Moonscape

This is kind of another happy accident, regarding the texture. I used box (corrugated) cardboard for the base, because I figured that would be sturdier than the frozen pizza cardboard I usually use for these smaller pieces. This piece is a 5x5. Then I spread on some wallboard joint compound and textured it the way I wanted with a butter knife. I wanted it to look more like plaster. And when it was dry, it did look like plaster. However, the moisture from the JC had seeped down into the cardboard, and even though the JC was dry, the cardboard was still damp, and therefore not stiff but somewhat flexible. At that point my muse Bonita jumped in and whispered in my ear....what if you bend the cardboard a little here and there, what will that do to the JC and the texture? So I bent it, before I could even second guess myself (or her), and discovered the "what if" of doing that.

Since JC isn't flexible, it flaked off in the bent areas, adding more interesting texture. It didnt change the look a lot, but enough to give it a different kind of texture. I need to backtrack here though, and say I painted it before I bent the cardboard. And I didn't use paints, I used - get this - beet juice from a can of beets I ate that day. I also dyed some cheesecloth and some yarn in the beet juice. After I painted on the beet juice, I sprinkled on some wallnut ink crystals, misted with water, and then turned the piece in different directions so the brown color would run down the page.

I punched the circles out of entree cardboard and frosted and textured them with the JC also. And sprinkled the ink crystals on them too. On the left side, I used some tea dyed cheesecloth, and on top of that the beet dyed cheesecloth. After I glued down the circles, I looked at it and thought, gee, this kind of looks like a moonscape. So then I wrote the word on some tea dyed muslin and frayed it and glued it on.

I like the look of using two colors of cheesecloth, which was a new idea too. Now, I'm trying to think of other ways to dye cheesecloth. I'm wondering if food coloring would work. I know I could use store bought dyes, but I'm trying to think of other ways to dye it. Any suggestions would be welcome.