No Mac needed

It’s all Lysa’s fault, really. There was a time when I thought tissue paper was just … well … tissue paper. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve always appreciated tissue paper for its many uses but I didn’t consider it had any lasting value. After all, too many times I’ve seen people rip open gifts wrapped in tissue paper, when they would have tried to conserve more expensive papers for future use.

Then one day I received one of Lysa’s marvellous packages of soaps … if you haven’t experienced Lysa’s soaps you haven’t lived – they’re worth it just for the packaging alone (the postman thinks I must be very special). http://www.dragonflyblue.com/

But I’ve strayed from the topic, haven’t I. You see, Lysa had stuffed tissue paper of every imaginable colour into the package. The colours (some of them quite sophisticated) looked so wonderful together that I just couldn’t throw them out, so I put them into a carry bag and hid it under my studio table, along with all the other things that might come in handy some day. Whenever I got more tissue paper, I just stuffed it in on top of the rest. Occasionally, when I couldn’t find any ‘better’ wrapping paper, and needed some immediately, I’d drag out the bag, find a not-too-bedraggled piece, iron it, paint some gold swirly things on it, tie it with something unexpected, and accept the kudos for my marvellous wrapping skills.

And then I discovered wabi-sabi (sorry, it would be too diverting to explain wabi-sabi here) and after that I didn’t need to iron of cut the tissue paper. Just tear it into random shapes and combine different colours, add other things and paint if you wish and – hey presto – a package people don’t want to spoil by opening.

Tissue paper, I found, had become my PREFERRED wrapping paper, and I had come to think of it as an ‘art material’.

All of which leads me to my current obsession … wrapping little squares of cardboard in tissue paper.

It’s not quite as simple as that, of course. What you do (or what I do, I should say) is: paint some PVA glue on the cardboard square, put a square of tissue paper on top, manipulate it into wrinkly ridges with your finger, glue the tissue neatly (more or less) in place at the back, swish some gold paint across the ridges, then admire your work.

I know, it doesn’t sound all that impressive, but – trust me – these little tiles have many uses (which I’m in the process of exploring).

At first I didn’t realise their full potential. I thought I’d just use them for decorations on book covers and the like.

I began making numbers of them to stockpile for future use. However, my ‘artist mind’ was working away in the background, and, as an experiment, I put a number of them together just to see what it looked like.

I smiled and began to imagine a large mosaic thingy using hundreds of the tiles, with beads and other bits attached in appropriate places.

So now I’m engaged in making hundreds of the tiles. I wouldn’t have thought I’d have the patience (and it’s early days yet). It’s surprisingly soothing, actually and doesn’t engage my conscious mind much so I can listen to music, or talk-back radio shows, or anything really.

Why … if I put on some language tapes I bet I could learn the entire Italian language just while making this one piece.

Ciao.