! Or play, I should say!
I’ve been experimenting with different materials and methods lately, feeling a little closed in by established practices. And I’ve always wanted to try the printing tutorial in Claudine Helmuth’s second book.
Gum Arabic is expensive, but on my last trip to Carolina Moon, I found some in powdered form for less than $4 dollars and couldn’t put it down. Today, I caved and got the linseed oil and a tube of dark grey oil paint and got to work.
I decided to start with something simple, so I used the silhouette image I’m in love with since it’s solid black.
I don’t have a spray bottle, real brayer, or any of the paper she said to use in the book, so I made do with my hands, my hand made brayer, and freezer paper. It worked out very well when I transferred it to some vellum bristol paper, so I wanted to use a more complicated image.
This is my niece from a few years ago. I edited it with Photoshop (just desaturate your image, boost the contrast and lower the brightness…you can do this in iPhoto and Elements, too) and printed it on a laser printer. I transferred it the same way and look how well it came out! Now THIS is something I’ll be doing a lot more of in the future. Next, I want to transfer to some canvas I colored and striped.
Phew! I’m looking forward to the weekend! I’m going to spend it relaxing and taking a bit of a break from my projects!
Oh! The art journal mailing list is organizing a supply/journal page/act of kindness mail art package swap thingy. If you’re interested, click the link up over there on the right and join the list. We don’t bite!