StampsStencils

On a rainy, cold day there is nothing better than taking a workshop inside! This is the second Spring class offered by OLLI and taught by Sandy Vrem and a group of us gathered around the heaters in  her garage and produced some wonderful surface design. I created the four images above (Upper Left and CW) by running an inked roller over a wooden cutout and then rolling out the ink on paper; inking various household objects and pressing them to black paper; cutting or punching designs from foam and creating my own stamps. I got so involved in making the stamps that I didn’t make it to the other activities but I have photos!

Mask

The fold on a manila folder is perfect for symmetrical patterns and this one was used as a mask on the collage you can see above.

GarbageTiesSandy created this image using garbage ties as masks while she sprayed paint. What an idea!

gluegun

Glue Gun masks or stamps. How fascinating. I love the quirky designs.

books4u

These books should keep us busy for awhile. Have fun!

I’ve always loved “messy” ink in drawings and text. Ralph Steadman is one of my favorite artists and I have several of his books. I just bought this one while visiting Ashland, Oregon.

Book of Dogs

It is filled with ink blots which serve as the inspiration for his wacky dogs. While I’m not apt to duplicate his quirky style I was able to create some surface design using ink that I’m pleased with. I took an OLLI Surface Design Class from Sandy Vrem and couldn’t be happier with what I produced-plus it was just so much fun.

Ink Play

I applied the ink with the ends of toilet paper rolls and immediately scattered the puddles by blowing through a straw. Sandy added red ink afterward as well as some white lines on top of the black. For the time being, I’m not seeing a dog in my image but maybe….

Surface Design

We learned a number of techniques and the following four were some of my favorites: stars created from rubbings on custom plates, color crayon resist with combed liquid acrylics on tops, wrinkled papers covers with liquid acrylics, and masking tape with sparkly sprays. I see some book covers in this bunch.