MEMBER PROJECTS

 It's no secret that our members are multi-talented. They often delve into different art mediums such as sewing, painting, and dyeing to name a few. Our member from Eureka, California, Lynne Gurnee, is one of these artists. She recently shared some of her latest projects that I thought would interest our blog readers.

Slow-stitch stitchery has become popular on YouTube with some instructors running weekly challenges. Here is some of Lynne's work done with k3n (Kathryn) at https://www.youtube.com/@k3n.clothtales

This photo shows Lynne's embroidery around one of Michele Kamprath's eco-dyed "blankets". Michele had given away a bunch of the fabrics that she uses to wrap around her ecodyed papers. This piece has a forest theme giving impressions of fungi, spores, and slim molds.

This project from k3n was to make a crazy quilt, but Lynne changed it up a bit to make a right-angle version.

The Mandala project was another one from k3n, but Lynne did not want to make a traditional one. This is her version of a leaf-flower that she had seen on Pinterest. These projects are all made in the 5-7" size. The button in the middle is made from an avocado pit.

Have you ever thought of making buttons from avocado seeds? I love this idea and have a seed drying right now to work on. This is another YouTube project at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORUNwbKx91E. The written instructions are in the "more" section of the video.

The two on the left are finished and the other two are still in the process.

Weathergrams are fun things to make with leftover scraps of paper. Lynne takes them on her walks to leave on trees or bushes in the forest.

This weathergram has been hanging in the forest for a few months.

Mail art has become quite popular with many different groups that you can join or just branch out on your own.

Lynne used her carved rubber stamps and made a collage with fabric scraps.

Another technique Lynne has tried is Shibori, a traditional Japanese tie-dye. With this method you clamp, bind, fold or wrap fabric to achieve an endless number of pattern variations.

Lynne already had this RIT dye called Eggplant, but next time she wants to use RIT dark blue to imitate the more traditional indigo color.

Thank you Lynne for sharing photos of your wonderful projects. Hopefully they will inspire more of our members to branch out a bit from their usual work and try something new. If you do, please consider sending us photos and short descriptions that we can share on the blog.

CALL FOR NPBAF WORKSHOP PROPOSALS

DEADLINE: October 04, 2024

 The Oregon Coast Council for the Arts is accepting proposals for the annual Newport Paper & Book Arts Festival. The 2025 festival dates are April 10th, 11th & 12th 2025. The workshops will be held at the Newport Visual Arts Center as well as other classroom spaces in the area. We welcome new and innovative techniques as well as traditional processes, including but not limited to: Assemblage, Book Arts, Collage, Dyeing, Mixed Media, Paper Making, Paper Manipulation, Printing, Specialty Binding Techniques and Surface Design. We encourage you to submit multiple workshop proposals for consideration. The deadline for submitting proposals is October 4, 2024. For more information go to https://coastarts.org/newport-paper-book-arts-festival/submit-a-proposal/ or contact Christina Carlsen  ccarlsen@coastarts.org or call her at 541.574.3364.

SINGLE PAGE POCKET BOOK & MORE

 Our August workshop, taught by Emmy Nelson, was great fun. Not only was this a quick and easy structure to make, but we discovered multiple ways to personalize it. Here's one variation of the structure (see the previous post for the originals).

Bonnie Julien added decorative paper 

behind some pages with a pamphlet stitch

to keep the pages aligned.

She also added a single stitch to keep the pockets closed.

Thank you Emmy for an excellent workshop.

This month's featured artist in the kiosk at the Humboldt County Library is Lynne Gurnee.  If you're in Eureka, be sure to check out this great display.

Thank you Kenzie Mullen for arranging this display.

Notes from the Art Lab 

by Bonnie Halfpenny

The Treasure Chest

In a recent NORBAG newsletter, there was a mention of public domain sites listed by Bel Mills at Scrap Paper Circus. Maybe you are very familiar with these websites, but I was not. Now that I've peeked into them, I realize I was missing a real treasure chest! Some of the great sites mentioned include Old Book Illustrations at https://www.oldbookillustrations.com which covers everything from plants to individual illustrators. Next head to Vintage Ephemera when you need that look at https://vintageephemera.blogspot.com.This site has an extensive subject listing, so you don't have to look through so many things to find something useful.

