And a curtain

One of my other artistic pursuits is improvising. (Improvactally.blogspot.com ).

Today's artistic output is a new curtain backdrop for the show. The show's called likewise.

The curtain features a placket so performers can entire from behind it.  And inside there is also a pocket (for props or cameras or other show paraphernalia - never had one before so haven't yet imagined its uses).

The curtain is 480cm x 160cm. It will suspend over a rod each week on a Wednesday night for the show. The rod is 240cm high so there will be some overhang.
Still to determine the best way to make it stay up.  For the first few weeks i imagine bulldog clips will do the job. ..

And now with tyvek crown

The paper crown binding was breaking away.
So i made a binding from tyvek.

White crown binding

Last week i made a crown binding for the last cut squares our of a white paper. But the squares needed cream paper.
So this week i remade the crown binding in cream to match the pages.
I also experimented with making a crown binding going both ways with the grain to see which one worked best. The jury is still out. I'll have to see how they fare after  they've been weighted down for a few hours.
So today i also cut white pages to go in the white binding. And then decorated them with the laser cut off cuts.
Here they are.
25cm x 24cm pages.

Crown bound and laser cut

Crown binding completed in the same paper stock as the pages.
Laser cut squares secured to the pages.
Pages 25cm x 14cm.

Momigami 2 the adventure begins!

This is a continuation of a previous post which you can find here.

Just took the scrunched paper and coated it with arrowroot/tapioca glue and an acrylic wash.
They are all hanging in my lounge room on the laundry rack to dry.
The tapioca paste recipe in the microwave took only 5 x 15 second goes with a cup of water/ one teaspoon of tapioca (i followed the recipe first and used that initial half a cup in minutes).

Pix below.

Momigami

Sydney BAG met yesterday (we meet every month).

Avril had been to visit a friend in Bermagui, and brought us back the idea of Momigami.
It is the japanese word for kneaded paper.
You can buy momigami paper from art stores, but it seems you can use the momigami techniques on old book pages and it changes the texture and consistency of the page, rendering paper more like fabric.
Ever since I've been twisting, crumpling and generally assaulting pages of old books to see what happens to them.
I put a few atlas pages and a some from a Petit Robert French Dictionary through the 17 minute rinse cycle in my washing machine, to see whether that would twist and transform it faster.
then i put them through the dryer (and put some dry ones in the dryer too).
wetting / rinsing made the paper wet, and broke up the map pages - they look cool, but not as nice as the ones i kneaded. just running pages through the dryer did nothing at all.

Here are my notes from what I found online:
Folding the four corners into the center, one crumples the treated dry sheets gently into a loose ball, then packed into a tighter ball, squeezing and wrinkling. Unfold the sheet, rewrap, wrinkle and crumple.
After three to four minutes open up the sheet, grasp at the near corner and rub between the palms of the hand, paper against paper. Over and over. A good activity while watching TV, talking with friends or waiting on buses and in waiting rooms I think. More here

there's a video here of people actually making momigami.
this description of momigami includes oil. check out how she has weathered a printed image.

if you treat the paper after momigami-ing it, then you'll get a resist effect where the oil is (or isn't).
caren florance says it involves tapioca starch and gives a recipe but doesn't mention oil. And here's a great resource for all kinds of glues you can make (doesn't include tapioca, but does include several kinds of flour pastes). And here's one for a tapioca starch glue that is made in the microwave.

I took some pix, but it would seem the difference between the washed and kneaded paper is only in how it feels to the touch, not in the look. going to try laminating/collaging them now to see what happens.

Thanks avril for going to bermagui to do momigam!\
Pre-treated Petit Robert pages

And post

Post-treated atlas page

Pre-treated atlas page

Tiny laser cut books

These are laser cut 5cm squares from an acrylic work on paper.
Attached to a laser cut and etched concertina.
Poem is the Bellbirds by Henry Kendall.