Crow Mother

Well, I went down a lot of rabbit holes pursuing this piece, and finally ended up where I started, lol!  Although I live now in northeastern US, where there are wonderful flowering bushes, trees, and bulbs this time of year, April nonetheless invokes for me a very different scene!  I was born and raised in the American Southwest, and the Native American artistic and spiritual traditions have had a strong influence on me.  

So this spread arises from that background.  The left attempts to represent the amazing rain storms that come through in the spring.  Because it is so dry (relative humidity of 20% or so), often the rain starts to fall but evaporates before reaching the earth, a phenomenon known as virga.  In the early morning it appear more blue, as I have made it. 

The sky was made by applying gesso with an old hotel card key, and tapping up and down to put a lot of texture into it:

 and then washing with watery Smalt Hue and Quinacridone Violet.

The brick pattern represents the pueblos of the Hopi Indians, who traditionally lived on top of three high mesas, now in the middle of the Navajo reservation.  A lot of politics there, which I will not get into!  But here are some pictures of First Mesa and its surrounding environment.  All of this is sandstone, uplifted from the primordial ocean floor many millennia past.  Pueblo people (including the Hopi) build their dwellings like apartment buildings....for warmth and also to conserve space in a very tight area as seen below.   Notice how high up from the desert floor the village is.

And here is a picture that perhaps explains the colors I used.

I used Texturez Sand paste to emulate the brilliant colors in the baked mud bricks known as adobe from which the pueblos are built. When the Spanish first came upon the pueblos of the Southwest, they thought they truly had found their City of Gold!

The Hopi have a strong spiritual connection to everything in nature, not unlike early European beliefs.  The major spiritual figures are called Kachinas, and they live in the sacred mountains surrounding the area where the Hopi make their home.  At certain times of year, it is thought that the Kachinas descend into the villages to celebrate the harvest, or the naming ceremony when young men are inducted into the spiritual practices, or the time to plant.  The painting below depicts this type of descent.  

In actual practice, the descent is performed by spiritual leaders of the clan, wearing elaborate costumes that depict particular kachinas.  My favorite is Crow Mother, who comes when the seeds placed in a basket sometime in November have started to sprout - that signals the time for planting will soon arrive.  Below is a headdress worn by the person depicting Crow Mother.  Once in the village, Crow Mother visits each home, sprinkling the sacred corn meal as a way of blessing the family and their efforts for the coming growing season.

My second panel attempts to represent Crow Mother, and the newly sprouted melon, squash and corn seeds in the ceremonial basket.

The feathers are made of kraft from the Tim Holtz Flying Wings die and accompanying embossing folder, and then distressed with Black Soot Distress Ink.  I made a lot, but I couldn't get it to stop looking like a feather duster, so I ended up using only a few on each side.

The bricks were made by stenciling Weendy Vecchi White Crackle paste through a brick stencil, and once dry painting with Golden's Transparent Red Iron Oxide and Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, both mixed with a generous amount of Ranger's Snowcap acrylic paint and lots of water.

The basket is made of crumpled Kraft Glassine paper, which has been shaped something like a basket.  It was then stamped in Wendy Vecchi Watering Can Archival Ink with a new stamp from Finnibair which is fast becoming a favorite.

The leaves are from card stock colored with Cracked Pistachio, Peeled Paint and Crushed Olive Distress stains, spritzed with a lot of water.  I think most of the dies are from Tonic Studio.

The final touches were a strand of turquoise beads (also sacred to Hopi, and worn by Crow Mother) and a piece I found in the jewelry department of my big local craft store that I thought sort of resembled the "head" part of the head-dress.  Crow Mother's symbol is a black equilateral triangle pointing down (or sometimes two of these)....but putting these on made the piece look even more like an alien from space so I removed those bits.

Here is a picture of a Crow Mother statue from my collection that hopefully helps you make the connection between my page and what I was trying to achieve!  And I hope the information about how this page came about made sense!

