Sue Bleiweiss

marbeling paper & class announcements

The current session of the Journal Making for the Fiber Artist online class is now closed to registration.  This class will be running again beginning Monday June 2, 2008.  Click here to see the details and to register!

I spent some time yesterday making some marbled papers:

I could have spent all day in the studio doing this!   I did create a nice little stack of papers, much more than what you see here but it's hard to get good photos with the dreary cloudy weather that we've been having.  This marbling technique is one I'll be covering in the Creative Mixed Media Journaling Techniques class.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Lots of stuff...

Couldn't come up with a good title for this post so "lots of stuff" will have to do!  First up I have very exciting news to share.  My good friend Terri has written a book!  It's called Creative Paper Quilts: Applique, Embellishment, Patchwork, Piecework and it's available for pre-order on Amazon here.  I'm so excited for you Terri!

My other good friend Sandy has agreed to be my official tester for my lessons for the Creative Mixed Media Journaling Techniques class and she's posted her sample from the first lesson here.  Keep your eye on Sandy's blog as she'll be posting more samples as I give her more of the lessons to test for me.

Remember the white embossed paper that I showed you in my last post.  Well I got a few pieces painted up yesterday:

Copper...

I'm not sure that this one is done yet, I think it may need another layer or two.  It feels a little too bright for me.

Black:

I was going for an embossed black leather look with this one.   Not entirely sure it's there yet.  This photo isn't the best, it's actually a bit darker than what you see here. 

Silver:

This silver surface is very shiny in person.  I think I may leave this one the way it is and make a wedding memories journal from it. 

Brown:

and here again I was going for a distressed embossed leather surface.  I think I like this one the way it is.  Not sure though, I think I need to leave it for a day before I decided if it's finished.

Thanks to all of you who emailed me about my foot both through my blog comments and directly.  Once I get used to this clunky boot I think I'll be fine.  I'm just grateful it's not my hands so I can still be active in the studio.   Now if we could just get rid of all this snow and cold I'd be really happy!

What I did this past weekend...

Well I spent a good amount of time playing with paint and making up some new painted backgrounds to use in my journals...

And got a couple of new textured surfaces ready...

This photo doesn't do this surface justice, there's some wonderful layers of copper & golds in this.  Unfortunately it's gray and gloomy here today so photo taking is a bit of challenge.

and a surface will become the "purple haze" journal:

I've also got several new brown paper leather journals in the works too but those won't be ready for a couple of days yet.  I also spent some time hanging out with a new etsy group that I joined:  The BBEST (that's the group name)  team!  You can find a list of all the shops in the group here.  There's some incredibly talented people in the group who make some fabulous things.   Check out these treasuries for just a few highlights of the groups members:

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=1743
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=1829
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=1849
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=1819

Have a great time shopping!

paper & paint

I started painting paper at 5:30 this morning and I couldn't stop!

and some metallics:

And I can't decide which side of these pieces I like better.  Side 1:

or side 2:

and some more:

and you'd think at that point I would have had enough but there's still more that is still drying!

And what's all this paper for?  Well it's the start of the samples for the Creative Mixed Media Journaling Techniques class that I'm writing that will start in September.  You can read all about it here. 

is it

a quilted & beaded red leather box...

or is it a brown paper bag in disguise?  This box measures 4"x6" x 3" high.

Back in the studio...

I managed to get in a little studio time yesterday afternoon and this morning and boy did it feel good.  It's hard to be away from the studio for so long!

I broke out some of my new Stewart Gill paints that I had picked up in Houston and painted up some paper bag surfaces.  I left the paper bag whole for this experiment rather than cutting it up and making a flat surface from it:

And another pin...

I must say I do like these new paints for paper.  I haven't tried them on fabric yet but Vicki did some experimenting and posted her results about them.   Several of you emailed me about the rubber fish I bought in Houston.  If you're interested in getting one for yourself you can get one here. 

And now I'm headed back into the studio...

Paper bag pins

I didn't go into the studio this morning with the intention of making jewelry.  Actually my plan was to work on a new box design that I sketched up yesterday.  But I happen to be flipping through a jewelry making book while having my morning coffee and when I laid eyes on the new brown paper bags that I had painted up last night the muse took over and these pins are the result:

This last one is my favorite I think.  You can click on any of the photos for a larger view.  While I was at it, I decided to dress up a plain black sketchbook too:

okay now that I got all those pins out of my system I'm off to go work on my new box design!

Tagged

Carol issued a challenge in one of the groups we're in to create some art tags.  I really like making tags.  It's a nice shape to work with.  So I spent yesterday afternoon creating some papers and making up some tags:

I working on a free project for the next Fibre&stitch newsletter working with tags so Carol's challenge was pretty timely!

More paper

I've had a design for a new teapot in my head for a while now and I started working on a prototype today.  Thought you might like to see it.

I have learned the hard way that when working in 3d it's always a good idea to make a prototype first before going off and creating the actual item especially when you're working with unusual shapes.  Once I work out the pattern shapes for this I'll be ready to make a real version.

I also played a bit today with weaving up some of my leftover tissue paper surface scraps:

And then I used a sheet of red tissue paper fabric to cover this altered sketchbook:

The pages on the inside of this book have been gesso's and are ready for using to record notes and samples.

Anybody care to guess what the theme of this book is going to be?  If you need a hint visit fibre&stitch and take a look at the theme for issue 3....