Rust Is My Friend!

I've been slowly working my way through my office, where I've kept all my art and swaps up to this point.   I can't believe how long it's been since I completed the International swap with five other friends: Dianne in Ohio, Norma in California, Valerie in Germany, Chris in England, and Annette in Scotland.  I created three rust inspired spreads for my own altered book, and needed one more.  You can see the first three here.

Yesterday I realized I still had not put the pages I received, or my pages I created, into a 3-ring folder, as I said I would.  So I got out my 3 hole punch and went to town punching and punching.  Afterwards, I created this piece I call "Rust Is My Friend."

As the title implies, I'm once again joining Try it on Tuesday with their latest challenge of My Friend (which can include human, animal, imaginary, even rust).  But rust is also a color.  Corrosive, perhaps, but a color none-the-less.  That's why I including it with Yvonne's chosen theme of Colo(u)r in my World at Art Journal Journey.

I love the rusty goodness of this piece, but the metal lid was so dimensional, it took three thick sheets of pop dots to raise the little boy off the background.

I had to let everyone know that rust is my friend.  The irony of this is, as I was assembling this, I saw the date and the fact today is also Sunday.  Purely coincidental, but fun to find.

I punched holes in the lid using a large nail.

I then wove heavy wire through the lid and onto the assembly.

Besides using glue, I also sewed the ends of the wire

into a rusted wet wipe (thin wet wipes are not to be confused with thicker baby wipes).  Both the wet wipe and the paper underneath had been rusted, hopefully adding to the dimension I was looking for.

For this piece, I began with card stock, added handmade paper, book paper, and a wet wipe I rusted.  I then added the metal lid, rusty wire, and sewed everything in place.  Finally, I added the words I hand wrote using a gellyroll pen, and placed the little boy on the lid.

Please join me today at Try it on Tuesday and Art Journal Journey (or you may click the links on my right sidebar).  And thank you for visiting today.  It means everything to me that you would check out my art on your day of rest.