Perhaps the items from my rabbit holes will appear in future works - an abstract soil to sky based loosely on the ideas Alison was exploring earlier this year, some brightly colored Tattered Florals,  a little paper basket with seed packets which got changed to flowers, and a piece trying to incorporate the themes of about six challenges -  no wonder I got lost, lol!  

In the meantime, I will be posting this, as always, on Brenda's Visual Journey #16, and entering into the current Frillie and Funkie challenge to use spring time die cuts, the CountryView challenge to use kraft paper, and the Mixed Media Monthly challenge using the theme "April Showers".

Thanks so much for stopping by, and please do leave a comment if you've time - I love hearing from you!

An InLinkz Link-up

Texture Paste for PaperArtsy!

I've been pondering what to do for the current PaperArtsy Grunge Paste challenge.  Alas, I do not have any of this fine product - yet!  However, I love using texture paste through stencils, to get an almost sculptural feel as in these recent projects:

as seen here   .............................. and here, but given all the wonderful examples Leandra showed in the video, this one technique did not seem to do justice to an exploration of the topic.

I was especially taken with "the wall tile guy" Chris Gryder's work, but knew I did not have the time or talent to attempt some sort of replication. I did, however, want a lot of texture.

While wandering a local branch of a national craft store chain, in which I always get lost looking for the die-cutting supplies, I ended up walking down the cake and pastry decoration aisles, in which I have NO interest being gluten free, low carb and not much of a baker in any event.

However, a large display of Wilton icing tips and their magical ability to transform frosting into a beautiful flower, leaf or decorative touch.......hmmmmm.

I reasoned that texture paste seems pretty close to bakery frosting in feel.  And as a fairly extensive set of tips was on sale for the Easter holiday, I jumped in with two feet - the set of tips, disposable icing bags, several additional couplers (whatever they do - just thought I might need them), and Wilton's Frosting for Beginners 101 Course booklet.  I also grabbed a large jar of Liquitex Modeling Paste and several 5 inch x 5 inch gesso boards, as I wanted a firm surface.

Once home, having figured out from the all-wise You-Tube what the couplers do (they help you change tips if using the same bag, which I would be doing), I loaded up a disposable bag and tried a few tips out on my craft sheet.

Not too bad, and not too hard....though I'll never win a decorating contest, lol!!  But fun, and I soon had my little gesso board covered with texture paste doodling.....

Vintage Embroidery Sampler

Having been inspired by the design team's makes for the April challenge "Through the Looking Glass" at A Vintage Journey, I decided to give this a go.  I was especially intrigued by Jenny's aged mirror , Anne's spectacles, and Alison's bottles - so clearly I was going to use acetate somehow!

I started by creating a faux leather cover, but not in brown. It is spring after all, and I have had enough of brown!  :-)  I envisioned instead a delicate white kid leather, tinged with blue and pink.  Not sure where that came from, but I went with it!

I made faux white leather by taking heavy white card stock, spritzing heavily with Ranger's Ink Refresher (or glycerin for those of you who can find it in your area), and crumpling the paper, then straightening out.  This was repeated several times on the same piece of paper to get a very supple, leathery product.

The blue and pink colors were added by wiping the leathered paper through a mix of Weathered Wood and Spun Sugar Distress Paints, along with a heavy dosing of Picket Fence Distress Paint, all thoroughly sprayed with water.

Transitions

 While traveling cross-country recently on the way to settle my mother's estate, I read The Watermark, a stunning debut novel by Vanitha Sankaran about paper making in pre-renaissance France.  I was totally entranced by the process of making paper from flax and other fibers.


Upon arriving at my brother's farm where we convened to celebrate my mother's life, I clued into the beautiful details of dried foliage around the landscape.  These are dried sunflowers, cut down and laying against the fence.

Wild grass on the left and grape leaf on the right...

oak leaves in beautiful bronze and golds.....





and many different grasses in various shades of light golds against the weathered wood of the shed.







