Wanderlust 2026 - weeks fourteen to twenty-six - Paper Alchemy (part two)

Here are the other pages I particularly enjoyed making from the Paper Alchemy theme of the art journaling course.  Above is a collage of printed vellum, magazine transfers onto sticky tape, material, and photos. It was all about our past. 

We made 'paper leather' for this lesson, using packaging paper and coating it with a mixture of acrylic paint and glue. For some pieces, we added oil and scrunched it up and flattened it out many times which gave it a very 'leathery' feeling.  We also encased thread and sequins in tissue paper, which was rather messy, but fun!

As I make cards, making these cards was right up my street.  Abstract painting, painting an animal (our much missed cat, Scruffy) and then painting the background for one and finally using packaging to make a collage card.  

I used a matcha chocolate wrapper.

Watercolour flowers with added tissue paper foliage and gold accents worked really well.  Painting in the background made the flowers pop.

I did another version in watered down acrylics which worked well, but seems to have lost a bit of expression/spontaneity along the way.  I still like it though!

Making bunting using paper and material was a really enjoyable week.  I chose to make a single piece so that it could go in my journal. Alcohol inks on the gel plate made some lovely papers.

Finally for this theme was looking at the Japanese art of Kintsugi - taking something (usually a ceramic) which has got broken and then mending it, highlighting the cracks with gold.  Crackle paste came out to play here.  The photo in the centre is of Tupholme Abbey.

The crackle paste worked really well.  Our next theme is 'Stories Unfolded' - I think this may be another good one for me!

Wanderlust 2026 - weeks seven to thirteen - roots and wings

As promised, here are the other pages of my Art Journal course which I particularly enjoyed, from the first theme of Roots and Wings.  Above is a nameless photograph of a member of my Dad's side of the family.  We have a lovely Victorian album but absolutely no idea who any of these people were, which is really sad.  The photos were taken in studios in Scotland.  We had to look into our ancestry and choose some art work to turn into stamps.  I chose ancient Celtic symbols carved into rocks.  We also incorporated some weaving which was fiddly, but the end result is very pleasing.  

Using vibrant watercolour inks was the next media to use to create a sort of map of challenges and happy things in our practice. 

This week was all about creating a Polish style of hanging decoration.  As I am keeping everything in my journal, I  translated this to a 'washing line' style of decoration.

Creating our own inks was the next challenge and I used walnut ink and tea for the backgrounds and stamping, with the bright yellow turmeric ink for highlights.

Probably my favourite week was the one by Alison Bomber who I follow on Youtube.  We used a multitude of media for this triptych and I used crackle paste for the first time.  It was very satisfying (once I had got the lid off - and Chris had to help me with that!)  I added pressed leaves and flowers from the garden, which I had collected last year.

Finally, this week was a gentle journey into collage and thinking about a safe and happy place.  

So, on to the next theme which is Paper Alchemy (should be right up my street!)