Tag Archive for ‘mixed media’ at Inspiration Junkie robayre.com

Tag Archive for 'mixed media'

New Circle Series Pieces

Published

on August 7, 2012

. 1 Comment

I’m still chipping away at all the items that I have that need to be listed. I’ve just added 3 new Circle Series pieces to my Etsy shop.

This piece was fun. The flowers are all pictures that I collected under public domain as part of larger floral pieces, printed out and handcut individually. I had this idea for a long time. I was wanting to create a circle of layers from flower images like a bouquet or flower garden.

The colorful ring in this piece above was inspired by my watercolor test sheets and palettes. I also really liked the pencil layer. I recommend visiting the listing and looking at the rest of the pictures, especially the thumbnail.

This piece was inspired by vintage maps and includes actual vintage map pieces. The creme color is like the antique paper that used to be white.

mailart postcard project

Published

robayre

on March 4, 2011

in General Update, Mail Art and Projects

. 6 Comments

February is over and we are that much closer to spring! Near the end of the month, I was so ready to be over with February and the daily Thing-a-Day project. But just to show you what a glutten for punishment, or project addict, I am – before the month was even over, my eye had been caught by multiple other daily projects.

Mailart365
30 Days of Lists
29 Gifts – a month of giving

I love mailart, check out my flickr set of my previous mailart pieces. I love making lists, my sketchbook is filled with them and my studio is filled with tiny slips of paper that have lists drawn out on them. I love giving gifts – I always remember a thing I heard about George Harrison and how he was such a gift giver. He’d have a present for you every time you saw him. I go through these phases when I want to be like that, like George Harrison. We’ll call them my George Harrison phases.

So, I jumped into the deep end and signed up for mailart365. I will openly admit that while I am a HUGE supporter of daily projects, I have yet to complete a 365 project. Failed attempt one, and two.

In an attempt to combine all of these projects, I am writing a list on the back of each postcard, and as I’m sending out original pieces of artwork out in mail, it’s kind of like giving gifts. Some cards will be sent to other participants of the project, others will be sent to friends and family, and others yet will probably be sent out using addresses from sendsomething.net. Here are the first 5 I’ve completed.

edit 2/26: added the lists from the back of the cards underneath each image

10 things about me

10 good books I’ve read

10 accomplishments

10 fun things to do

10 memories

I’ve shared several of these here before, as they were pieces I made from the projects in Water Paper Paint. 5 down, 360 to go. I’m sure I will be creating all sorts of pieces will all different styles and themes. Stay tuned.

water paper paint

Published

robayre

on January 4, 2011

in General Update

. 8 Comments

For a Christmas present to myself I bought a copy of Heather Smith Jones book Water Paper Paint. I’m sure I’ve raved here before about Heather’s artwork, so I was thrilled last year when I found out she was releasing a book. I swooned when the book arrived, because the cover paper has a watercolor-paper-like texture to it. A truly perfect book for this artsy girl who also works for a printing company and loves everything book, paper and ink related.

The book is filled with projects and so I’ve been making myself go through it in order and not skip around. I took Watercolor in college and still use the paints all the time. One of the things I love about Heather’s work is that she uses it like I like to use it – in mixed media. I’m sure almost all of my mailart postcards have watercolor in them, my circle series pieces, etc. I’m having lots of fun so far and really enjoying the book.

Since the projects are like little practices for experimenting with watercolors, I had a great idea to do mine on small postcard pieces of paper and mail them out to friends.

Watercolor tip: Heather suggests taping your paper down and I’ve seen a lot of people do this perfectly fine. But, if you want to soak your paper and stretch it, I suggest the following. When I was college our instructor had us buy Homosote board (which you can find at some hardware stores), soak your paper, then staple it right into the board. The staples and paper release from the board easy and you don’t have to worry about wet paper staying taped down. You can use a hair dryer to dry the paper or wait overnight and the paper dries taught.

Happy Friday

Published

robayre

on November 19, 2010

in Artists, Cool Links and My Artwork

. 3 Comments

I am not going to lie. I LOVE having Fridays off. My hours were reduced 2 years ago, now. It was supposed to be a temporary thing (3 months) but the print industry is not doing well and it’s just remained permanent. The lost wages stink, but the emotional benefits have more than made up for it. Plus, because I feel like it’s borrowed time, I am always super productive. If only I could be as motivated the rest of the week.

This morning I made my Friday to-do list and I decided I would start the day out by making 3 page spreads in my little book. The first one above, I used only scraps of paper that were already on my work table.

This week I read three fabulous interviews with different artists. I keep coming back to things that were said, and so I figured I’d bookmark them here. I guess the thing that really stuck with me throughout all of these articles is the idea that you can support yourself doing what you love. Your passions and creativity can fill out life completely, in all areas. Anyway, please read and enjoy!

Summer Pierre has been running a weekly “Artist in the Nursery” series where she interviews Artists who balance parenthood and their creative work. This week she interviewed the Beerhorsts, a family from Michigan who live a very unique lifestyle. I’ve been following their various family flickr accounts since seeing their “Wonder Wagon” last fall. It was fascinating reading Summer’s article, and getting more of a glimpse into their history as well as day to day lives.

The next two interviews were from Design Sponge. The first is with Savannah artist Cedric Smith. I love his advice for other artists to think of themselves as a business. Please take a moment to read the rest of what he says and see his beautiful work.

