05 Wednesday Dec 2012
Posted in Craft Project
I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season. I have a video up on the C. R. Gibson blog showing how I made these Holiday Card Houses. Battery operated tea lights really bring them to life.
Here’s a link to the How To Video—
20 Tuesday Mar 2012
Posted in Art, Craft Project
When I created the mold and deckle for my paper making project, I was left with the glass panels from the frames. I thought this would be a good opportunity to prepare one of those panels for making monoprints.
I simply taped the sharp edges of the glass with masking tape to protect my fingers.
Making a monoprint is simple. Paint the glass with watered down paint, and press a sheet of paper onto the glass to transfer the image. You can use any type of water based paint or ink. For these monoprints I used acrylic paint mixed with water, and I transferred the images onto my hand made paper. Eventually, I plan to make a short video showing the monoprinting process on my Youtube channel.
Monoprints are fun to make because they are very fast to create, and you never know what the results will be. Once they dry, you can draw and paint on top of the prints if you wish.
19 Monday Mar 2012
Posted in Craft Project, How to Make Paper, Scrapbooking, Up-cycling Projects
I allowed the paper to dry completely while still on the sheets of interfacing.
Since the paper curled so dramatically, I sprayed them lightly with water and ironed them. Overall, I’m very pleased with the results. The color is almost white, with a very pale tint of pink and flecks of lime green and hot pink.
18 Sunday Mar 2012
Posted in Craft Project, How to Make Paper, Scrapbooking, Up-cycling Projects
After the paper had been pressed for about 36 hours, I removed the stack of books and lifted off the top board. I wasn’t able to find information about how long the paper should be pressed, so 36 hours is not an official rule or guideline.
I carefully began peeling away the interfacing sheets and clipped them to wire hangers for drying. You can see that the paper is thicker in the center due to the sagging of the netting that I used to make the mold. I definitely recommend using wire mesh rather than fabric tulle for that reason.
I’ll post a photo of the dry paper tomorrow.
17 Saturday Mar 2012
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In day 2 of the paper making process, I learned a few things. The tulle (fabric netting material) I used to make the mold was stretchy, and it sagged every time I made a sheet of paper. The sagging may cause the paper to be thicker in the center, because more pulp will tend to concentrate there as the water is draining. I recommend metal mesh for making the mold rather than the tulle. I plan to look for suitable metal mesh, and I’ll share what I find when I make the video.
After soaking the paper overnight, I filled the electric blender half way with water and added just a few pieces of the paper. I found it helps to break up any long strips of paper (if you used a paper shredder) into smaller pieces. The long strips were getting caught in the blades. You don’t want to strain the blender’s motor. (Yesterday, Susan commented that she found an old blender for $5 at a thrift shop – you don’t want to use a blender for food after this!)
The pulp is ready when there are no large pieces of paper remaining. However, over-blending should be avoided, because if the pulp is too fine, the paper will be weaker due to the shorter fibers.
I continued to add more paper in small amounts until the pulp was about the consistency of a thick milkshake. I poured the pulp into the bin and repeated the process until all of the soaked paper had been turned into pulp. I spent more than an hour just blending batches of pulp!
At this point, the pulp is too thick for paper making, so I removed a large amount of the pulp before I added more water to the bin to thin the pulp out. By keeping a lot of the pulp separate, it allowed me to replenish the pulp occasionally during the paper making process. What happens is that each time you form a sheet of paper, some pulp is removed from the bin, making the pulp mixture thinner. The thinner the mixture, the thinner the sheets of paper will be. If you want thick paper, use thick pulp.
To form the paper, the mold (the piece containing the mesh) goes underneath the deckle, with the mesh facing up. Line up both frames perfectly with each other. Agitate the pulp mixture, and dunk the mold and deckle into the pulp (starting out vertically, because you want to scoop the pulp into the deckle). Lift up the mold and deckle and let the water drain back into the bin. Try to hold it parallel to the floor so that the pulp settles evenly on the mesh. If it’s at an angle, the paper might end up thicker on one side.
Once the water has drained, carefully lift the deckle off the mold. If the mesh is very fine, you may be able to turn the mold over and place the pulp face down on the interfacing sheet on the plywood board. This is the method I used. The mesh sagged quite a bit, but the pulp stayed in place. I used a sponge and pressed the back side of the mesh to remove the excess water. I was amazed at how much water came out of the pulp. Once I had sponged the entire surface, I was able to remove the mold. If the pulp is too wet, it has a tendency to stick to the mold.
On a piece of plywood (covered in plastic), I stacked one sheet of paper on top of another with a sheet of interfacing between each one. I was able to form 14 sheets of paper with the pulp made from about 20 sheets of paper. You always get a little less paper out than what you put into it.
When I was finished stacking the sheets, I covered it with another piece of plywood (covered in plastic to keep the plywood dry). I stacked heavy books on top to create a makeshift paper press.
I strained the remaining pulp and squeezed out as much water as possible to dry it and save the pulp for the next time.
The entire process for Day 2 took about 4 to 5 hours.
16 Friday Mar 2012
Posted in Craft Project, How to Make Paper, Scrapbooking, Up-cycling Projects
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A few months ago, I had mentioned the idea of creating a video showing how to make paper. Making paper is a great opportunity to up-cycle small pieces of waste paper or scrapbooking paper that would normally be thrown out. I think it’s my most ambitious Youtube project yet, and it could require a few videos to go through the whole process. It’s been many years since the last time I made paper, so I’m relearning the process. I’ll post photos each day of my progress.
This is a photo of the first step. I tore up scrapbooking paper scraps and some used inkjet paper into small pieces. You can run sheets of paper through a paper shredder – this really speeds up the process.
I soaked the shredded paper overnight in a pan of cold water. This softens the paper for blending in an electric blender. I bought one at Walmart for $15. I don’t recommend using the blender for food after using it to blend paper pulp.
I made a mold and deckle from two document frames from a dollar store. The frames must be very flat, because they need to fit together tightly when forming the paper. Plus, they need to be solid, not hollow sheets of molded plastic – so look carefully at the construction to be sure they will be suitable for a mold and deckle.
To make the mold, I stretched a piece of nylon tulle onto one of the frames and hot glued it on the sides. The frame for the deckle is left “as is”.
When the video is complete, it will be uploaded to my Youtube channel, probably in a few weeks. It’s an ambitious project, so it will take some time to complete the video editing and voiceover. I’ll be sure to place a link on the blog once it’s uploaded to Youtube.
20 Tuesday Dec 2011
Posted in Art, Art Supplies, Craft Project, Creating Equals Playing
Today’s post comes from Joanne Fink. I know a few of you who have subscribed to this blog have an interest in Zentangles. Yesterday, I received information about this book by Joanne Fink, featuring her drawing and patterning techniques.
The following letter is from Joanne Fink. She gave me permission to post this:
“Dear Friends & Family,
ZENSPIRATIONS™ VIDEO LINKS:19 Monday Dec 2011
Posted in Art Supplies, Craft Project, Creating Equals Playing, Scrapbooking
I made a gingerbread men ornament video for my youtube channel. I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!
Here’s the link to the video for anyone who wants the details.
Caffeine for the Creative Soul 