Creative process.

 

Kraft-tex, french stitch binding books

I find it interesting to see some of the processes that artists go through in creating a new project. I think for myself a lot of these processes are intuitive so I'm not really aware of some of the mechanisms of it. Stepping back and being more aware of some of the processes can actually be very helpful to me in future projects. 

One of the things I've realized I do is use small 4" x 4" paper tiles, usually a fairly heavy Brisol or Watercolour paper that can withstand anything I throw at it. This lets me play with different techniques, mediums and colour palettes without thinking about the end product or worrying about more pricey materials that I may be thinking of for the final project. And when I am done and ready to move onto the final project, I'm more confident about where I'm going with that project and I'm left with lot's of fun background tiles that more often than not get made into cards. I sometimes use odd sizes of papers thinking they are just samples but they get tossed around and are harder to use for other projects.

French stitch binding.

I had an idea for making these books with embossing folders and Kraft-tex paper. I wasn't sure what I wanted to use to colour them so this is where the tiles came in handy. Actually because I wanted to see how the Kraft-tex was going to work with the paints, I started with some left over strips of both black and white. I embossed them with regular and 3D embossing folders and then coloured them with Finnabair Waxes. These will probably become bookmarks.

Bookmark possibilities.

I discovered that the Kraft-tex seemed to play the same with the colours as regular paper so I switched to some black and white cardstock tiles for more trials. Next I tried Cosmic Shimmers Gilding Polish on the embossed papers. This I discovered was somewhat addictive. As much as I love my waxes the polishes proved to be easier and faster to use for this technique. When I was finally able to stop myself from making more backgrounds I started making some cards. The backgrounds on these are lovely by themselves and somewhat busy so I felt like I didn't needed to add much to finish them.

I used the Cosmic Shimmers Gilding Polish on the backgrounds of all of these cards. 

A few notes about Finnabair waxes and Cosmic Shimmers Gilding Polish.  Both products have a great metallic finish to them and both are permanent when dry. For blending colours the waxes work better. They have more open time and blend wonderfully. Since the Polishes are acrylic based they dry very quickly and don't blend well but they do layer well and are quite opaque. I found myself going back and forth with the different polish colours and loved the way I could add more colours on top of each other. Both products can be applied with a variety of tools such as fingers, brushes or small sponges. My preferred method for the waxes are small dry brushes. For the polishes the applicator that comes with it works very well.

Wax and Polish.

Well this started out as process oriented and turned into product info. Oh well, hope you liked it. If you've use these products, let me know how you liked them and what's your favourite way to use them. If you have any questions about them let me know and I will do my best to answer them. 

I'd love to hear about your creative process

Keep an eye out (fingers crossed) for workshops coming soon.

Happy Creating

Wendy