Redirection

Happy 4th of July holiday weekend! I really like it when the Fourth is on a Friday; it makes for such a nice long weekend. I hope you're enjoying this time as much as I am.

This past week I stenciled with gold, white and blue painsticks onto red fabric to try to create a patriotic journal quilt... but, I didn't continue with it. Why? I really liked what I made and decided to set it aside; I think it will look much better completed as a larger piece, as opposed to a 6" journal. Here's a quick peek, though it's not in such great focus.


So I started over on my weekly journal.

On Friday morning I did a bit of housekeeping -- you know, cleaning up the piles of paper that somehow accumulate. I came across an old grocery receipt that I thought might make an interesting background for a collage. Since it was a bit wrinkled, I decided to iron it. Fearing that I would burn it, I ironed from the reverse (back side of the receipt). But something unexpected happened -- the printed side turned charcoal! I suspect the coating on the face of the receipt reacted to the heat and colored the paper. It was actually pretty cool to see. Did any of you know this would happen?

At that point, I decided I would work with the contrast between the two sides of the receipt. I found some striped fabric and colored it with a red paintstick to make it more vibrant. Then I cut up sections of the receipt. If you look closely at the bottom of the large piece, you can still see some numbers. As you might have guessed, the cross sections alternate between the front and back sections of the receipt. These pieces were originally going to go straight across the large section (sort of like a zipper), but I accidentally sewed the first one crookedly. I decided to make all the cross sections askew because I think it's more interesting and dynamic that way. Your opinions, please .... If nothing else, get a kick out of how differently my two pieces were this week. I seem to jump all over the place in terms of style. Hmmmm, I wonder what that says about me?

Comments

Linda Cline said…
Your red fabric is really gorgeous.

Receipts from my library come on this type of paper. It must be a printer that works with heat on treated paper. I've created rings on them from setting coffee mugs on top of them. This mornings mug doesn't seem to have a hot enough base, but I got a neat circle from putting the paper between the coffee pot and the heating element in the coffee maker.
very interesting... I like the graphic quality of this piece. and what it says about you is that you are adventurous and love trying new things, ain't nothing wrong with that!
lizzieb said…
jumping all over to different styles is how we find ourselves...explore each style and keep on going. Just make the work and your voice will come through!
Margeeth said…
Those receipts are printed on heat sensitive paper. I had the same thing happening when I ironed over a train ticket. And it even had a warning about this posted on the back!

Another unexpected thing that can happen with grocery receipts is when you paint over them with acrylic paint. I tried that and the characters just dissappeared, leaving a blank piece of paper.
Fannie said…
Hi, Vivien~

Thanks for your visit to my blog.

I've learned new things from this post. Great design!

Heat and receipts--interesting . . . thanks for sharing.
margaret said…
Recently in a workshop we "heat treated" fax-machine paper, the kind that comes on rolls - we crumpled it and folded it and then used an iron to make marks on it. Seems like grocery receipts might be made of the same stuff as fax paper.