Forest Book Amate Bark Page

This page is 48" x 24" and is several prints on paper made with the Amate Bark Process.  This is a several day process, but the results are always beautiful and full of texture.  I used Kozo Fiber from Japan.  The picture below are the 2 full panel used, you can see one has more holes in the surface then the other.

The prints are attached to a piece of wood.  Dyed cheesecloth is attached to the surface of the wood with gel medium.  The 2 larger prints are stacked and attached together with waxed linen with a large bead strung in between the panel layers.  This keeps the layers separate. The print with more holes is on top.  The edges are extended by using the smaller pieces with large beads and waxed linen

A cursory look at the process goes like this: soak the fibers overnight.  Boil the fiber and transfer it to a crock pot to simmer between 8 to 12 hours.  Layer the bark horizonally and vertically and again, depending on the thickness wanted.  Then pound together with a smooth rock and let it dry.  Coat with the inkAID precoat of choice.  Let dry again and print from a carrier sheet.

Detail pictures appear on my kathyannewhite texture blog.

Mariposa Grove 3

Recycled Beverage Can Installation

Since returning from my trip to Alaska, my new project is taking shape.  It was started sometime in February by figuring out what surfaces were going to be put together and how.  Then the print to work from.  Chosen surfaces decided on are: digital prints on beverage cans, digital prints on my hand made amate bark paper, twigs and hemp. 

The strands of the elements measure 10 ft long and around 1 ½ “ wide.  They are fragile, light and will hang in a circular configuration.  Of course that will be subject to change as more and more pieces are created.  Currently, over 400 cans have been printed.

There are around 400 of the small elements almost together, as you can see by the pictures below. Many piles of cans are ready to cut and assemble.  This is a seriously tedious process.  Let’s hope it has the end result I am searching for.  

Amate Bark Digital Print

Several projects have been going at one time and some of them were finished this past week. The subject of today's post is a piece that started when I made bark paper (featured in the previous post) using the Amate process. The finished piece is composed of 3 layers: the bottom is a piece of black hardware cloth with a 1/4" grid, above that is a piece of copper mesh that has been digitally printed, above that is a piece of the bark paper I printed with the same image on the copper mesh.

The photograph was taken in the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite National Park this June. Photoshop was used to manipulate and combine the original photograph with another image. This piece is around 37" in height and 17" in width. The layers have been assembled using waxed linen tied through the three surfaces. The pictures show a few details and the actual piece.