Last spring a friend encouraged me to join the St. Albert Paper Arts Guild, and it’s been a wonderful opportunity to meet, learn, and create with an amazing group of local artists who are immersed in all things paper-related!
Every other year, the various Guilds (Painting, Pottery, Quilting, and Paper Arts) are invited to submit proposals for exhibit at the Art Gallery of St. Albert. Our group piece was selected, and I can truly say that it was a GOBSMACK moment seeing all the paper panels hung for the first time. What a thrill to be part of this!
There were 16 banners in total, each measuring approximately 2 feet wide by 8 feet long. Members worked for weeks on their panels; they included pulp pouring, mono-printing, collage, paper beads, hand-cut and dyed papers, paper casting, marbling, drawing, shibori, stitching and more.
‘Gobsmacked’ ran from November 22nd to January 25th. Our piece was titled: “A Walk Through the Magical Blue Forest.” Here are a few more closeup photos:
A fellow member and I partnered up as we were relative ‘newbies’ and unfamiliar with the pulp pouring process. Our first attempt turned out okay, but unfortunately didn’t transport well. Now what to do?
We settled on a paper dying and branding process similar to Liz Constable’s Dyed and Gone to Heaven technique. We hand-dyed the papers, hand-cut 6 different-sized leaf shapes (2 oak, 2 maple, 2 elm) and sewed them together in long strips which were then hung from a rod.
They fluttered and danced with the slightest breeze; we named our panel, ‘Autumn’s Dance.’