After looking at all of these lovely bits, and wanting to do something creative yet without any of my wonderful supplies and stash at home, I got the idea of making paper from the incredible dried foliage I found around me.

I know nothing about making paper, but thanks to the internet, I was able to discern how to proceed.  And being on a farm, we had all the necessary things, including a small propane burner on which to boil down (outside!) the fiber to separate out the cellulose and other products, and two small frames to act as a mould and deckle.

I started by gathering a variety of leaves and grasses, and cut them into small bits  before putting them all to simmer in a mixture of water and washing soda (the latter helps break down the fibers even more).

Once the mixture had simmered for three hours, it was cooled and rinsed, and then put into an old Cuisinart for pulping.  The pulp was then added to a large plastic storage tub with water.


On the right below is the screened mould, wrong side up, on which the paper pulp will be laid by immersing in the pulpy water, as seen on the left.  The deckle is an empty frame which sits on top, to contain the pulp, and is what leads to lovely deckled edges.

I added some shredded paper (old bank statements) that I had soaked for an hour or so in warm water to give some adhesion, as I wasn't sure the natural fibers would "gel" enough on their own.  This is the look in daylight.










Below is the backside of the paper, in incandescent lighting.  I love all of the fibers.

Deconstruction/Reconstruction Mixed Media

After watching Leandra's video for the latest Paper Artsy "Deconstruction" challenge, I picked up the March/April 2015 issue of Somerset Studio, and just happened to open it to this article from Barbara Runde:

In addition to the title, the paper weaving in this piece immediately caught my eye, as I love baskets and woven things:

Aha, then!  Perhaps an idea for this challenge.  I took several pieces of 6" square from a 7 Gypsies paper pad in my stash.  On one piece, I made 1/4" slits across, stopping on top and bottom edges by about the same amount.

I took the other pieces and cut them into 1/4" wide strips.











and then wove them through the first striated piece, after grunging some of the strips with Weathered Wood Distress Paint:

I needed a substrateI , thinking I would use the woven look by incorporating texture paste through stenciling (Tim Holtz Burlap) and various distress stains to try the blue/brown palette Butterfly at Words and Pictures  uses  so successfully.

Vacation Time!! A make for Frilly and Funkie Challenge

Well, I am skidding into this Frilly & Funkie challenge at the very last minute!  I wasn't sure I would have time or ideas for this one, but the wonderful DT has inspired me  - plus I am myself on a "stay-cation" this week, so decided late this morning to join in.

I started with a jumbo size 12 Ranger tag, and "Glue 'n Sealed" it with a map from an outdated Rand McNally Road Atlas - I'd say after 11 years, it was time to get a new atlas, lol!  I then applied a light swiping of Picket Fence Distress Paint to dull down the color, but still leave the map somewhat visible.

Then I stenciled some white Wendy Vechhi crackle paste through the Tim Holtz Chevron stencil....

and once dry, sprayed with Distress Stains in Spiced Marmalade and Festive Berries, spritzed with water to get everything nice and runny, and then patted off once the stains had sunk into the chevron. I was looking for that nice and sunny look, as this is what my backyard looks like at the moment - my poor little lace cap hydrangea making a bold stance against continuous snow storms!

At any rate, once sprayed, the tag looked like this:

With some lovely colored crackling going on.

I chose a picture of a couple on the beach from the Found Relatives set, and created a frame from the postage stamp die, using the largest Mover and Shaper Rectangle die to create the opening.

Victorian Nature Album

    

I have made a smallish thing - for me it is miniature, but compared to other entries, I think not, lol!! It is a "miniature" Victorian Nature Album, which holds pressed flowers and leafs, and a pair of jay feathers.  It is inspired by Diana Taylor's Winter Garden series.  

What follows is photo-heavy for my own records, so feel free to breeze by - but please do leave a comment - I appreciate every one and love hearing from you!