Saturday, April 9, 2011

My Mexican Folk Art pages for Dianne

It occurred to me that in my haste to get these pages out the door to Dianne, I forgot to sign them. That is something I am not used to forgetting, but none of these have been signed. However, here they are, not my best work, but finished as I tried to give Dianne a few Mexican Folk Art Icons and bits for her handmade book. This is my final set of pages for what we have been calling our 6 X 6 swappers. Incidentally, everything was created on 140 lb. watercolor paper.

I began by painting this page with Twinkling H20 in periwinkle. To that I added green and red paint chips from the hardware store, over which I placed filigree pieces and one metal crown on a gold paint chip.


While doing research on Mexican Folk Art, I learned that crowns are very important icons. For this page, I began with a yellow Twinkling H20. I found a single printed crown from a copy of a Loteria card and attached it along with a metal crown I thought looked similar.


Dear Marlynn, another player in the swap, sent me these Mexican Art cards. I was quite grateful, although I'm not sure I did them justice. I used two colors of green Twinkling H20s on this page and the next one for the backgrounds.


Again, not sure how these cards are usually used, I gave the No. 1 cards preferential treatment on this page.


For the background on this page, I used chalk ink, along with some pigment ink. I printed a flaming heart icon from the internet and cut it out. I added my swirl rubber stamp for interest.


Trees are also interesting and often used icons in Mexican Folk Art. I don't even begin to claim that I could make one of those stylized trees, but some from the internet DO sort of look like the one I drew and cut out. Although the hands were nothing like milagros, I used them anyway. And I thought they complimented the necklace piece that I thought had a definite Mexican feel to it.


At one time I had two ornamental red peppers, but misplaced one in my craft room when I had to consolidate things from the basement studio. The one pepper became the decoration for the pocket I used for the tag. A heart and cross combined together to make a heart-like decoration that I centered on one of the extra playing cards.


And of course, my name and information are on the back of this card that I first covered with gesso and gold fluid acrylic. A piece of red glitzy fabric completed the page.


For the final page, I considered trying to color the skull in, then decided it was probably not the thing to do, since I have a limited number of ink pens (two to be exact) that are not black. The decorations at the top and bottom of the page are from a couple of napkins I bought when I first learned about our swap choices. Although they are not exactly Folk Art icons, I thought they went with the page. Three polymer clay skeletons I made from a handmade mold, along with one final gold crown, complete the page.

14 thoughtful remarks:

voodoo vixen said...

Yay... you have been creating so you must be feeling better! So lovely to see your work and these have such fabby colours and all those crowns... and the wee skulls are brilliant!!

Darla said...

I like your pages and I am sure your swap partner will too. I like Mexican folk art and have a few pieces from visits there.

Darla

Marlynn said...

Oh my, Elizabeth - you did a great job on these pages. I like very much. You are being way to hard on yourself and we know Dianne loved them. I am so happy the cards I send made it into the design. Hugs

~*~Patty S said...

Really fun seing your pages, they are so imaginative and creative!
You have added some fab embellishments too...I think your hand charms have a great milagro look and feel to them.
I can only imagine that Dianne was very very pleased with what you created.
Thanks ever so much for a great swap Madam Hostess!
oxo

Gaby Bee said...

Once again you have done a wonderful job. These pages are lovely, Elizabeth!

Julia Dunnit said...

Ah. these are great - I think the use of the playing cards is genius..I like the idea of a swap that requires a bit of learning along the way!
And the tea - you're welcome..had forgotten all about it, maybe it will help rebuild your strength. Or maybe the picture on the packet is the real reason I bought it!!

Anonymous said...

Oh! the stylized tree and the flaming heart are my FavOrites!

gah. love the tree page.

awesome!

Halle said...

I don't really know much if anything about Mexican folk art but the pages are lovely.

Theresa MacNaughton said...

These are fabulous! I liked learning about how you created them and some of the history behind the elements you used. Theresa

Liverpool Lou (Anne) said...

Hi Elizabeth, love the backgrounds you've created, lovely colourful pages and I particularly ove the flaming heart and the last 3 pages ;-)
The tulips above are lovely.
Anne xx

Dianne said...

they are all beautiful, and I love them! very striking color and design. Thank you so much!

Frank Zweegers said...

Great selection!

Suz said...

You did a wonderful job. These are such unique interpretations. I thoroughly enjoyed them.
Fondly,
Suz

Lisca said...

Thanks for giving me the link to this 'old' blog post. I love those cards. They are so colorful and unusual. Well done.
Lisca