Last Christmas (or was it the Christmas before that?), I was fascinated by small "collage sandwiches"...two pieces or glass: either microscope slides or a couple of the sizes offered by Ranger and Tim Holtz...with small vignettes that we now call 'inchies, twinchies and moo's'...or a rough approximation...the 'sandwich filling' told a story, a theme or a moment in time &/or imagination. These later grew into the Laura B that I posted below, and a series of other 'sandwich people'.
This year, spurred on by Sue Shotwell, I began a new appreciation for the silhouette. I have begun to see the woods around me, full of winter tree branch and bird silhouettes, as rich food for my artistic soul. The devil is in the details, as they say: I found it was a little more difficult than I had anticipated, in that tiny silhouettes are not all that easy to find for this application. I had no difficulty with the Christmas sheet music background, as old discarded hymnals abound in thrift stores. I looked at diecut images from a few of the cartridges available on the market, rubber stamps in silhouette, and, finally, hand punches. That still gave me only a limited number of options, so it was a choice whether to go with what I had, or spend studio time tracking down these pesky sized images...laziness and high fuel cost (and the cold!) made me use what I had on hand. (I have roughly a year until I need them again next Christmas!...Plenty of time in January and February for cyber wandering and searching!).
These, then, are two different types...one, retro with a hand punched pine tree: I embossed the rubber stamp, then, as I was melting the pseudo-soldered sides, managed to remelt the embossing powder...now on the inside of the sandwich. The other, with handmade fusion paper (by me!) and another tree from a hand punch. I finished it all off with a blurry and full of light reflections series of photographs...arrrrgggghhhh....
So, with full apologies for technique, etc, here goes...at least I am sticking to my resolution to continue to blog!!! (Patty, I ache for your proficiency on so many levels!!!)
