Your wood carving steps can be just the first steps in a larger project. In this sample, Mandala Fish, the basic fish shape has been relief wood carved on a 3/4″ basswood slab. This is a simple rounded over carving that was sanded smooth after the cutting strokes were done. Next I traced my mandala pattern and used my wood burner to outline the pattern details. Colored pencils finish this project bring a bright rainbow of hues to my design.
Is it a carving? Is it a wood burning? Is it mandala work? Is it colored pencil art?
YES!
Many of our carving and pyrography ideas come directly from other fine art styles and media of works. This Lantern fish is a permanent marking pen drawing on Bristol board, brightly accented with colored pencils. It was the inspiration for the wood carving fish above. Want a free pattern to try your own mixed media fish design. Here’s one! And I have two free pattern packs, ready to download, on my pattern website at ArtDesignsStudio.com.
And … one more idea that fits better in the fish tank then in the standard hobby box. You can use any pattern as the bases for your next practice board. Just because you want a chance to check your tip temperature, establish your strokes and textures, or set your tonal value before you work on your main project doesn’t mean that practice board needs to be a boring, useless grid design.
Altered Art is the fun of taking an item as an old book and re-purposing it as the base for your craft arts. The sample to the right is a pen and ink, pencil, and colored pencil drawing worked on the page of an old law dictionary.
A second interruption of altered art is when we cross-craft by combining multiple crafting skills to create a unique work. In this sample a relief carving becomes the base for decoupage, pen and ink designs, and even gold and copper gilding.
If you are a pyrographer and a journalist you will have fun working today’s projects. We have been exploring the Artist’s Morgue File this week and our habit as artists to keep stacks, folders, and file boxes of scrap paper or digital images that spark our imagination.
Handmade, DIY Leather Journals are a great way to organize those little bits of inspiration. Your front and back leather cover make a great media for your pyrography, the pages can be made with bullet journal pages, watercolor paper, or scrapbook paper. Since the journal uses an easy lacing pattern, worked with twine or raffia, it is easy to open and refill the pages of your journal at any time.
The front two leather DIY Artist Journal patterns are available in the Great Book of Celtic Patterns, available on Amazon.com. The back journal is worked on chipboard, covered with scrap paper, watercolor paper, and glitter tape. It is a kettle stitched bound book.
And here are two more free doodle patterns –
Free Doodle Pattern 011Free Doodle Pattern 012
By now you should have 11 free Lora S. Irish patterns stashed away in your craft folder on your desktop. Three from Day #1, three from Day #2, and five for today. See you on Monday, Jan 6th with more …
Bullet Journals let you keep track of your day to day activities and to add personal notes, shopping lists, and appointment calendars. The pages are worked on a dot grid pattern which is used as your guide to create your tables, lists, and highlighted comments.
Bullet Journal Blank Page
This basic bullet journal page will print on an 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet of paper. When folded it creates two facing printed dot grid pages. You can print several copies of this bullet journal page. Then put those pages back into your printer tray, face up so that you see the printed grid, and then printed a second time to create the dot grid on the back of your paper.
Free Doodle Pattern 008
Click on the image, right, to open a full-sized copy in a new window. Right hand click on the image and chose ‘save image’ to keep a copy on your computer for easy printing. This page is pre-set to print in portrait mode, no adjustment is needed.
The Stapled Bookbinding link, below, shows you how to take multiple printed pages and staple them into a small booklet.
Bullet Journal Header PageBullet Journal List PageBullet Journal Design Page
Here are a few samples of DIY Hand Bound Bullet Journal, decorated with scrap booking paper, a watercolor paper design, paper twist strings, a few glass beads, and worked with leather covers. Stop by tomorrow for the links to how to design, burn, and bind your own leather journal.
The patterns for the large background dragon journal, and the small Celtic journal, front left, are available in the Great Book of Celtic Patterns, available on Amazon.com. The Greenman Journal, front right, is a free project here on LSIrish.com.
Free Doodle Pattern 009
Stop by Reddit/r/bulletjournal to discover a fun community of journalist that share lots and lots of ideas.
If you haven’t played with bookbinding yet, these links will get you stared.
Artist’s Morgue File: A folder, cardboard box, drawer, or stack of collected ideas, inspirations, and ‘someday’ projects that an artist accumulates over a lifetime of crafting.
Jan. 1st, 2019 – Goal for this month is to post two to three small, free patterns each working day of the month that you can use with your favorite craft. The theme for January is Doodle Designs.
I must have a dozen large cardboard boxes of scrap paper torn from magazines, newspaper ads, and even old books that I have saved over the years as inspirational ideas – just something to spark a new project.
There must be a ton of doodles. Lots and lots of little, tiny, small designs that stand alone as a quick accent in so many crafts. Doodles created using my scrap papers as the inspiration for my own designs.
I won’t even guess how many digital files are stored on my external hard drive for the same reason.
Sometimes those pictures show an interesting layout pattern, perhaps a unique line divider, or even a color combination that really caught my eye.
Free Doodle Pattern 001
That hoard of scrap ideas even has a technical name – its an Artist’s Morgue File.
Because my morgue file is over 30 years in the making, and spread out everywhere in the studio, shop, and in my storage boxes, I thought as a goal for 2019 that I would start converting those ideas into some type of organization.
For my doodles I chose cardboard, kraft paper tags in a variety of shapes. The tags run around 2 1/2″ ( 6.5 cm) wide and up to 3″ ( 7.5 cm) tall.
Blank Digital, Printable Tags
Here are blank digital copies of the two tags that I have used to begin my 2019 Morgue File of Little Patterns.
Please click on the image and it will open a new window. Right hand click on the new, full-sized image and chose ‘save image’ to keep a copy on your computer.
Both patterns can be printed of card stock paper, directly from your computer printer so that you can create your own Morgue File tags.
Over the next month I will be posting a few each day. Two to three small designs that you can use with your pyrography wooden spoons, DIY Bullet Journal, and even as fun, applique quilt patterns. And, perhaps, my ideas will spark new ideas for you to create your own.
The DIY Book Making Journal, shown right, uses a pen and ink, gel pen pattern, worked on 140 lb. cold press watercolor paper, as the book cover design. This is a stitched book that holds 32 pages, also worked with the same watercolor paper.
The book boards – front and back cover – use light weight, brown kraft paper to cover the heavy cardboard pieces and to cover the stitched pages along the side of the book.
If you haven’t played with bookbinding yet, these links will get you stared.
