Easter collage

daily 5x7 collage

A Collage a Day as warmup for working

BROOMS QUILT

35" X 30"

In 1994 I took a Mixed Media Quilt workshop from Joan Schulze at Arrowmont in Gatlinburg, TN. In an intensive 2 weeks I learned to be a collage artist although I thought I was just taking another quilt workshop. At the time I didn’t know that I was learning how to see and how to approach a subject but over the years since then I’ve used what she taught me in just about everything art project I tackle.

BROOMS QUILT - DETAIL

Joan taught me to go on a photo safari, to find one thing that’s interesting and explore that one thing from every angle and then to apply what I learned to design a piece of art. We learned some great techniques including acrylic transfers and monotype which I’ve used over and over.

The brooms quilt started with a series of photos of a rack of handmade straw brooms and the detail a transfer of the key photograph. Other images and designs in the quilt are based on the linear pattern of the straws, the bindings, the marks the end of the broom would make in dust. Once I made a big collection of images on fabric I cut and tore the fabric to form the quilt.

Some of Joan's good advice I’ve followed, some, not so much. I’m just now re-reading old notes… Joan said “Every evening write what my day was about, goals for tomorrow, ideas generated. Write poems.”

Well, let me tell you that poetry and I don’t mix, and as for being disciplined enough to write about each day at the end of the day, forgetaboutit. She said “don’t resist change”. I’m resisting discipline, but I can change. I know I can.

All that came into my conscious because I wanted to tell you about a habit I developed because she told us about her own daily collage practice. At the time Joan kept a small area of her studio set aside and set up for making small collages as a way to start the day, to encourage creativity. I do that for awhile and then lose interest for awhile but I always come back to the practice, and today I started again.

 I found a bunch of heavy paper torn to 5x7” and a box to put them in. I’ve set up a place on my studio counter with the box, a glue stick, an old phone book that I’ll glue on top of, and a box of my collage compost, mostly scraps. In the first 5 minutes I made a little collage and then I grabbed a small book I recently made from a failed watercolor and made another 5 minute collage in that. I’ll switch back and forth between the book and the single sheets for awhile until I figure out my favorite.

Maybe you would like to start your own daily warm-up, and then download a summary of your day and plans for tomorrow, either to paper or computer, or maybe on the back of the morning’s collage. Now that’s an idea!
You can read an article I wrote about collage here or link from my sidebar on the right under Articles.

Containment

This is an old spread from a journal I made when traveling in France in 2003. The spread is composed of scrap paper that I picked up off the street and pasted into my journal to remind me that Paris isn't much different than most American cities. Looking at this spread reminds me that what I'm doing these days isn't that much different.

A note on my desk says, "I prefer containment". I don't know where that came from, probably something someone said that tickled my fancy. I'm a big one for recording bit and pieces of conversations so be careful what you say in my presence. At this point I'm relating containment to putting art and words between the covers of handmade books. I've made another video for you, this one of a new book that I made over the past 2 days. It took me about 20 hours to make the book plus a few hours to gather the materials. Bookmaking isn't quick but then making any kind of art journal is never quick, whether one starts with white paper and adds paint and collage and photography and text, or as in this technique... sewing junk paper together to make pages on which to write later.

I've taken 2 online classes, one from Mary Ann Moss called Remains of the Day, and one from Patty Van Doren, called Wall Calendar Journal. I offer no comparisons and make no recommendations. I learned lots from both very talented women and now that I've made several books on my own I know that I will develop my own process and product that will be both derivative and uniquely mine. I'm not against copying in order to learn, but after I learn the techniques shame on me if I don't branch out on my own.

We'll see where this goes. One thing I got from both classes is that it's okay to sew on paper. AHA! Back when I was teaching sewing I'd have my beginning students use an unthreaded machine and a page of lined notebook paper to practice sewing straight. You've never seen such perforated paper and so much improvement in an hour. Of course at the end of the day I spent another hour cleaning the dust out of the sewing machines, but it was a worthwhile exercise. I never considered sewing on paper as a studio method. Where have I been?

