Stephanie Lee

The Illusion of Heft

When we write our thoughts, ideas and workings of our human mind on the pages of our journal, we are asking the journal to serve as a substrate for the medium in which we create the artwork of our mindscape. There is a sort of heft to the emotional work that is done within the pages of the journal that serves as the counterbalance to living consciously. It is the heft that births a lightness of being. The Journal as visual art is not a new concept by any stretch of the imagination and in this workshop, we are going to represent that lightweight heft through thick plaster encrusted pages that look MUCH heavier than they really are. My book measures a thick 6 inches with each page measuring 3 x 4 inches but you can make the book any size/thickness that you want. I will guide you through various hinging and containment options, surface treatment, and methods for converting the technique to serve as functional covers to a paper-paged journal.

Expect to take home a lighter-than-it-looks blank journal that is ideal for a wide range of mediums.

Supply List:

• 4 rolls of plaster gauze; 4 inch width (also called Rigid Wrap, Plaster Cloth, or casting bandage. Wider is fine and 3 rolls would be plenty) dickblick.com/products/blick-plaster-cloth
• 10-20 pre-cut corrugated cardboard pieces in whatever size you want the pages to be. For this class, I recommend not going larger than 5X7". Do not use flat cardboard!
• Heavy Gel medium
• Just a few of your favorite colors of acrylic paints
• Water container for brushes
• A couple of paintbrushes 1-2" wide
• Images - just a few that equal no more than half of your cardboard page dimensions. (i.e. for a 3 x 4" page, images that are about 2 inches square would be perfect)
• Masking tape (feel free to wrap five feet or so around the end of a pencil and bring that instead of a whole roll)
• 2-3 rags (you will really be glad you have these!! Terry cloth dish towels are my favorite)
• a few (2-4) strips of fabric roughly 3 inches wide x 36 inches long
  
  Optional:
• Heat gun or hair dryer
  
  Teacher will bring:
• Alternative hinging materials
• Plastic bags to carry pieces while traveling
• Misc tools and supplies for group use