TangleU Fall Arts Academy hosted by Elaine Huffman was a delight! In the words of Lucy Maud Montgomery, “there was so much scope for the imagination!” We had lots of play time, met in smaller groups to get to know each other better, learned many new techniques, and sewed our new mixed media pages into a book with the Larkshead binding method.
The conference was held entirely on line through Zoom with two wonderful instructors, Elaine Huffman and Cherryl Moote. Each instructor has her own special methods for achieving beautiful backgrounds using the Geli Plate.
The first day we worked with Elaine and she taught us about using Pan Pastels on the Geli Plate. I found this to be a fun way to mix layers of color with acrylic paint. I have a nice selection of Pan Pastels that have been sitting in my art supplies. I most often used them when making scenic cards.
Following this session, Cherryl Moote took us through the process of binding our first set of pages into a little booklet using the Larkshead binding. I Love This Binding!!!!! It’s the perfect binding for thicker loose pages. Because you are stitching into the edge of the page, you definately need at least watercolor weight (140 lb).
Larkshead Binding System
I was so taken by this style of binding that I practiced after class binding together a stack of technique tags that I had on a metal ring.
One important thing to consider with the Larkshead binding is to ensure you have enough string right from the start. Yes, you can add more string along the way, as you can see above.
Fall Arts Academy Project
On the second day of the workshop, we launched into our class project. Cherryl started off showing us her process for layering collage onto our Geli Plate decorated pages. While Elaine and Cherryl’s processes are different, the outcome is the same, beautifully decorated pages!
I love how my pages are turning out. One thing is clear, we each have our own style with collage. I noticed that mine changed over the course of the weekend and I started to feel more comfortable with what I was doing. I ended the weekend extremely encouraged and looking forward to making more Geli Plate pages to collage.
For this page, I started with music strips and pieces of mulberry papers. I found this cute little bird on a piece of scrapbook paper.
This page came together very quickly. I found this text about time in an old book and then I remembered I had a set of time oriented rubberstamps. Selected images were stamped onto deli paper and then torn into the shape I wanted. Naturally, after using a bird in the first page, I felt that birds must be part of my theme for this book.
I am still working on my pages and will bind them together when I am finished. In the meantime, I really wanted to try the Larkshead binding again so I gathered up a pile of eco printed tiles that my friend Chris Titus sent. They make a beautiful book that I will eventually use for tangling.
In conclusion, I will say that I very much enjoyed the TangleU Fall Arts Academy. I learned so much more about using a Geli Plate and collaging onto my pages. And of course, the Larkshead binding is sure to become one of my favorites. You can check out more classes and workshops by TangleU at www.tangleu.com.
Nancy