Showing posts with label Out of the Box. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Out of the Box. Show all posts

Thursday, October 16, 2014

The man with the hollow tooth: Mon's entry in Nicole's "Out of the Box"

Nicole's journal was so freeing and "out of the box" for me that it took me a while to find what I'd be doing as my entry. Normally when working to a theme I try to push the boundaries and think outside the box.

With the theme of "Out of the box" it was more the opposite for me: a working "into a box" if that makes any sense.

I based my entry on a story my Grandpa used to tell me when I was little. It is one of those never ending  stories that loop. The sparse reference i could find on the net implied it was a Swiss story as it was apparently not known in Germany. The story goes like this (translated from Swissgerman:)

There once was a man who had a hollow tooth,
inside the tooth was a little box,
inside the little box was a letter,
inside the letter was written:
There once was a man who had a hollow tooth,
inside the tooth was a little box,
inside the little box was a letter,
inside the letter was written:
etc. etc.  you get the idea.




Somehow as a kid I could not get enough of this story and I must have driven my ever patient Grandpa nuts with urging him to go on and on and on.
In my mind I could see it clearly; the man with the hollow tooth who's tooth housed increasingly smaller versions of himself and at the same time I was still curious as to what the next "little box" might contain. But of course it always was another letter with the same story in the box but that did not dim my fascination with it.




It was a bit like holding both mirrored bathroom cabinet doors to my face and seeing an infinite and ever smaller version of myself. Or like going for a walk not knowing what the next bend in the path might reveal.





My entry in Nicole's "journal" (it is a box not a journal) became itself a little box as this is a hollow double layer about 1cm thick. Inside the hollow tooth sits a little box with a wee letter stuck in it and with a wee drop of sealing wax which landed partially on my finger. I have a blister to prove it. (Note to self: When working with sealing wax on tiny areas it is safer to use a toothpick or similar to hold down the piece.)

On the back I wrote the story as many times as would fit onto the paper and then used an aqua brush to paint a man's face with water and the soluble ink from my writing pen as the only paint.


I enjoyed working in this box of a journal and it brought back many memories from my childhood.
xoxo

Friday, August 1, 2014

Out of the Box- Louise's pages

Sometimes, life gets to be too much,
 and even though every day we do what needs doing,
 life can become a bit of a blur- 


we can forget to notice the everyday moments
 that make life so rich 
and we can miss out 
on those activities that do bring us pleasure
 but are not quite so essential so they get put aside.


I have been in this space lately 
so the routine of a travelling journal 
arriving every month has been a real blessing.


I have not been doing much art at all
just masquerading that life is normal


The chance to contemplate working in a friends journal
to think about the theme and how it sits with me
to gather the materials -
 these tiny river peddles are from my beloved Clarence River
all offer me a chance
 to step outside of the stress and worries and touch my creative fire


My creative fire is my core
it gives me strength and joy and pleasure
I need to get back to creating daily,
but for now I am grateful for this 
Australian Art Journal Swap.

I used some of the fabulous stamps I won from Darkroom Door in these pages.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

My spread in Nicole's Out of the Box journal


+I made all of the "treasures" out of cardboard and aluminium foil coloured with alcohol ink and/or embossing powder. I also used distress paint and ink,  a copper leafing pen, a silver metallic pen, and gilders paste.There are a couple of die cuts and some buttons as well as some rhinestones.
I did the spread on the brown card that Nicole supplied in the box. I almost forgot to mention that I started the background off with a layer of used tea bags that had been dried and cut apart and adhered with diluted PVA. Not very apparent in the pics but the texture is there to see and feel.
Hope you like it Nicole.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Jan does ‘Out of the Box’!


It was a privilege to be the first one to add to Nicole’s Box of pages.
I had decided that the current situation I found myself in would be perfect for a journal page. I had just come from NZ helping Mum and Dad pack up and move to OZ. Out of the Box so to speak.
I did some spray stencil layers and random colours in acrylic and then got down to my design. I had looked through a few of my previous journals and found a page I thought would lend itself to the theme.


I did some collage and stamping (some bits from NZ and some from Oz). Added some journaling and shading and felt happy with that side, then moved to the reverse.

I decided to incorporate a few elements from my own journal front page and when I’d finished it I photographed the page and thought the bottom half looked awful. So painted it all over and tore off of the stuff and redid it with stencils and finger painting. Much Better!