Volcano Arts

Jo enjoyed making an original card for each artist in the Inspiration Deck one month. Everyone was so taken with the cards that Jo supplied the directions for how it was done.

The cards are collaged in reverse onto clear laminating sheets. At first Jo tried to be very precise in her placement of the collage elements on the laminate. Then she realized how fun the process is and "went for broke."

She chose images that looked good grouped together on the table. A themed grouping would be very effective. She tore around the edges of each image and placed it face down on the laminate, occasionally looking at the reverse side to see how she was doing. Mostly Jo just placed items on and let the Muse guide her. She used "images, metallic bits, and background stuff at random" until most of the space was filled. She was careful to include black ink words printed on white paper here and there. For one of the sheets she used imitation gold leaf wherever it would stick between the images.

Jo then turned the piece over with the right side facing her and then used a bone folder to insure that everything was sticking properly (a brayer would also be good for this). The next step was to soak the whole thing in warm water for 5 or 10 minutes. She removed it from the water and gently peeled and rubbed the paper off the back of the images. Leaving some of the paper, she gently patted the piece dry and then brushed several colors of Pearl-Ex between the images. Finally, she colored the back of the piece with metallic pens in several colors. She cut up the sheet into the required card size and submitted them for the Inspiration Deck.