Yes, there are wholesalers that I know sell packages of gelatin powder, but in order to shop there you have to have a subscription which I have not. So.. what now?

Luckily, my former neighbor came to the rescue! I visited her in January and she had some gelatin powder left of which she gave me some…

… and a few days later I printed up a storm in my atelier!

The stack of mono prints to choose from is huge. I can use some as a background for my art journal pages, there are some lovely ones with images on it that I can use as postcards and there are a few prints that I think will be awesome to machine sew on.

There were three prints that had more of less the same colors and images (you always get a few of these ‘series’ with mono printing.) I put them together on the pages of my Zeeuwse Ziel art journal and they formed a triptych. (This journal has some folded pages bound in it to make double spreads.)

{Click the photo to enlarge for a better view}

The prints were a bit smaller than the pages of my journal. I painted the pages in my journal dark grey so they would form a frame around the mono prints. I glued the prints to the pages and used a black marker for some doodling to create contrast. The handwritten journaling added a bit more contrast to the pages. I finished it of with stamping white acrylic paint (using a toilet roll and bubble wrap.)

The textures and colors in this mono type are amazing! Take a closer look.

I’m pretty happy with my new stack of mono prints!

Oh, and it turns out that a friend of a friend has a subscription to a wholesaler – she already bought a package of gelatin powder for me and I can come pick it up tomorrow, YAY!

I love poetry.
I am especially fond of ‘found poetry’, and I mean found in all its forms… found in book titles, found in magazines, on book pages, cut out words and sentences – you name it. There is so much possible when it comes to ‘found poetry’… and this kind of poetry is also great to use on art journal pages also.

I therefore started FOUND POETRY FRIDAY – everyone is welcome to play along!

There is an “Inlinkz”-list at the end of this post. If you want to share your found poems, you are welcome to add your name to the list that will link us to your blogpost.

You can post your found poem on your own blog any time during the week, so you don’t have to make YOUR Fridays all about poetry – you just link us to the post that contains your poem. Please use the url that goes directly to you ‘found poetry post.’

Today’s poem came together pretty quick… I had that wonderful monotype laying on my desk that I wanted to use. I grabbed my folder with cut out sentences and without giving it much though, I selected sentences and words that spoke to me and that I thought would fit with the image.

Here’s the poem I found

The Future

Did you find a poem this week?
Then link us all up to your found poetry by using the InLinkz list below.

Enjoy the weekend!

[inlinkz id = 11]

.

Good morning and good Friday you all!

Last week, my book title haiku was in honor of our new King. This week I have again a Dutch
‘event-related’ haiku. May 4 & 5 are “memorial days” in The Netherlands. On May 4th, our country memorizes the victims of war (WW II as well as all other wars) and “V-day” (‘victory in Europe’ or ‘freedom day’) is celebrated on May 5th.

First, here’s my booktitle haiku.

* "Short American" is a phrase that was used for a certain haircut
that became popular in the fifties - it refers to the type of haircut
that American soldiers/allies had.

This haiku is submitted to Haiku my Heart Friday. Go to Recuerda Mi Corazon to find a link-list of all the other haiku lovers.

In my former post I left you with a cliffhanger, remember?
I promised to show you my latest Chronicles art journal spread and the scary photos I used on those pages.

I did work in my Chronicles journal a bit, but I spend most time yesterday on playing with the gelatin plate that sat in the fridge unused for over a week… so there are all kinds of half-finished pages laying on my desk today. It looks like this.

… and yes, I glued the ‘scary photos’ on the art journal page… and I don’t mean the photo of the new king and queen 😉

I mean these:

See… that’s my son up there on the roof!
EEEEECKKKK! What did I tell ya?
Is that scary or what?!

We discovered a big water-stain on the bedroom ceiling some time ago, and when we stood in the garden and looked at the roof, it seemed as if some tiles on the roof had shoved. We were not sure if that was causing the problem though. My beloved is afraid of heights (acrophobia) and I am not much of a hero either… but my dear son was anxious to get on the roof when he heard of the leak! I know he is not a reckless guy so I let him, but still I felt it in my stomach when he went up there! The neighbours were kind enough to open their roof window so he could climb through there.

“… and is it fixed?” you might ask now. My son did not manage to get the tiles straight but he made pictures with his phone, so we could at least have a look at the problem ourselves and still keep our feet on the ground 😉 We then called a professional contractor who put the tiles straight and that should do it. It has not rained much since then, so we are not sure if it is fixed, but the weather report predict some showers in the next days so keep your fingers crossed please!

More water… in my Zeeuwse Ziel art journal

I dreamed of water and floating through a river the other day and I made the next art journal page inspired by that dream.

There is some collage-ing on this page (the ‘blobs’ are cut out of aerial photos from a swampland.) I also used dylusion spray ink, water-soluble crayons and black and white posca pens.