Now I'm back at the sewing machine for hours at a time sewing paper and fabric together to bind books. Thank you, Mary Ann and Patty. FYI: Use machine darning thread or embroidery thread in your bobbin. Both types are finer threads so you can get 2 or 3 times as much on your bobbin so that you won't have to fill the bobbin so often. I use Zwicky brand. For sure, it feels good to get back into my books, my visual journals. I'm not turning my back on paint and glue or to working in large format but I seem to find the most pleasure inside books. I love to read. I like to touch books, to turn pages, to flip the pages and watch the color and text fly by. I'm continually thinking about how to turn bits of art into books. So for now, that's what I'm doing when I'm not mopping floors or pulling weeds or chopping onions for tonight's soup. Here's the video.


The book was made following Patty's guidance and used an old wall calendar as the base. I selected a variety of paper: vintage and new ledger paper; old books, including one of my mother's high school textbooks; sheet music; new wallpaper from discontinued sample books; church bulletins; painted paper; magazine images; and lots of other paper from my collage bins.

I discovered a few things as I was working.
I prefer new paper over vintage.
I like creamy yellow new-ish ledger paper with anything.
I prefer my own photographs rather than magazine images.
I prefer photos that tell a story or or a bit quirky rather than pretty scenes.
Keeping materials loosely corraled is important to the way I work. I watch for unusual contrast of color and image.
Seek repetition of images with a contrast of size: large bird+small bird, bird+nest.

Because of years and years of studying and making art the elements and principles of design come automatically and yet are important to name... Balance. Line. Shape. Emphasis. Movement. Repetition. Unity. Color. Contrast. (There are more, depending on whose list you're reading.)

Cook Book - Food Book Video

I've made a video of my latest Remains of the Day journal which I mentioned in my last post.  Go here: ROD Cook Book Journal Video to view it.

Although I've lived in Oregon for 47 years I still have my Arkansas accent which I'm aware of only when I hear a recording of my voice. Oh well, accents are interesting.

I've decided what to do with this journal... I'll include my more personal recipes and tell how I got them and from whom. For instance, I wrote about Election Day Chicken, a verbal recipe given to me on November 8, 1960, the day I first voted. We lived in Oklahoma City at the time and various homes were opened in the city to serve as voting places. I walked to the end of the block after a day of teaching, so anxious and proud to be able to vote. The most wonderful smells emanated from the kitchen and I asked the homemaker, "What's cooking?".  The recipe was simple and the dish turned out so good that it's been a favorite ever since, one I make most Election Days.  And then there's the curry recipe I got from a friend who's a transplant from India, and Novella White's Pecan Pie which my family swears is the best ever. Novella was my best friend's mother.

I think this will turn into a family treasure which my grandkids will fight over for who gets possession when I die.

COOK BOOK - FOOD BOOK – GOOD FOOD

Something this much fun should be celebrated.

Crafts have a bad rap. I had forgotten how much fun I have using my technical skills in the studio. I’ve been busy as can be making another Remains of the Day art journal, this one about FOOD. As a former home economics teacher and a lifelong rather good cook (so my husband proclaims and he’s sticking to his story as long as it produces a few good meals every week) I have a love affair with good food, whether it comes from my kitchen, one of my friends’, or a favorite restaurant. It’s natural that I spend some time writing about the food in my life.

Once I decided to make a book about food I started collecting all sorts of related ephemera: labels from cans and bottles, recipes, photos, fabric, grocery bags and receipts, advertisements, and restaurant menus. I built my basic pages from menus and grocery bags and added all sorts of ephemera with my sewing machine. I typed a page of cooking terms and printed it on vellum which I then cut into strips and folded them in half to use to finish the edges of some of the pages.

Believe me, it’s addictive to make pages for these books but there’s a limit to the size of such a book since I’ll be adding writing and recipe cards and photos and it’s already quite fat at 22 pages divided between three signatures.

The cover is made from a Trader Joe’s paper bag. Both the cover and the inside of the cover were cut from one bag and a sturdy piece of light card stabilizes the inside. I did lots of machine sewing all over the cover and added handles from the same bag. That’s recycling, for sure. So far this book doesn’t have a tie but when it’s finished I may have to add something to keep it closed.

