body lumens

So I did some experiments earlier on in the year with lumen printing (aka printing with fogged photo paper). Its a really neat process and it's exciting because you never really know how it's going to turn out.

For my roomie's independent study class she decided to do some full body lumen prints. Our professor had some old rolls of really big photo paper that were no longer usable in the traditional way, therefore were perfect for lumen printing. Heres what she came up with . . .

we unrolled the paper in our dark hallway and carried it out covered in a blanket. then we secured the corners with some heavy books. When she was ready I whipped the blanket off and she threw herself down onto the paper. so dramatic.

the way the sun was slanted created a weird distorted ghost image

each print took about 15 minutes till they were ready to being in

for this one she lay face down (think yoga child pose ) and the humidity from her eyes, nose, and mouth left marks on the paper . it looks so creepy!

during our last print a dumpster pulled up next to us for moving day. they must have thought we were crazy


Overall her prints turned out pretty cool and it was interesting to see certain details show up. In one print her feet turned a completely different color and various details of her face and ears would show up in other prints. Some of them were downright eerie!! Anyways, definitely a fun experiment.

more leaf prints!

I was finally able to make some more of these once the sun came out again . . .


All my leaf prints are from the same type of leaves and even the same location, but they look so different!


To learn how to make these prints see my previous post

leaf print

Sunny days have finally come!! I've been waiting for some nice weather so that I could do some more experimenting with lumen prints as well as this crazy photosynthesis printing technique that I found at alternativephotography.com.

I had been taking some walks around campus and I found these huge cabbage-like leaves that I felt would be perfect to use for my leaf print. What you do is take a broad green leaf and place a photo positve on top of it and sandwhich them between a hard surface and some plexiglass/glass. Leave the leaf/positive sandwich out in the direct sun for at least a day (until the parts of the leaf you can see have turned a yellowish or brownish white.



I was a bit skeptical when I took my leaf inside to unveil it, it just looked like the leaf was dying or something, but when I pulled off my positive, the parts that were dark and blocked from the sun by my positive were still the dark green of the leaf and all the light areas had turned white with the bleaching of the sun. It worked!! Im not sure how the print will last, I've now sandwhich my delicate leaf inbetween some museum board, but I plan on scanning it soon.

This process is amazing yet so simple! Who would have thought you could print photographic images directly onto leaves using nothing but good ol mother nature? Anyways, this print was an experiment to see if these leaves were the proper canvas and to see if this process actually works, but I plan on doing a series of these leaf prints with some new images I've been planning. Just gotta keep praying for sunshine!

dont throw away that fogged paper!

Got fogged paper? Dont toss it, make some sweet prints!
These are some colorful prints I made with random objects I found in my kitchen . . .




My roomate showed me this really cool photographic process called lumen printing, and it's super easy to do! All you need is fogged photo paper (any kind, old works best) and some natural sunshine. (And if you wanna get fancy, a board and some plexiglas for sandwiching flat objects) You can lay or sandwich flat plants or any interesting objects you have lying around on top of your fogged paper and expose it to the sun from 30 minutes to 4 hours (iv really only done 30-60 minutes and they turned out great. Using the plexiglas to flatten your plants/flat objects on top of the paper ensures a little more detail and less blur from sun movement, but if you just lay them down you can get a softer, more abstract effect. This website has more detailed instructions as well as lots of other really cool alternative printing processes.

It really fun seeing what colors you get, all papers seem to be different. Also, it seems color changes based on the humidity and temperature of the object as well. Organic objects seem to produce a wider range of color.

have fun and waste not!

sewing projects!

Wow, it seems like I haven't posted in forever! Winter break went by pretty fast, but I did manage to fit a few fun projects in.

My sister and I went to visit our grandparents in Florida for about a week, and like always we filled our days with sewing, cooking, and of course our daily strolls on the beach:) My grandma is an amazing quilter (mom learned from the best!) and my sister and I love working on sewing projects with her. This year my sister made a quilt, and I made a few smaller projects . . .

I made this wallet from a pattern my grandma had stashed

now my roomates won't get annoyed with me everytime I have to find something in my wallet, no more ten minute digs, Im organized!

I got to use some really gorgeous vintage buttons my grandma had saved

when I got home from our trip I wanted to prove to myself that I wouldn't forget all my newly learned sewing skills, so I made myself a little sewing kit! complete with mini scissors, thread, pins, and needles . . . basically all the mini sewing tools I could find in my mom's old sewing studio.

So I really hope to continue sewing, (especially since now I've semi-mastered how to thread a bobbin), and use my skills in some of my other projects. I'd really like to use my fused plastic bags to make some simple wallets or even some small zippered bags like my sewing kit. Also, I've been cutting out blocks for a t-shirt quilt I've started. I'm collecting all my old t-shirts that I really don't wear anymore and I'm going to make them into a comfy cozy quilt. Sooo many sewing projects so little time!! Most of them will have to wait till the summer when I'm finished with classes. o well.

Booksale

Every year the UMBC library has at least one book sale where they sell some of their really old books for dirt cheap. My roomate and I always look forward to this sale because some of the books they sell are really beautiful and are great for altered book and collage projects. Heres my book sale booty. . .

this year i only bought 3 books, my roomie went a little crazy and bought 6

i thought this one had really cool illustrations. its written in a different language too

this book has my sister's initials, I love the gold

I think 2 of the books I bought will be really good for collages and chine colle, but I have a special project in mind for the one with my sister's initials. I want to take out the pages and insert new blank pages too make it into a sketch/notebook for my sister. I plan on using some of the existing pages and text to make some interesting dividers and collages within the new pages. I found this really great website that shows you how to convert old books into sketchbooks so I'm pretty excited to get started.

A lot of places sell old books and there are tons of projects you can do with them! Some of my favorite places to snoop around for old books are antique stores and yard sales. Old books are really just too beautiful to go to waste, so don't let them get thrown away! Give them new life through your creativity:)

Circular Painting

I thought this piece was really cool. It's a time lapse, stop motion video filmed on a circular wall in South Africa. The various artists who put this together expressed their interpretations, concerns, and hopes about today's environmental situation on this unusual canvas.

Circular Painting from Fly on the Wall on Vimeo.

Here are the artists who were involved

Bryan Devlin
Luis Tolosana
Warren Lewis
Ree Treweek
Daniel Ting Chong
Mike Morocco
Toyah Moon Humphreys
Paul Ressel
Josh Ginsburg