Blueberry Dyeing Collage

I mentioned last week that one of the recent tutorials over at Wanderlust was about making "inks" from regular household stuff. Most intriguing (I thought), were the results using blueberries! I managed to get various shades of lilac/blue/purple/magenta and these seemed to depend on what surface they were applied to. Here's a bit of a summary ...

Have a look at the three brush strokes on the left ... all done using the blueberry "ink", the pink one is still wet and the two purple/blue/grey ones are in various stages of drying.

 As a background wash applied to a gessoed page ...

... just a washy looking light purple with hints of darker blue.  Other things, on the left, also dyed with the blueberry solution - watercolour paper (light blue, dark blue), ex-tea bags (bright red) and some yarn and cheesecloth (magenta/burgundy)! Very interesting!

Here's a few more pics ... some close-ups ...

Another strange thing about the way the blueberry ink changed colour ... see those tall, narrow sticking up pieces along the bottom edge? They were torn from the bright red, ex-tea bag tissue paper but as soon as I glued them down they turned greyish/blue! Not a hint of that lovely reddish colour!! But the sliver of tissue around the the little picture is the "correct" colour!

Here's the whole page without it being chopped in half ...

This page just grew. It had a mind of it's own. And it wouldn't even suggest a focal point until nearly finished! Now I don't normally use cliches, (or any sort of wording really) on my "art", but this actually seemed appropriate. (And I had to strongly resist the temptation to "computer print" the wording, instead using my own writing.)

Now, if I start waffling on about "What It All Means" we'll be here all night. So let's just leave it at that?

And here's most of the stuff I used ... including salvaged tea bag tissue and one of my handmade stamps. Nearly all of the tissue paper is ex-tea bag!

WOYWW in between this and that

Here we are at Wednesday... again!
Even when you miss a week or so, Wednesdays still roll around amazingly fast :)

I've made art, but you will have to look here and here :)
The Autumn canvas has won a prize of some stamps, coming all the way from Norway, so that's exciting, isn't it :)

Today, my "desk" is a hotch potch of miscellany. And I will be clearing it away any moment now! (Well, as soon as I get home from work ... maybe.)

You can see a small selection of chipboardy stuff, selected from my huge stash which I'm determined to do something with :)  I was looking at some arty stuff on YouTube and I must do something while the inspiration still lingers. Oh, and while I was looking through this pile of chipboard I thought I might as well put one of the little boxes together. Mind you, there's no instructions. Anyway, it wasn't rocket science ... luckily :)  The index sheet (bottom RH) is for some stamps I want to use in a "sepia" type project. They'll be perfect! 
OK, now for the real exciting part ... you're probably wondering whether that white stuff on the LH side is really soap or white choc bars. You're right, there's a label on it that says "Encaustic Wax". Yesterday I went to a demo given by Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch on Encaustic Art. I've been interested in this for ages, but was (very) reluctant to jump in to a new technique, because, you guessed ... it needs a little bit of specialised equipment and space is already at a premium! Anyway, somehow, I'm going to gently ease into it! :)  Stay tuned, I'm sure there'll be more to show and tell!

Speaking of which, this Wednesday "show and tell" business comes to you with the compliments of Julia at the Stamping Ground. If you pop over there, all will be explained :)

Oh, and I nearly forgot, there's something I'm making for someone, but it's mostly hidden :)

WOYWW deja vu

and you could be forgiven for thinking that nothing has changed here as this week's workspace looks much like the last one you saw ...

but I have been busy, see post below (with LOTS of pics).

 

So, now it's time to carve another stamp, which, strangely, despite the use of sharp tools,

I find rather relaxing!

 

Now, off to relax with some more desks, via Julia's Stamping Ground.

WOYWW short and sweet

short, anyway ...

I've been carving handmade stamps ...

For a less short, but still sweet post, have a look here.