I work on my books at a rather small table which quickly becomes way too messy so I went hunting in the store room for something to corral the mess. I found a large tray that was once used in the darkroom, 2 small plastic boxes, a plastic shoe box, and a long drawer divider. The 2 small boxes (for small bits and labels) fit perfectly in the shoe box, leaving room at the back for larger paper to stand. And the space in front is large enough for magazines and full sheets of paper. Alongside the big tray is the long tray for strips of paper. And at my feet is my big cookie jar of ribbons and a tote full of fabric scraps.

Stay tuned. I intend to make a video of this book before long.

26th World Wide SketchCrawl

So what is the world is a World Wide SketchCrawl? Several times a year groups around the world gather in their home cities to sketch their surroundings and then post the results for others to see.  It happened that today was the 26th such happening as well as my sketch group's monthly meeting day, so we three met at Helvetia Tavern in Washington County to draw the countryside. We drew for and 1 1/2 hours, ate burgers and deep fried onion rings, and then drove down the road to another location to sketch some more. We're wimps, so we sat in the car and drew whatever was in front of us.

My drawing hand is a bit rusty and the first results were a combination of uncertainty and unskilled, but as I got used to the new pen, and then switched to my old tried and true gel pen the drawings and the color mixing improved.

Striped Paper with a Smocking Pleater

Years ago I bought a Reed Pleater, a hand crank machine that’s loaded with threaded needles through which one runs fine cotton fabric to prepare it for smocking little girls dresses. I wanted to use it for dyeing fabric, sort of like Arashi Shibori, a Japanese resist method of dyeing where one wraps fabric around a pole and then squishes it down to make very tight pleats which are then brushed with dye or dipped into a dye bath.

Well, I never got around to doing faux-Shibori and a few weeks ago I sold my pleater on eBay. The sale fell through and the pleater came back home, but before trying to sell it again I had the bright idea of running paper through it to make lines of holes or parallel lines of stitched threads in paper and fabric which I will use in collage.

This project is just what I needed to get my creative juices going again. I’ve been working with the pleater and Japanese rice paper, Washi, and then spray dyeing the tightly pleated fabric. It works. It’s beautiful. I’m onto something, though it is labor intensive and right down my alley.

If you like to sew but don’t have a pleater simply get out your large eyed needles and some heavy linen thread and make lots of parallel running stitches in some lightweight paper. Pull the threads tight and dye the paper either with spray watercolor or calligraphy inks. Or use a brush and whatever water-based paint you have handy and paint the ridges on each side. Let it dry. Remove the threads. Voila! You’ll have unique striped paper.

Shall I tell you how many needles I broke trying to run a doubled sheet of paper through the pleater? Nah! Just don’t do as I did. Stick to thin paper and feed the paper or fabric through slowly.  I used color here, spray watercolors, but my next experiment will be with black ink to see what wonderful black and white images I can create. I'm thinking that if I gather the paper as above and then wrap the bundle tightly with some heavily threads before I spray the ink I'll have more uneven patterns that will be quite useful.

I’d love to hear about your experiments if you try this.

The well known teacher of Shibori, Anna Lisa Hedstrom, wrote an article for Threads about using a pleater for Shibori. Find it in Issue #69, March,1997.

Making Decorative Tapes

There's been talk among the people taking Mary Ann Moss's Remains of the Day online class about Japanese Tapes, printed tapes that are sort of like masking tape but more transluscent. I don't have the tape bug that some journal artists do but adding strips and borders to my art as well as to my art journals has become somewhat of a signature so anything that will make the process easier certainly catches my interest.  But I don't want to spend more money on art supplies... remember me saying "Buy no art supplies; use what I have. Be creative". So...

Thanks to a reminder from Susie LaFond I got out my Xyron and an adhesive cartridge (supplies that I haven't touched in probably five years) and started experimenting. For my purposes I found that patterned tissue paper was the best choice. I ran 2 different black and white prints (and a piece of turquoise cotton fabric) through the Xyron which adds adhesive and a teflon-like paper to the back, making whatever you put through the machine into a peel & stick.  I used the checkerboard because the black and white tape will echo the black and white text and ink already in the book and add much needed continuity to the ROD travel journal that I'll use later in the spring when we head south and east on a road trip.

