More handmade boxes

Last year I was lucky enough to have the chance to learn to make a box with Glen Skien. You can see that box here. Recently I made this one with handmade papers in green. The papers are of various techniques using Matisse inks, paints and mediums.

I showed it to a work colleague whose eyes lit up, so now I have made this blue-green one for her.

Both these boxes have itajime papers and credit card papers. The top one has some papers that used Gloss Medium as a resist, whereas the bottom one has some paste papers.

The third box is made from some papers using a friend’s technique made in a huge batch on a very hot New Year’s Day. They’re all from a monoprinting technique. The paper I used here is cartridge paper that had previous been life drawings in charcoal – those two minute ones that are usually a total disaster. They make an interesting layer for decorated papers.

Painting flowers in inks

These are all students’ paintings, not my own. I haven’t finished my own yet, nor photographed it. All these are also incomplete, except perhaps for the top one (at least I think the top one is complete.) I taught this workshop a week or so ago, at Sydney Community College.

It’s a technique where you pour the inks onto wet blank paper – stretched watercolour paper – and you turn it into a painting.  It was a small class, only 6 students, and just as well when I saw how much space we all needed. Unless we can find a bigger room, it won’t be offered again. Each student needs that space.

I was absolutely delighted with these paintings. It is a mixed media piece. You first pour, then you draw. After that you paint with acrylics, pour ink again, paint again, and finally finish with coloured pencils. All these paintings are in the coloured pencil phase.

I learnt this technique from Rae Andrews, an Ausralian artist who used to visit here regularly when she lived in Hawaii, but now lives in Texas. She’s a great teacher, so if you ever get the opportunity don’t miss out.

We used Matisse inks. They are really the Rolls Royce of inks, and have sooo much pigment in them, that we had to use Ink Extender to make them a little less strong in some cases. They give a very different result to other inks, as you get a much less vibrant look -more soft pastels – with other brands.

As I say, these works are still incomplete. In most cases, the artists are still applying finishing touches.  Even so, I’m going to stop rattling on and let the paintings stand for themselves.