it's the magic

acrylic paint, colored pencils, oil pastels, inktense pencils, misc. bits of collage stuff in muslin journal

this is my piece for the 2nd chakra... it wasn't an easy one. it's the chakra for self love, self acceptance. for joy... once i 'got' this, one thing led to another and i decided on a mandrake root for the body, and then the words "it's the magic, baby" came to me and have stayed...

lydia ~ colored pencils, oil pastels, collage papers, matte gel medium in muslin journal

before i did the 2nd chakra piece, who should show up but guy's wife. yes, guy, in the last post - his wife! side by side (as they are in the journal) they look so happy... quite in love, they are...

oil pastels, colored pencils, acrylic paint on watercolor paper

and in the 4" x 4" journal, i've done a couple more faces. the watercolor face below this blue acrylic went so wrong i covered it up (not that there were any mistakes, mind you). but! imagine my delight when i dug into the paint to find the orange on the left side of the face! this watercolor paper is holding up beautifully to a lot of, uh, use...

watercolor and acrylic paint, colored pencils on watercolor paper

she hasn't told me her name, but she was at one time a he with very pronounced ears. hair can be so useful!

i've had several people ask me how i add plaster cloth to the pages in my muslin journal, so i'm going to paste here the info that goes out with my muslin journals re: adding plaster cloth...

• To add plaster cloth to a page, simply cut enough pieces to cover your page. I hold the page next to the roll of plaster cloth and cut a piece approximately the same size as the page. Then I cut this up into three or four smaller pieces – it's easier to lay down that way. I dip each piece of plaster cloth in warm water and lay it on the page, smoothing it down with my fingers. Once all of the pieces are down I smooth a little more more, and make sure that I smoosh some of the plaster off onto the muslin; my thinking is that this helps it stick to the page better. When you're done, lay the page on a flat surface to dry. I like to lay mine on a piece of glass from an old picture frame. All of my plaster cloth pages are one layer thick (with some extra bits on top to create more texture). If you're putting plaster cloth on the back side of a page that has already plaster cloth on it, put a layer of gel medium down first so the moisture doesn't go through to the other side of the page.

• Here's what I do to paint/draw on plaster cloth: I brush a light layer of matte gel medium or acrylic paint on it and let it dry. I do this because it keeps the plaster from falling apart if I get it too wet as I start to work on it. After I've done that I treat it as I would any other surface – drawing, painting, and adding papers; I usually have at least three or four layers before I'm done...

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask... sometimes, if i've gotten really vigorous with spraying and wiping paint off, a corner of the plaster cloth will start to separate from the muslin. when this happens i just stick some gel medium on the back of the p.c. and carry on. i buy the 8" rolls at michael's for about $10; the 4" rolls would work fine too, of course.


i tried the above today on a piece of 140# watercolor paper. here it is dry - the paper buckled a little, but not much. the p.c. seems well stuck on; i think it's easy as pie!


we started a small garden last week. chard, collards, kale, and beets... and sticks. i'm on a real stick jag at the moment...


blessing the chard...


tree love, left behind on a stick gathering wander...


the sun, the glorious sun has been shining... in the words of jimi,


"...excuse me while I kiss the sky"

~ jimi hendrix, 'purple rain'


XO