You can see how I used the homemade checkerboard tap on the first page of the travel journal (above), along with bits cut from an old AAA TourBook and map.

And here on page two I adhered a piece of my tape across the bottom to form a border, and added a tiny snippet on page three, bottom right.

This cost me nothing except a bit of time and I now have my very own "washi" tape in the pattern and color I want.

This photo shows jow I set up to cut one of the black and white tissues (with adhesive on the back).

I use an Omnigrid ruler left from my quilting days and an Olfa rotary cutter. I keep two Olfas, putting the new blad in one reserved for fabric and move the used one with a dulled blade to a rotary cutter reserved for paper. It's still sharp, just now sharp enough for fabric.

Sewing Wild Oats Video

My scrappy journal isn't complete without lots of writing and photos but the sewing is done and it's been sewn into it's cover. I took advantage of a long sun break to set up a video station and shoot my first video. There's no music, no voice over, and only the sound of the pages but I did it with my little point and shoot camera's movie setting. Now that I know how I'll add more to my blog in the future. I hope you enjoy seeing the journal.


Sewing Wild Oats from Jo Reimer on Vimeo.

Please Keep A Journal

This is for my own children and grandchildren as well as for all of you who read my blog from time to time... Please keep a journal.

What an inspiring man and an easy to do project for all of us, writing our personal history one day at a time. A journal doesn't need to be fancy or  artistic or even very involved; it just needs to have its author pay a few minutes of daily attention to recording the details of one's life. I'm sure Mr. ----------'s children get bored about half way through each journal and they each probably won't ever read every volume, but some of it will pique the interest of an offspring, ... and there's usually a history buff in every coulple of generation.

I've never been able to be totally committed to daily journal keeping. I kept a diary in high scholl, until my Mother found and read it, and that was the end of that! I have diary/journal entries in lots of different volumes, but rarely have I filled a book. I'm in the process of collecting the disparate pages (3 from one book, 5 from another) and tossing them into a drawer. One of these days I'll try to figure out the sequence and assemble all these pages into one volume. Some are prayers, some rants, some praise, some family history; they'll all go into one book.

In the mid 1990s I started making artists journals, books full of art and ideas and creativity, painting and drawing and collage and lots of notes. I made sure, as I still do, that the cover of the book was inviting so that I'd see it and want to pick it up and work in it. Still, I don't work in these books every day though its frequent enough that the books get filled every year or so. I love to pull out a journals and page through it in order to jumpstart a new project or process. And I notice that friends also love looking through my art journals, stopping to read an entry here and there, so I'm careful that the private thoughts that I don't want to share with the world are hidden from plain sight.

I've been quiet lately here in blogland and part of the reason for that is that I'm taking time for closer introspection than is normal for me. We're into a new decade and I'm giving lots of thought to determining how I want to live it. I don't want to continue to squander precious TIME; I want to use my days wisely. I'm heeding Mother's advice to "Waste Not, Want Not".... a wise clique that falls all too easily on deaf ears in recent generations.

I was born to parents who faced hard times in the Great Depression. Their first home burned to the ground  when they were away at work and they had to pull up stakes and move out of the state and rely on her brother for work and shelter, right in the middle of the depression when there was little work to be found anywhere. They learned to make do, to use things until they were beyond function, and then do without until they could earn enough to buy what they needed.  Mother made clothes; Dad made furniture. They had a big garden and helped on their parents' farms. They managed. I was born to that and I learned to pinch pennies early on, to think before I bought anything. Better times came but now I'm back where I started, making an effort not to waste neither time nor money. It's not as bad as it was in the 30's and 40's, in depression and wartime, though we grouse about unemployment and increasing costs for everything. We don't have to deal with rationing or no new cars or refrigerators because all the metal is being used for ships and munitions.

As I think about this I find myself wishing that my mother or father had kept a journal, that they had written something, anything, and how they existed. They're dead and it's too late to ask the questions that would inform me about how they managed, but it's not too late for me to rachet up my journaling skills and leave a written and artistic record for those who come after me. I'll write down what I consider to be important about my days and my thoughts and opinions. This is a good thing.