Yabbers again

We had Yabbers today and started by showing off all the cards that were sent, here you can see both sides.


We then discussed and started work on our contribution for the upcoming Papermakers of Vic Exhibition. We decided to spell out Yabbers '08 vertically with the hemp paper we had made two months ago and the paste papers we made last month. Here are pictures of the front and back of the pages which will form our banner.


We then made some vege papyrus but instead of making straight papyrus we made it on paper. These pictures are of some that I'd made last week from zucchini, celery, bouganvillea, kiwi fruit and canned beetroot. The straight papyrus was made from canned beetroot.

These pictures were taken through the paper into the light.
Celery and bouganvillea

zucchini

Beetroot on paper

Straight beetroot

I have some instructions on my website under vegetable laminates but these ones were done by cooking all the fruit and vegetables except the canned beetroot for 2 minutes on high in a microwave then placing them on freshly made hemp paper (could be any paper) then pressing them. Some I dried in my usual way of rolling onto fibro cement and the others by pressing between cotton cloths in my book press and changing the cloths daily.

pulp painting and cabbage

These pictures are the result of a couple of play days. I was reading someone else's blog about using silk screens in pulp painting and remembered that I had some screens from when I was doing some watermarks a few years ago and since I had the fine denim and sheeting pulp decided to try it out. I needed to have the blue pulp at just the right thickness and found that it worked better without the deckle so that the top sheet was really thin. The picture on the left is one I took in india many years ago and is a bit of a favorite. I've used it for cyanotypes, van dyke brown and watermarks in a book I made several years ago called Children of India. The book folded out to make a box with a light inside for viewing the watermark. The middle sheet is just the denim layer swiped with a sponge. I'll probably use it with cyanotype next month. The right hand sheet is another silkscreen one and is a computer altered self portrait again from some years ago.

The other picture is of some red cabbage leaves treated like vegetable papyrus but not joined together. I was throwing the outer leaves of the cabbage into the compost bin and they were such a lovely colour that I wacked them in the microwave for a couple of minutes then pressed them between cotton sheets and blankets until they were dry, they are now beautifully transparent. Don't know what I'll do with them though!