Social butterflies: Emma and Marjorie Were Honing Their Networking Skills

© Social Butterflies: Emma and Morjorie Were Honing Their Networking Skills (2012)

mixed-media collage: vintage illustrations (The Delineator, Butterick, May 1923; 

The Butterfly Book, Doubleday Page & Co., 1902; Butterflies and Moths,

Viking Press, 1965); handmade paper; recycled origami paper;

 antique Lotto box (McLoughlin Bros., Trunk Lotto No. 2); watercolor, ink, acrylic sealer;

metal tape; recycled glass

Price: $150 (contact Bromwell's Gallery).

Here's a peek at one of the Social Butterflies boxes in progress. Actually, it's done, but I didn't think to shoot it before putting the glass on top and, well, too much glare to do it now. Memo to self: next time, take the picture before adding the glass. I added a few more flowers and a tiny cricket but that's about it. 

The girls are from the May 1923 issue of The Delineator. As in the other pieces in the series, which also feature illustrations from the same issue, my back story for them has them being more than clothes horses or frivolous party goers. I see them as BF - before Facebook - social networkers, who are honing their skills now that women have the right to vote. That's the story - and I'm sticking to it! 

The ornate paper on the box sides - below - is original. The box housed the pieces for Lotto, a Bingo-type game. I was tempted to add the lid so viewers would have to open it to see what's inside, but decided to try that another time. The lid is wonderful on it's own and, so, I'd like to use it for another piece. The back features a color plate of caterpillars, which - like Emma and Marjorie - will some day morph into an entirely new - and equally fascinating - creatures.  

Eugenie's friends felt it was time for an intervention

I swear that I'm off butterflies after this piece. Honest. This is a work in progress but I'm so excited about how it's developing, that I had to post it. It's my first real effort of creating a piece in a box, which I've wanted to do since starting collage making. Yes, I know that the other butterflies were in shallow shadowboxes but they were essentially flat collages placed in pre-covered cloth boxes.

Foam-core board pushes Eugenie out from the back of the box - a bit hard to see in the scan - and watercolor paper reinforces the butterflies, which float and bend behind and in front of her.

A piece of plexiglass will cover the box and I may add more butterflies; most likely right up against the inside of the glass. Yet to be decided: how to attach the glass. Initially, the plan was to drill small holes and screw it on. Now, though, I'm thinking vintage upholstery tacks or something edgier.

Despite the numerous classes I've taken on box making - which included plenty of great tips on how to paper them - I never seem to get the corners mitered correctly. But here that didn't matter, because I'm layering the paper on the box, starting with tissue thin pages on the outside from "The Butterfly Book." Inside, are more pages from "The Butterfly Book," as well as The Chatterbox and a vintage songbook.

As you can see on the back, below, I've been inking the edges and paper. To do that, I used three colors of ColorBox's Fluid Chalk ink. I have scads of the pads but this is the first time I've used them. Love the soft, transparent effect. Well, more when it's finished.

Butterflies: 3

Isn't that calligraphic background spectacular? It's an original plate of a hand-drawn pen illustration from "Gaskell's Penman's Handbook" (1883) and there is a tiny butterfly in it toward the top right edge of the plate. Sections of other plates from "Golden Gems of Penmanship" (1884) make up the body and top layer of the large butterfly, and the handwork theme is carried over into the middle layer via the antique, hand-marbled endpapers. 

I liked the idea of combining the calligraphy with the printed lists, one of which is an almost tissue-thin page from the Holland "Butterfly Book" I've been mining.  The pages helped protect the color plates in the book, as well as identifying the butterflies. I used another one on April, where it became semi-transparent. 10.5" x 7.75" on archival mat board with ink, watercolor and specimen pins. In a cloth-covered, 11" x 8.5" shadowbox that is ready to hang. $65 + $8 shipping & handling 

Butterflies: 2

Here's the second collage in the butterfly series. I popped it onto the scanner rather than shooting a photo, because when I have it in the shadowbox, it's difficult to shoot. So, keep in mind that about an inch of the edges is covered by the shadow box.

