Someone once said, "better late than never", and I really hope that's true. Michelle at Faerie Dust Dreams http://faeriedustdreams-michelle.blogspot.com (blogger or Mac still won't let me link! sorry)celebrated her 100th post with a technique party. I am waaaaaay past the deadline but I am determined to play. This is probably not really a technique, but it is something that I love doing and I like what it does to my art. It is also an excellent way to use up scraps.

Raggedy Frames

You will need construction paper in your favorite colors, or some nice long scraps of any paper you like. I am committed to construction paper, for the most part, because I am very tactile and I get all calm and zen like when I handle it.

Start tearing long, thin strips of the paper. Take it slow. The more irregular, the better. If a piece comes out too straight or too wide, I start teasing out little chunks.

Glue these strips along the very edge of your piece. Of course these "frames" can be as wide or thin as you choose, but I like them pretty thin. Sometimes I will run a damp finger over the edge and use my thumb nail to fray it. If you burnish these thin, irregular edges they begin to merge into the piece. You can make a single layer or you can build up layers of the same color paper or mix patterns and colors. If you look at the piece I posted on Sept 9th you will see layers of 2 shades of pink. It almost looks and feels like papier mache.

Here is a journal, front and back, that I used this on


And here is one of my favorite paintings with this addition. As you probably know, Southern Calif. was burning last week. We had a fire right here on our property last Sunday that really rattled me. We lost most of our outbuildings in the 2004 fire, fortunately not our house, and this fire season is a bit too much for me. At any rate, Sunday's fire was put out just before it reached the house. The fire department kept it to an acre. To calm myself when we were finally allowed back on Monday, I started tearing and embellishing this piece that I did months ago. I am glad I made the addition.


I love raw, irregular edges. Here is another example of this in my work. The photo is of The Lone Cypress in Big Sur.



OK, it has taken me days and days to get this ready to post. The pictures are smaller than I would like, but I'm still having to coax blogger to upload. Here's to life and art, always unpredictable, always beautiful.