Over the years, the Smithsonian has been collecting everything they deem important; now they are busy removing copyright restrictions from their digital images. Smithsonian Open Access lets you in at https://www.si.edu/openaccess.

The Biodiversity Heritage Library has over 100,000 images available to download at https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/sets/.

While I have received emails promoting The Public Domain Review, I had never taken a serious look at this site. Browsing there is well worth your time, at

https://publicdomainreview.org/

I'd like to thank Bel Mills at https://www.scrappapercircus.com/ for making this information available. For these and all public domain websites, please take note of any caveats they may list. And if you have a favorite public domain site to share, please let us know through the blog. Happy browsing!

SHELTER IN PLACE PLAY DAY

Since we, and most of the world, are staying home in hope of flattening the curve of coronavirus cases, this blog will strive to offer suggestions and projects from some of our members. We will try to update the blog every two weeks, so be sure to check in for new ideas as well as information about when regular NORBAG workshops will resume. Remember to scroll down for previous projects sent by our members.

 Before "shelter in place" became the norm, and back when the advice was to keep 3’ distance (rather than the 6’ distance, now dictated), Lynne Gurnée and Dolores Guffey got together to play with an idea that was noted in the April newsletter at janedavies-collagejourneys.blogspot.com. They were intrigued with Jane’s idea of painting tissue paper to make collaged stones.  The instructional video for muted colors/stones is at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJtycVMZTz4 . After watching the video, they noted that Jane used bleed-proof tissue paper from Dick Blick. Not having that, they just ventured forth with what was on hand and found that some tissue papers worked better than others (some were too thin). Nevertheless, they persevered and here are their creations. Lynne then went on to make a full page collage using just the tissue paper she had colored, no added papers were included. Here is what the papers looked like after painting. They used both tube and fluid acrylics.

Dolores' rocks

Dolores' landscape

Lynne's rocks

Lynne's landscape

Lynne's Japanese themed landscape

Lynne's "flutterbye"

These "rock" cards are by our member in Pennsylvania, Mary Elizabeth

TEA BAG & PAPER NAPKIN COLLAGE

Saturday, July 13, Edge Gerring and Lynne Gurneé led a workshop that added to the myriad of ways to decorate our paper art with collage. The term collage was coined in the early 20^th century and is derived from the French word “coller” which means to glue. The art form combines different images from various sources to make a new whole. We were introduced to the use of napkins and tea bags as one source of decoration.

Lynne and Edge gave us techniques and materials information that would work for all types of collage. They talked about the supports (background) that can be as substantial as book board or to the ephemeral tea bags. They told us of the different adhesives that can be used and the properties of each. They taught how to layer collage. They brought a multitude of napkins for us to use with all kinds of designs such as cute little cats, florals, dragonflies and pretty backgrounds. We were shown how to separate the different ply (layers of the napkin) and how to use the images. We also learned how to have a feathered edge by using a moistened brush around the outline rather that using scissors. (By the way, this is also a good way to get a deckle edge on handmade papers.) Edge and Lynne supplied an excellent information sheet that can be used as a reference for collage.

If the room looks different, it is. We ordinarily have a room in the church event hall.

This day, we met in the Fireside room. Cozier, but not as bright as we are used to. 

And, no, it didn't slow us down a bit.

This is Lynne behind the table of materials she and Edge brought.

Lynne displaying a sample.

Edge (left) demonstrating a technique.

Choosing artwork to use

Cutting the napkin for a support (bookmark this time)

Using Mod Podge to affix the napkin to the support

Affixing a single napkin to a support on lower example. The upper example 

shows how an image might be applied to the printed page.

Affixing multiple images to a support.

More samples of how this works. Notice the leaf at the top of the page. 

