Week of Swaps--Day 1

Japanese setting sun

This week, I wanted to share with you some of the swaps that I have completed on swap-bot. The first was a postcard challenge. The theme was "put a map on it. " My swap partner has an aversion to anything purple so I had to get creative.

My partner likes blues and greens though. I knew that I wanted to do something with some scraps of Japanese paper that I had laying around. First I used my stencil that simulates the Japanese setting sun. I used alcohol inks to provide color. The layout worked in reverse than I wanted. Rather than start over, I simply decided to reconsider.

To simulate the sun, I decided to use my paper scraps to represent the sun's rays. I chose three coordinating papers and used the stencil to cut out the rays.

Sun's rays

I wasn't quite happy with the half-round shape that I achieved. I took a red crane piece of scrap paper and used a hole punch to punch a circle. I pasted it in place and trimmed so it was flush with the card.

Much better

The upward flying crane is a symbol of good luck and it seemed appropriate.

I still needed to add a map so I took the circle punch and added the two maps to fulfill the theme of the swap. One was in black and white and I was sure to use a non-purple section of the Tokyo Metro map. I added three other images from a free guide booklet to complete the front.

Getting there

I had picked out some postage stamps to use but I just couldn't figure out where to put them. The front of the card still needed something so I dug through my stash of decorative papers and found this metallic speckled mulberry paper. It is a see through paper normally used as an overlay in Japanese gift wrapping. The gold and silver flakes are supposed to be good luck for the recipient. I ran the card through the Xyron machine and placed the paper on top of the card. Unfortunately, you only get one chance to get this right. There was a lot of deep breathing during this stage.

Finished card front

Mulberry paper detail

It then came time to concentrate on the back of the card. I had the perfect stencil to use--a koi stencil. I used my alcohol inks to create the koi. Remembering that my partner liked blues and yellows, I used those colors to fill in the background. My partner also collects used postage stamps so I added some Japanese stamps from my collection. I used the US-Japanese Cherry Blossom Forever stamp to apply postage (since the card is oversized, it requires first class postage).

Finished card back

I hope my swap partner likes the card. It is on its way to Belgium.

Studio and Craft Hacks--Day 5

This is probably one of the hacks that I am most proud. I am forever shopping at Target and I will buy many items not knowing exactly what I am going to do with them. This was the case with these plastic trays that were available prior to this new school year. I was attracted to them because I thought they would provide a pop of happy color in my studio.  They were on sale for $3 each so I thought they were a bargain. They came in five colors (the four above and a nice blue). I bought the four colors shown and called it a day.

I didn't know exactly how I was going to use them. I got frustrated digging through my shoe box of washi tape every time that I wanted to use it. Unfortunately, if I don't see something, I won't use it. It was simply taking too much time to sort through my washi tape that I would just use something else.

I was searching online for a different product and I came across this image:

and I thought I can do that. I had the dowels and I was going to make my own box/case when I remembered that I these Target trays.

I decided to use my heavy duty bookbinder's awl to make the holes. I widened the holes to accept the size of the dowels that I already had. I then cut the dowels to size using my Exacto mini-saw and I was in business.

As you can see in the original photo above. The green tray was the first to design and I didn't realize how much space I needed between the dowels. Once I figured it out, the second and third trays were easy to assemble.

Tray one

Tray two

Tray three

Tray four

As you can see in the last tray, I left one without dowels so I could store my oversized rolls of tape. I really like how these worked out. I can see all of my tape at a simple glance. I don't worry about the size of the rolls or widths of the rolls as they are easy to access. There is also room for extra rolls that I have been too lazy to put back on the dowels. More importantly, this limits the amount of tape that I can get. I have started to follow my "new book" rule--before I can add a new roll of washi to my collection, I must get rid of one roll.