As mentioned before, these started out as simple, decorative collages but as they grew, I decided to add elements about collecting. A Victorian obsession if ever there was one. That's where the text on the left comes in, and because it references caterpillars, I located some to place beside it. Both are from the "Butterfly Book" by W.J. Holland (Doubleday, Page & Co., 1902) that I've been pilfering for all it's worth - as are a few of the butterflies.

Of note is the flower background. I found two vintage Dover books of iron-ons and bought them with the intention of seeing whether the images could be ironed on to paper as a different kind of image transfer. I tried it and it works, but what also interested me was that the images had begun transferring onto each other over the years. You can see faint outlines of the image that was after this one in the background. So, I opted to use the entire page as is.  10.5" x 7.75" on archival mat board with ink, watercolor and specimen pins. Mounted in a cloth-covered, 8.5" x 11" shadowbox and ready to hang. $65 + $8 shipping & handling

Butterflies: 1

So, this is what happened with the square-shaped butterfly collage mentioned in the last post. Now titled "Butterflies: 1." Yeah, not too creative. Most likely, I'll rename it, as often happens and is one reason I stopped writing titles on the mats!

In any case, not much changed on the piece. I moved the red butterfly, which was cut from a recycled greeting card, to the bottom. The orientation of the main butterfly was altered, and antennae and a body were added. A small gold butterfly was tucked under the quote and, hmm, there seem to be more changes than I thought.

I wanted to soften the quote but didn't want to use paint. I turned to my tissue paper bins - yes, I save all the tissue paper from gifts I receive - where I found a pale blue piece. Once it was down - but not glued on yet - I realized it would draw attention away from the butterflies. Then, I found a white-on-white, flower-patterned piece. The pattern is lost against the white background of the quote but it provides some cover over the text, which is what I was looking for. 7.5" x 7.5" on archival mat board with ink, watercolor and acrylic paint. Matted to fit a standard 12" x 12" frame. $60 + $8 shipping & handling

Butterflies ...

I can't explain it but butterflies are popping up in many recent collages. So, I decided it was time to create a few pieces that focused on butterflies. Initially, I was inspired by a simple, crafty greeting card with a triple-layered butterfly that I spotted in a catalog retrieved by a friend from a recycling bin. "I can do that," I told myself, thinking I was getting into a relatively easy series. Wrong. As you will see in the photos that follow, "easy" isn't in my vocabulary. Ignore the mats, I use them as cropping devices.

The original easy idea (above). Stacked butterfly. Background. Piece o' cake.

Larger version. I've been itching to use the 12" x 12" mats bought last month. The background is from a vintage book on drawing animals, the quote is from a photographic essay about butterflies and the red butterfly was clipped from a recycled greeting card in the stash. Oh, the main butterfly; it was cut from a combo of a greeting card, a catalog and vintage wallpaper.

  
While on my butterfly binge, I cut four large butterflies from a variety of sources. This one is typographic and placed on a calligraphic background from a 19th century book on penmanship. It's in a shadow box and that was the final evolution of three of the pieces. I've almost wrapped them up and you'll be seeing the finished collages within the next few days.  

Summer 2

It's obvious looking at this that it was created while I was working on Summer 1. They have the same color scheme and share other elements: the pen nibs (gel transfers), yellow flowers (both Victorian trade cards) and light color washes. I enjoyed working on both; for once, I left enough time to move pieces around, and add and subtract elements. Here, the latter included roughing the edges with ink for a worn appearance.

This is on the boxy stretched canvases I'm experimenting with. The papers wrap around the edges to cover them, then, onto the back. They're sealed with an acrylic sealer and a UV protection spray, and can hang without a frame.

It's one of the collages created for this weekend's Botanica exhibit at The Green Corner in Kennedy Heights. If you have a chance, stop by. Hours: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. today, noon-4 p.m. Sunday. 6524 Montgomery Road, one block south of Kennedy Heights Arts Center.