And the final interview is with Scott Avett of the Avett Brothers. I am so inspired when I hear about other artists who have many areas of interest, as opposed to only focusing on painting, or only focusing on music. He does it all. Please check out this fantastic interview.

Okay, now back to the rest of Friday’s To-Do list! If I don’t post again before the end of the weekend, I just wanted to shout out one more time about the Celebrity Scoop Benefit for my dear friend Nikki on Sunday 4-8 at the Haagan Dazs downtown Naperville, IL. Here is the facebook page made for the event. Even if you can’t go, I’d be grateful if you could still spread the word to anyone in the area. Here is her Caring Bridges page. Oh, and she is a lovely photographer too, check out her flickr page here. Thank you again!

Day Fifteen & Sixteen

Published

robayre

on August 24, 2010

in General Update

. 1 Comment

Trying to play a little catch-up here. I’ve finished two spreads in my mini book. You can see the other pages from the book so far in this flickr set.

I’ve been working on another project in the background… another yoyo pouch. I’ll post it when it’s complete, which will probably be tomorrow.

Day Five – pill box

Published

robayre

on August 6, 2010

in General Update, My Artwork and Projects

. 3 Comments

Today was extraordinarily busy. It wasn’t until after dinner that I remembered that it was actually Friday and I still had to do a thing for today. I was exhausted from running around and was regretting that I would have to resort to just pressing a one inch pinback button for my thing. Even that small project seemed daunting in my tired state. Then I remembered a small handful of lathed wooden pill boxes that I bought at a garage sale.

Immediately I was inspired and filled with energy to create. The original and unfinished box is pictured above. Actually it probably had been stained, but I painted it white, cut a piece of felt for the inside and created the collage/mixed media piece to go on the lid. I plan on giving it a glossy resin coat over the image when I have enough pieces to make mixing the resin worth it. I bought a bunch of these small boxes so you will probably be seeing more.

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Completely unrelated, check out this tutorial on Design Sponge for making a beautiful chandelier. I think I’ve admired similar ones in stores before, but now I think I must create one for myself.

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Have a good weekend!

My first official Encaustic piece

Published

robayre

on June 26, 2010

in General Update

. 4 Comments

Encaustic means “to burn in”: An art form where you use hot wax to paint and/or encase layers.

For years I’ve been wanting to explore more into encaustic. I remember being jealous of my friend Bethany who took an encaustic class, or maybe it was a painting class, but they got to work in encaustic for part of it. I’ve always loved the dreamy quality encaustic pieces have from the layers and opacity of the beeswax. I played around with beeswax on my own before and used it over a few of my collage/mixed media mailart pieces, but I really didn’t know what I was doing and worried that it would just crack off the piece eventually.

Today I finally got the opportunity to officially learn more and experiment with encaustic at a workshop. I had such a good time. The finished piece is basically 2D, but you work in a 3D manner to get the results. You layer flat as well as dimensional items, and play with texture and surface in layer after layer of encaustic medium. It was so exciting and freeing to have to think in entirely different ways than I’m used to working.

Here are pictures of the pieces I created today. The top one was my first piece and the second one was more a last minute piece and I think I might work on it some more. At the workshop someone mentioned the idea of creating a series and displaying them all together, so that was the idea of the second piece. I’d like to make a third or fourth to go with these.

Here are a few good references for working in encaustic:
Book: The Encaustic Workshop by Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch

Video: Getting Started in Encaustic with Kathryn Bevier

Supplies: Apparently if you live in the Northern Illinois area the Blick store in Schaumberg has a variety of supplies, but they also seem to carry a bit online as well.

Don’t have a lot to say

Published

robayre

on April 6, 2010

in General Update and My Artwork

. 1 Comment

Here is a yarn I spun on Monday. That was a record for me. One complete yarn in one day, woah. You can see other yarns I have spun over the years here in this flickr photoset.

And, I made a few more little book page spreads. The rest can be seen here.

Day Fifteen – More Pages

Published

robayre

on February 15, 2010

in General Update, life and Projects

. 1 Comment

Today I did a couple more pages in my little book. The left page is covered in metallic blue star stickers and the right is watercolored, then sprinkled with salt for texture. On top of that was silvery glitter pen and pastels in swirls.

When I went to take the picture at first the camera didn’t focus. I retook it, but when I saw the blurry one I actually liked it because it kind of went with the dreaminess of the image, so I put them together for a diptych.

For the first time in my life I have laryngitis. I’ve always thought it would be cool to lose my voice, just to see what that was like. It’s kind of funny and it doesn’t hurt so no harm done. Matt says he enjoys it because now he can get a word in, lol.

I just realized it’s the second half of the month of February. Halfway through the Thing-a-Day challenge.

Day Eleven – I Want A Pony

Published

robayre

on February 11, 2010

in etsy, My Artwork and Projects

. 1 Comment

Today for my Thing-a-Day post I made this mixed media wearable art pendant. It’s your birthday and here’s confetti and the horse you’ve always wanted.

Robyn fun fact: I’ve never wanted a pony or a horse. I love animals, and I had my share of My Little Ponys when I was little, but I’ve never understood the whole wanting a horse thing. In fact this silhouette is traced from a zebra. Now, zebras are animal I can understand. Having a pet zebra would be a fashionable accessory to me = I love black and white stripes.

If you’ve always yearned for a horse, well, now is your chance. I’ve listed this pendant in my Etsy shop.

Inspiration Junkie robayre.com