And that’s it for today. [Sorry, no link love… I’ll make that up to you next week.] This afternoon I intend to ‘dive into Facebook’ to find out why it is that I have a facebook page but don’t see a timeline. Neither can I become ‘friends’ with other people. I guess that all has to do with the fact that I do not have a ‘personal account’ (only a ‘page’ account, which probably is seen as ‘business’…) I hope to figure some things out so I can finally and officially ‘like you’ and become your ‘friend’! Ha!

Well, FRIENDS, may you all have a nice weekend.
Don’t forget mom!

You know what that means at the end of the week, don’t you?
Haiku My Heart Friday!

Here’s the latest haiku that I found in my book case

I did a bit of a ‘free translation’ to make the syllables fit in English.
The first two book titles are much simpler then my translation…
“I remember” and “The dog with the blue tongue” are more accurate but
I like to get the syllables right… I’m a hairsplitter 😉

For more Friday haiku my heart, visit Rebecca
and other poets today at Recuerda Mi Corazon

Just before Christmas, I made a gelatin plate so I could use it to create mono types for the top 2000 party. I created mono types not only for the music-inspired art (btw, all my top 2000 pages can be viewed here) but made some ‘free art’ as well. (Oh, and the gelatin plate is still holding up in the fridge – I think I will play with it some more this weekend before it falls apart.)

Anyway, here are some of the mono types I made. (I put them together in the picture, you can view them all separate in my gallery)

“Word Woman”

“Top of the World”

After weeks of grey skies and rain, the sun is shining today (but temperatures dropped radically! From 10 Celsius/50 Fahrenheit to freezing!) I better take advantage of the good light to spend the rest of the day creating. My head is overflowing with new ideas, so I hope the weather/light will be like this all weekend… it’s so much nicer to create in good daylight then in the grey with poor (yellow) lamplight…

I hope the weekend brings you clear sight as well.
Look around and enjoy what surrounds you.
See you next week, dear ones.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, and because the sun is shining: some shameless promotion 😉

Buy the latest issue of FEATURING HERE
Register for my online workshop HERE
Follow me on Facebook HERE

Luv-y’all!

In July, I experimented with monotypes, which is a type of printmaking
that produces unique prints. I learned to make monotypes way back
when I studied art but had not used the technique ever since – I just did not
think about it because I did not have the equipment (i.e. press, block ink).

I saved the art I made in the eighties and I looked it up to show you some
of the monotypes I created in art school – it must be dated around 1985/’86
(I never dated my work. I still don’t – do you? I think I will start dating
my art from now on to avoid puzzling and guessing in the future…)

Model – monotype study (1985-1986)

(Size: 32,5 x 27 cm – 12.8 x 10.6 inch)

..

Birds – monotype study (1985-1986)

(Size: 25 x 30 cm – 9.8 x 11.8 inch)

..

Birds – monotype + acrylic paint (1985-1986)

(Size: 50 x 65 cm – 19.7 x 25.6 inch)

..

..However, there are lots of ways to make monotypes and when I started
to try out techniques that don’t necessarily need a press or block ink
– in this case I used a gelatin plate and acrylic paint – I fell in love with
monotyps again instantly!

Monotype is a technique with which you produce a big stack of prints
in no time. I experimented with different shapes and colours and had
tremendous fun!

This is just a portion of the amount of ”experiments and basic’ pages
I was left with after two afternoons play.

When you look at this stack, you will see a lot of pages that contain a circle.
The circle made me think of the moon… especially that one monotype that
I immediately called ‘blue moon’…

… and now we come to today’s date and the fact why I waited so long before
showing the art piece – you guessed? Yep, today August 31 is BLUE MOON!

“The definition of a Blue Moon has changed over the years (…) However, the commonly accepted definition of a Blue Moon is simple: it is a full moon that rises twice in one month. Due to our calendar days, sometimes the days of the month are less than the cycle of the moon, which is 29.5 days. This can cause the moon to rise twice in one month, near the first and the last days of the same month. It is said that blue moons happen every 33 months or about every 3 years. This relatively rare occurrence has spawned the saying “once in a blue moon”.

A Blue Moon cannot happen in February because the calendar month never has enough days. Furthermore, sometimes the occurrence of a blue moon depends on your time zone.” ~ From Moonconnection ~

Blue Moon

(Size: 15 x 21 cm – 5.9 x 8.3 inch)
Gelatin monotype with acrylic paint - watersoluble crayons - sharpie

 ..

Night sky spectacle.

Clouds shift. She reveals herself

Once in a blue moon

..

Because of the last sentence there is no translation in Dutch

The haiku is linked to ‘Haiku my Heart Friday’
This event is hosted by the wonderful Rebecca and you can
find a list of all the other participants on Recuerda Mi Corazon

I plan on making a ‘moon series’ with these monotypes but the idea
has to grow some more. For now, the stack lays patiently waiting.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post and now that I digged up my big
drawing folder from the attic, I might as well photograph and show
some more ‘oldies’ every now and then… that is, if you’re in for it.
Tell me, wanna see more?

I wish you all a lovely weekend.
Don’t forget to look up to the sky tonight!