It is a leaf that has been affixed to a card. On the right is a little pink

book that we could make using paper that Lynne and Edge brought.

The rest of the pictures are of members busy at work.

Many thanks are due to both Edge and Lynne. We learned about the decorative value of napkins, but we also learned about collage in general.

PAPER NAPKIN & TEABAG COLLAGE

Join Edge Gerring and Lynne Gurnee for some summer play time collaging decorative paper napkins and teabags onto notecards, postcards, bookmarks, and a mini maze book. This sort of surface design can also be used effectively for decorating book covers and pages.

Materials to bring:

• Matte Mod Podge (or gloss if you prefer)
• Scrap paper to place under what you're gluing
• Rags, paper towels or baby wipes
• Scotch tape (to help separate napkin layers)
• Waxed paper (for smoothing wrinkles)

Tools to bring:

• Soft, but slightly stiff brush or foam brush
• Small pointed brush (if you have one)
• Craft knife
• Cutting mat
• Ruler
• Pencil and eraser
• Scissors
• Bone folder
• Small container for brush cleaning water

Optional materials to bring if you want something different from what is provided:

• Decorative napkins (many available at Party City in Eureka)
• Plain background cardstock to make cards or postcards (lighter colors are best)
• Decorative background paper, such as sheet music or with Chinese writing (the writing will show through napkins which can be good)
• Blank notecards
• Dry empty teabags

Materials provided:

• Multiple decorative paper napkins to choose from
• Decorative background paper, such as sheet music or with Chinese writing
• Plain white cardstock (110#) for cards or postcards
• Book boards
• Dry, empty teabags
• Instructions, tips & examples

When:   Saturday, July 13 at noon
Where:  Eureka Methodist Church at Del Norte & F Streets
Bring:    See above list
Cost:     $2.00
RSVP:    by Wed. July 8 to Edge Gerring, contact information in the newsletter

TRIANGLE-PIERCED SLIP & SLIDE ACCORDION BOOK

Lynne Gurnee will lead the March workshop to make this Triangle-Pierced Slip & Slide Accordion Book. Inspired by Dolores G's November 2016 exchange book, this book is a variation created while thinking about last month's Pocket & Tags theme. Using multiple brightly colored cardstock will make this a lively looking book, but subtle colors will also look nice. The example shown in this photo has the same cardstock for the cover and spine, but you may choose different colors. 

Tools to bring:

• Metal ruler
• Craft knife/X-acto
• Cutting mat
• Scissors
• Bone Folder
• Pencil
• 1/8" hole punch or Japanese punch
• 5 paper clips

Materials to bring:

• Folios (a folio is a single sheet of paper folded in half): 5 pieces of 11" x 3" cardstock
• Tags: 5 pieces of 6" x 3" cardstock
• Cover: 2 pieces of 8 5/8" x 3" cardstock
• Spine: 1 piece of 11" x 3" cardstock
• 18" piece of Perle Cotton
• 1/8" wide double stick tape, or strong glue
• Optional: decorative beads (for ends of Perle Cotton)
• Optional: rubber stamps, collage materials to decorate the papers (time permitting)

What will be provided:

Instructions and examples

When:   Saturday, March 11

Where:  Eureka Methodist Church at Del Norte & F Streets

RSVP?    YES by March 6 to Lynne - contact information in the newsletter

Cost:     50 cents

Bring:   See list above

Photos of May, 2016 Workshop - Basic Japanese Stab Binding by Lynne Gurnee

In May, Lynne Gurnée led our workshop in Basic Japanese Stab Binding.  We had in excess of 25 people. Lynne had us bring covers for two books and she provided pages with delightful haiku poems for one. We did two styles of stitching pattern. 

Two of the haikus:

Under the evening moon,

The snail

is stripped to the waist.

Don’t worry, spiders,

I keep house

casually.

Here are the pictures.

When we come into the room, it is empty. All of us set up tables and get ready.

Lynne had us start by folding our pages.

Then we gathered the pages and clipped them together.

And started stitching.

And stitching.

And these were the results.