Iron Craft 2015 Challenge #7--D is for Decoupage (Eggs)

Decoupage Eggs (Washi Eggs)

I really struggled for this challenge in that I couldn't decide what I wanted to do. I thought about dinosaurs. I thought about dragons. I thought about doing another cut out but this season of Iron Craft, I wanted to start doing other projects without falling back to cut outs.

I was walking through the local craft store and I saw some decoupage sheets and Mod Podge so I decided to do something with decoupage. Since it was Easter, I decided to revisit these washi eggs. I have chronicled my attempts at washi eggs here, and here, and here.

I finally listened to my own advice and only used Japanese Washi Paper. Rather than use Mod Podge, I decided to use traditional bookbinder's paste. This paste dries clear and does not leave a gloss coat to the paper.

The first egg was a real duck egg that was blown out. Duck eggs are slight larger than chicken eggs. They are little more pointed at the top than goose eggs.

Real Duck Egg

The second egg was a real goose egg that was blown out. Goose eggs are a 1.5 times larger than duck eggs and almost 2 times larger than chicken eggs.

Real Goose Egg

The third egg was a paper mache egg that I had left over from a previous project. They claim that it is a goose egg but in reality it is between the size of a goose and ostrich egg.

Paper Mache Egg

I am getting closer to standardizing the process so I will be able to adapt to the size of the egg. I am getting fewer wrinkles and less bulk at the ends of each egg. Maybe by next Easter, I will have conquered the process.

Monthly Projects--Update2

The second project that I will be doing a monthly basis is the Lampshade Project. Because of the success that I had with the shoji screen lampshade from my first Iron Craft 2015 challenge, I want to design and make a new lampshade each month.

I want to experiment with forms and papers. I will also experiment with the bases but most of the shades will be based on the pre-existing base that was designed for the first challenge.

For example, how tall can the shade be and still provide adequate lighting? What colors of paper work best? What happens when you layer papers on top of each other before wrapping around the wooden uprights? What happens when you increase the height of the spanners and how much light will still be emitted?

There are many questions to explore and hopefully some beautiful lampshades will be made.

Lamp and Shoji Screen Lampshade Tutorial

I was so happy with the way that this project turned out that I wanted to share the tutorial with you. As I mentioned yesterday, this was a project that had been percolating in my mind for years. I didn't have the time to research the individual elements and I thought about making the lampshade to fit a pre-existing lamp but I never could find just the right lamp base. I knew what I wanted but could never find it.

As I was out shopping in Manhattan, I ran across a lighting store and since I had some spare time on my hands, I decided to go inside and this was were I found the component parts for the lamp base. The other materials were purchased at Michaels and the paper was already a part of my stockpile.

Materials Needed:

A porcelain bulb unit

Electrical cord with plug at one end

Wooden Base (mine is 5.5 inches square)

Balsa Wood cubed sticks for the uprights

Balsa Wood thin sheets for the spanners

Wood Glue

Cutting tool for the Balsa Wood

Mounting Screws for the porcelain bulb unit 

Decorative Paper of Choice

Good Paper Paste/Glue

60 W (or less) bulb

Assembly:

Step One: Take the electrical cord and wire the porcelain fitting for power. My cord was already stripped at one end for the wiring but you might need to strip the non-plug end yourself.

Step Two: Center the porcelain fitting on your wooden base. Take mounting screws and screw into the base.  

Lamp Supplies

 Step Three: Screw  the bulb into the lamp base and test.

Lamp Base tested

Step Four: Build the box for the lampshade. Cut the Balsa Wood cubed uprights to the desired height. Make four identical pieces.

Step Five: Measure and cut the spanners. Measuring the sides of your lamp base, add 1/4 to 1.2 inch to this measurement. This should be the length of each spanner. Make four.

Step Six: Take a spanner and glue it to the outside edge of two of the uprights. Be sure to have enough space from the bottom of the uprights to the spanner so that the lighting cord can pass underneath the spanner. I started the first spanner 1.5 inches from the bottom of the upright.

Step Seven: Repeat step six for the second set of uprights.

