This is what I have done with the final page where the paint through the pierced ovals bled through.
Here is the page in its original state.
I really didn’t want another page with ovals as the main theme, so I decided to do another intuitive collage, using the ovals as the background.
To begin, I selected a few different papers and gel prints that I thought I might use. In the end I didn’t use the gel printed circles but cut new ones.
The finished spread.
The left-hand page.
Across the top is part of a gel print out of which I’d torn out a large circle, for the previous intuitive collage. I painted the torn edge with Golden iridescent bronze fine acrylic. Down the left side of the page I stuck down a scrap of the blot-off paper from the ovals, and along the bottom is a strip of the flimsy interleaving paper from my acetates, whicih I’d spattered with black ink. The result of that mark making experiment has proved to be one of my favourite papers!
When I’d laid that down, the whole thing looked a bit four-square and needed softening. I wanted to add some of my DIY beehive paper that I’d made a while back:
but the circles were too large, so I made some more.
To make this, I dipped a plastic lid in some undiluted white acrylic paint and simply stamped it onto some tissue paper. The advantage of this is that when you stick it down, the background tissue merges into the background and becomes translucent, revealing the underlying layers. You can also tear out individual circles really easily by painting where you want the tear, with a fine brush dipped in water.
These are the beehive papers I made for this project. I printed two sizes of circle onto both sheets so I now have a choice of three different sizes. I made one sheet which I kept as plain white, and this has gone in the folder with the original one.
The other sheet I decided to dye with coffee on the reverse side – the white acrylic would act as a resist, and if I wanted coffee-stained circles as well as background, I could lay the paper down with the back side upwards. I have two lots of coffee made up (with added alcohol to prevent mould growth) – the spray bottle has medium-strength coffee and the other bottle has stronger coffee. I laid the sheet in my splat box to prevent making too much mess, and sprayed it with the weaker coffee. This, of course, made the paper very wet (and fragile – I couldn’t handle it until I’d dried it with my heat tool). Also, I had forgotten that I had used the splat box when I’d sprayed some ink, and the wet tissue paper activated this and it picked it up. I was a bit annoyed initially, until I’d dried it, and realised that serendipity had struck yet again and I absolutely loved the result! Wabi sabi!
I did paint the circles as well, front and back, with the strong coffee, using a fine brush. This just took the edge off the stark white, but as the acrylic paint was acting as a resist, the effect was not dramatic.
The first photo shows the paper top side up, on the bench as a medium-dark background. You can see the glorious imprint of the ink on the bottom portion of the sheet.
This is the reverse, on the same background. You can see that the circles are much more coffee-coloured, as the paint is on the other side.
I wanted to see what it would be like against a lighter background, so I laid it on a sheet of white paper. Here is the top side.
This is the reverse.
This is the one I chose for the page. I tore out three of the larger circles and stuck them down with soft matte gel medium.
I’m really pleased with how these came out. The coffee staining has worked really well, and even with the translucency of the adhered tissue paper you can still see it as it subtly affects what lies underneath. It has softened that vertical line and produced a more integrated design on the page. The wrinkles in the circles add some delicious texture!
For the centre of the page, I cut a circle from some crimson card with a 2-inch circle punch and distressed it to add a bit of dimension. The colour palette of this journal is predominently browns and neutrals, but I have allowed myself the occasional splash of colour, and since some dark red had appeard in the ovals and their blot-off sheet, I thought I would pick this up.
The overlaid script scrap is from a larger piece – a gel print with some gold scripting from one of my own stencils.
I love how the ovals on the background have blended into this page so well, and I am pleased that it has worked out that this page is on the textured side of the hand-made paper of the book page itself, adding interest. On most of the pages I’ve covered this up. The scrim used to reinforce the gutter also adds some subtle texture.
Here’s a detail shot of the bottom of the left-hand page, showing the ink-spotted piece. You can see how it is visible through the translucency of the bottom circle.
Moving on to the right-hand page.
I covered the whole of the page with the blot-off sheet from the ovals. It’s a shame that the gold doesn’t show up – this is stamped with my ovals DIY foam stamp. I cut another circle from the same red card as I used for the left-hand page. The overlaid script piece is torn from a large sheet of newsprint that I’d grabbed to blot off the top surfaces of my large individual Oriental character masks when I first tested these out. I chucked this paper with the rest of the packaging papers and thought it probably wouldn’t be very useful as the marks were not carefully arranged and they were pretty patchy, but I’ve learnt never to throw anything away! I love how this fits in with this page. You can see how the ink has bled into the paper a bit.
A detail shot of the bottom of the page. You can see some of the gold stamping a bit better on this photo.
I felt it needed just one more circle, so I tore one of the small ones from the coffee stained beehive paper sheet, where the paper had picked up ink from the splat box. I stuck this down, back side uppermost. It is quite dark, but still translucent enough to show a black oval through it.
Finally, the additional papers I used for this spread. The red card is on the left, and the piece from which the large circle had been torn is at the top.
The ink spotted piece is in the middle and the coffee and ink stained beehive paper is on the right. On the left are the papers with the Oriental script. The script on the upper one is gold, and as I mentioned bfore, the large black ones on the newsprint are blot-offs from my individual masks. (Reminder: all my masks and stencils are available for free download in svg and png format from my OneDrive – see “My Free Stuff” tab in header.)
A final look at the completed spread.
I am well over half way through the Organic Journal now. I want to do another Voynich Manuscript page, and I also have some pressed flowers and leaves from the garden that I’d like to incorporate into a page.
