Junk Drawer Wall Art

What is Junk Drawer Wall Art?  Well that's what I showed to a group of about 40 attendees in the "Adventures in Lifelong Learning" program at Thames Valley Community College last April. Preparing for this year's presentation (next week), thoughts of last year's event surfaced.

We all have "stuff" and trinkets we pick up as we go about our lives . . . when we come home, our pockets are emptied and the "stuff" moves from the counter to the junk drawer. Why not put it on display?

Credit for this idea goes to Paula Cheney at One Lucky Day, who created a very popular Junk Drawer Advent Calendar  (See picture of that kit here) several years ago for the holiday season.  Photos of calendars sent in by people who were inspired by Paula's work of art can be seen here. (Scroll down to view.)

As a collage and assemblage lover, I created a "non-holiday" version so it might grace the wall all year. Items from my jewelry box and the junk in the drawer of my nightstand were unearthed for this project. Here it is . . .

The frame is  22" x 26" (found at WalMart) with the glass (actually plastic) removed. A piece of foam core board was cut to fit inside the frame and was covered with burlap for a bulletin board look.  I collected my "junk" and played around with grouping items, then arranged it on standard manila tags (2.5" x 4.75").

The stuff was glued, tied or pinned to a tag - whatever worked for the particular piece.  Tape, stamping and stickers embellished the tags and the edges of those in Row 3 were inked with Distress Ink. Then the tags were pinned to the background.  Notice the different strings and pushpins on the tags . . . since this was a sample project for the presentation, I wanted to show the difference in look some simple changes make.  The tags unify the collection of very different objects and are pleasing to the eye, which looks for consistency.

Junk Drawer Wall Art - Row 1

Junk Drawer Wall Art - Row 2

Junk Drawer Wall Art - Row 3

A second sample made for the presentation illustrated how to display a collection of similar items.  The golfers in the family bring home golf pencils that spawn in the drawer.  So here they are . . .

The pencils were hot-glued to strips of heavy paper, the strips were arranged and then pinned (like the old insect collections) to a piece of foam core board that had been covered with a layer of quilt batting and tan flannel left over from a sewing project. A Boyd's Collection golfer pin and some golf push pins were used as embellishments.  This piece is a unique one -  some of the golf courses are now closed and others have experienced name changes.  But all of them were played by someone living in our house.

So that's what Junk Drawer Wall Art is all about . . .you can do this too!

Cheers!

Painted Paper Collage with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

It was a Fabulous! workshop with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer at Papercraft Clubhouse in Westbrook on Sunday, March 15.  See pictures here on Julie's blog.  The first series of photos are of Saturday's "Art Journal Playground" so scroll down to the "Painted Paper Collage" group photo which begins the pictures of the workshop I attended.  You won't find me in the picture because I was called away before the photo was taken. (A story I won't tell here.) But I am visible (in miniature) in several photos . . . wearing a light denim shirt . . .

We spent the morning making the papers that we would be using in the afternoon for our collages. We put two colors of paint on sheets of deli paper and spread it around with a defunct plastic credit card. We were told by Julie to make a bazillion sheets of paper (I made about 25). Then when those were dry, we used stencils, stamps and gelli plate printing to add contrast, pattern and texture to the papers.

While the papers dried, we covered the surface we had chosen (mine was an 8x10 canvas) with book pages for a neutral background. Then we cut sections of our papers into shapes to make a simple design and using matte medium, affixed the shapes to the background. The thin deli paper seems to melt into the background and looks as if it was painted right onto the canvas. When the design was complete, we added some black "painterly" outlines. My masterpiece . . .

Meeting Julie was delightful . . . I've been following her blog for several years and it was a thrill to be in her workshop.  She is very open, has a sense of humor, commands the room easily and put everyone at ease.  Her demonstrations and suggestions as she walked among us were helpful and positive.  

Only two things I would have changed  . . . 

One - the size of my canvas. I would have liked mine a bit larger - but the supply list said "8x10" so Miss "Takes Direction Well" procured that size. 

Two - I would have squeezed out more paint on my papers - some were more translucent than I think was the intent of this technique. But I made another dozen or so papers on Wednesday afternoon (after the Sunday situation was finally over) and my technique was better.  I also learned by watching my more experienced table mates.

This was my first experience with paint . . . yes, I have painted objects but had never actually painted a picture or "made art" with paint (since grammar school, anyway). It was a pretty fun experience. I may have to do it again.

Oh wait . . . I am doing it again  . . . on April 19 with another celebrity mixed media artist - Dyan Reaveley. Stay tuned!

Cheers!