Step Eight: Place one of the upright sets face down (with the spanner facing down--very important to get the orientation right). Take of of the loose spanners and place glue on right and left edges. Put the second upright set in your left hand (with the spanner facing up). Place the glued spanner in place at the top edge of the face down upright set. Take the upright set in your left hand and hold in place until the glue becomes tacky and holds. The spanner should be flush with the top edge of the uprights and with the left and right edges of the uprights. See notes below for the interior spanners. Once the glue is set up and still tacky, I rotated the developing box 90 degrees so that the gluing pieces were facing down. I glued one of the interior spanners to help hold the shape of the box.

Step Nine: Repeat step eight but the surfaces should be facing up and facing you. Place all interior spanners to help keep the boxes shape. I also used small bean bag weights to keep the uprights from shifting.

Finished Lamp Shade box

Step Ten: Cut the decorative paper to size. Take a tape measure or piece of strip and wrap around the box to determine the length of paper that you will need. You want a short overlap so add 1/4 to 1/2 inch to your measurement. Also keep in mind, your paper will stretch when it is wet and tightens against your box frame.

For the height of your paper, you need to decide how much opening you want on the top and bottom of your lamp shade. I decided to cut my paper flush to the top edge of the box and to the bottom edge of the bottom spanner. For my first attempts at making this, I wanted straight guidelines to wrap the screen so I used the spanners as guides.

Step Eleven: Take one edge of the paper and start flush with one edge of the upright and wrap the box. Make a small mark where the completed wrapping ends. If you have excess paper now is the time to trim it. You want 1/4 to 1/2 inch of paper to the left of this mark (as the paper is face down).Place the paper face down on a flat surface. Glue the left half of the paper. Place your box so that the left side of the box is on the mark you made on the paper. Make sure that the paper is flush with the top edge of your box. Take the left edge of the paper (the excess) and wrap the left edge of the box. Press firmly (but not too hard) so that the paper adheres to left hand spanner and uprights.

Press the spanners and uprights that are now on the face down surface. Rotate the box to your right one rotation being sure to keep all edges flush. Press the spanners and uprights against the paper and check that there are no wrinkles in your paper. See notes about wrinkles.

Glue out the second half of your paper. Rotate one more rotation and press down. Rotate the box for the final side.Your paper should end where you started and should end with the left edge of the starting upright. If your paper has stretched, just wrap the excess around the upright. Because this is where you started, this will be the back side of the lampshade. This one corner should be the only place where there is a double thickness of paper. When the lamp is lit this will show so you want this to be towards the back of the unit.

Set the lampshade aside to dry (in an upright position).

Finished lampshade

Place the shade over the base and plug in your lamp and enjoy.

Finished Lamp and Shade

Notes:

(1) I kept all of the wood in its natural state. Feel free to paint the wooden pieces if you prefer. You should paint them and let them fully dry before mounting the porcelain fitting.

(2) There are all sorts of switches you can wire into your electrical cord. For my first attempt, I wanted to keep it simple and just use a plug in type of cord.

(3) After finishing step seven, I measured the interior distance between the uprights to make interior spanners. You can cut these in advance and have them ready when gluing.

(4) When you are gluing the paper to the box, take your time. Reverse any step if the paper becomes wrinkled. Usually when the paper wrinkles your edges are not flush. Once the glue has set, you will not be able to remove the wrinkles without destroying the project. SO. TAKE. YOUR. TIME.

(5) To test how your decorative paper will look once it is backlit simply hold the paper against a lit bulb. Darker Japanese papers didn't admit light as well as others. Also, some of the darker papers only let light shine through the light patterns of the paper which was interesting in itself.

(6) To ensure that there wasn't a fire hazard, I sprayed the decorative paper on both sides with a fire retardant to lessen the possibility of something bad happening. Regardless, I would not keep this lamp on for excessive periods of time nor would I ever leave it unattended.