Tag Archives: cut paper

Carved Books

Posted on by under Level 3 Art and Design

I have been working on these carved books as part of my homework for Level 3 Art & Design. Part of our homework was to study various artists that use “cut paper” in their work. I came across Guy Laramee and was inspired by his work. I bought several large reference books/dictionaries from the thrift store. I thought of it as saving them from the landfill. I have never done any “book art” before. So first I carved the books and then I added a variety of paint, acrylic mediums, oil paint sticks. I then further enhanced them with faux leather, burned with a wood burning tool and added free motion machine stitching.

This is the first one that I created. So many people told me that it looked like burned wood that I decided I should do my next one as a fallen tree trunk.

I needed some practice with the wood burning tool so I used the bottom book to try that out as a sample. It looked OK so I covered it with faux leather as well and will use it as a display for the top book.

Here’s my tree trunk book. These were definitely something that I hadn’t tried before and I really enjoyed embellishing them. The carving part, not so much. So these are probably the last carved books I will create. These are some of the photos that I took a couple of weeks ago. I finally got through most of them and edited etc. Nice to have that chore done 🙂

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Glacier Lilies in Progress

Posted on by under Level 3 Art and Design

I have been adding layers of paint to this canvas for several weeks now. Now I am working on the design based on Glacier Lily shapes.

Glacier lilies are yellow but I just wanted to use the shapes that I had sketched out over the last few weeks. Some of the shapes are flowers that had just bloomed and others are based on flowers past their prime and wilting. They make really interesting shapes then.

Here you can see how I have some cut out of freezer paper that I will be using as a resist and to the right are some of the different shapes I am using on tracing paper. I did them in different sizes to get a variety of scale. Once I get them all cut out, I need to decide if I have enough flowers. I will be adding layers of green paint over the flower shaped resists and then adding leaves and more stems. Then I will add another layer of paint. So I have a long ways to go yet on this one.

Today we’re going to a Native American Pow Wow. I have lived here for 20 years and never been to one so I thought it would be great to experience. I hope to show you some photos of the bead work and costumes next time.