ARTifacts for September

I'm once again joining Seth Apter in his ARTifacts collaboration.  Here is my September entry.  You can see this has not yet been added to my Rocking Horse Journal, because I need to figure out a way to keep these two pages together.

This is the spread that Seth will show on his blog.  As with previous months, everything else is detail.  However, this month I plan to keep these two pages side by side.  Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to make the sentiment Circles of Change, fit between the two pages.  Although they are both very different in feel and meaning, they both relate to change.

Those who visit my blog regularly, know I have a love affair with rust.  Rust is the change that occurs when iron and oxygen come into contact with moisture of any kind.

I tried to keep with the circle theme when I used a rusted can lid and the metal fitting.

It took all the strength I had to cut that very heavy fitting, but I was determined to use it because of the circles.    On one of my rusty papers, I found a nearly perfect heart, so outlined it using a gold metallic gellyroll pen.

To some, this may look very similar to my Autumnal Equinox I created a few days ago.  

This leaf, however, is just beginning to change colors,

which leads to nature's changes that occur each season.

Even though September is nearly over, I am really loving this very different and fun way of looking back on the month.

It's a great way to determine what is important each month, rather than the day to day events I write about in my monthly calendar.

I hope you can see why I call these two very different spreads Circles of Change.

I tried to show the shimmer I got from my handmade shimmering mists, but, as many of you know, mica doesn't show up well in photos.

For the substrate, I began with a sheet of pink copier/printer paper, since I have such an abundance of it.  For the left side, I added a page from a foreign book I rusted, a metal lid I rusted, and a piece of pipe fitting I found in my rusty stash.  I used E6000 to hold the assembly in place.   The heart was part of a larger page I rusted, too.  As I mentioned earlier, I outlined it using a gold gellyroll pen.

For the right side, I began by spraying a piece of heavy yellow card stock with several of my handmade shimmering mists.  You can find how I make these mists any time on my Tutorials page.  For the circles, this time I used both colored pencils and several metallic gellyroll pens.  This time, instead of using a previously pressed leaf from last year, I used one I found in my neighbor's yard that had just fallen from the tree.  Before I added it to the page, I tried to spritz it from a toothbrush with some black acrylic paint.  I colored the month using pigment ink and added the sentiment I cut from some of my rusted paper.

Both sides were sewn with variegated thread, but for once, I supplemented the sewing on the left side with E-6000 because the page holding the rusty assembly was quite heavy, 

Once again, I want to thank Seth for creating this collaborative.  I am really enjoying this project and am so glad I decided to join.

And thanks go to each of you for visiting today.  I'm very grateful for your visit and your support of my art and this collaboration.