I've waited to post about this project, but I do believe all the invitations have been mailed and have reached their destinations. My son and his fiancee had the notion to make their wedding invitations, paper and all!
After the first attempts with various screens and not too attractive gray and misshapen bits of paper, many people, myself included, told them to go buy some handmade paper!
I give them credit, they persevered and came up with some very original invitations that can be planted--(there are seeds imbedded in the paper!)
Improvements were made along the way:
A blender purchased from a thrift shop and yellow office paper ready to be recycled,
a better screen and deckle set up, thanks to their friends who made them. The wider or deeper deckle catches more pulp, making a thicker paper,
a little strip of felt along the very edge, to help the paper release from the screen onto the larger piece of felt. It does make a ridge, but I had to do
something to get that paper onto the felt and this worked most of the time.
I don't have a picture for the next step, but I found out it's an important one--
to roll out the paper. After getting the paper onto the felt (which was the tricky part), We laid another piece of felt on top, placed the paper and felt sandwich on a folded towel and with a rolling pin, rolled it. This flattens the paper and also rolls the water out, to aid in drying.
Peel the dry paper off the felt. (notice the cat prints on the closest paper) I then pressed the dry papers under a pile of books.
All the invitations were decorated and written out by hand. We had a few marathon paper-making days here--I learned a lot, and now I'm making a few screens in the hopes that I can create paper with my granddaughter's class at her school. Yes, for those who've followed this blog, you know that I've stayed away from art teaching for quite some time, but it felt right to volunteer some art lessons to her class. So far, I'm enjoying being in the classroom again and most importantly, I'm embarrassing my granddaughter--(in a good way) If I get the chance to click a few pictures, I may post about the lessons.
We had a few days to ourselves, (a rare event). We Kayaked across Morro Bay to one of my favorite places, the sand spit. The winds there work the dunes into river-lets of sand; it swipes away footprints so the stretch of land looks like no one has ever set foot out there.
I've waited to post about this project, but I do believe all the invitations have been mailed and have reached their destinations. My son and his fiancee had the notion to make their wedding invitations, paper and all!
A blender purchased from a thrift shop and yellow office paper ready to be recycled,
a better screen and deckle set up, thanks to their friends who made them. The wider or deeper deckle catches more pulp, making a thicker paper,
a little strip of felt along the very edge, to help the paper release from the screen onto the larger piece of felt. It does make a ridge, but I had to do something to get that paper onto the felt and this worked most of the time.
I don't have a picture for the next step, but I found out it's an important one--to roll out the paper. After getting the paper onto the felt (which was the tricky part), We laid another piece of felt on top, placed the paper and felt sandwich on a folded towel and with a rolling pin, rolled it. This flattens the paper and also rolls the water out, to aid in drying.
Peel the dry paper off the felt. (notice the cat prints on the closest paper) I then pressed the dry papers under a pile of books.
All the invitations were decorated and written out by hand. We had a few marathon paper-making days here--I learned a lot, and now I'm making a few screens in the hopes that I can create paper with my granddaughter's class at her school. Yes, for those who've followed this blog, you know that I've stayed away from art teaching for quite some time, but it felt right to volunteer some art lessons to her class. So far, I'm enjoying being in the classroom again and most importantly, I'm embarrassing my granddaughter--(in a good way) If I get the chance to click a few pictures, I may post about the lessons.
Funny how dreams sneak up and around and even jump ahead of you...
Last Friday my granddaughter asked to use my camera--she had a friend over who also had a camera--these pictures were taken on the fly--here's a little photo essay.
This is my oldest daughter's very first rag doll--this doll has been through quite a lot. She was even kidnapped when my husband, who, for some reason, (maybe the doll was left behind after a father/daughter day?), kept her on his electric cart at work and one morning found a ransom note in its place. I wonder what he had to do or pay to get "Mr. Man" back from his fellow worker---that's what they called her at that time, "Mr. Man", how humiliating!
For dolls, both are old--the rag doll is close to 30 and the monkey, close to 20. As luck and thrift would have it, I actually found some scraps of the very same material the monkey was made from, so I could simply replace his feet! The rag doll, on the other hand...well I could have started over! I took one little step at a time--new skin--a little more hair--turned the vest inside out to reveal the now brighter underside and then a new embroidered face, based on the old painted one.
A final wash--good as new!?
I played with my granddaughter's Shrinky Dink jewelry making kit last night and stayed up a little too late, drawing these little portraits from a picture that I love--I was curious if a little portrait with pencil and Sharpie marker would shrink and still be recognizable--I think so!
