Here are the final ten panels in my 100 Day project. This was an incredibly challenging, yet rewarding project to embark on. It simultaneously invigorated and exhausted me creatively. But I will have these little experiments in my toolbox as I move forward with my work and that is invaluable to me. Thanks for coming along on this journey with me!
Panel No. 91 // Cut it, Crease it, Paste it, Sew it
I found inspiration from paper and embroidery artist Liz Sofield for this panel, which is covered in a lilac handmade paper from Katie MacGregor with circles cut from lavender handmade paper. The circles are folded along the edges to create a square in the center. Five holes are punched along the diagonal inside the square and purple cotton floss is laced through in an overlapping twist pattern.
Photographed against a letterpress dice print from Striped Light Press.
Panel No. 92 // Googly E
For Panel No. 56, I created a googly-eyed portrait of my husband so I thought I’d do the same for myself. The contour embroidery is done with dark orchid cotton floss over a piece of marbled paper. The entire piece sits on sunburst yellow cowhide leather.
Photographed against my orange couch.
Panel No. 93 // Circuit
After taking an online workshop with Sol Rebora through the San Francisco Center for the Book on her Paper Onlay technique, I was quite inspired to make a panel with this new decorating technique. The panel is covered with four layers of paper which include pink and light blue St. Armand paper, hedgehog purple paper from Hook Pottery Paper and muted mauve handmade paper from Katie MacGregor. The shapes are mostly cut by hand with my Olfa knife, but some areas are punched out with a Japanese screw punch.
Photographed on a page from the Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft, an artist book created by Amy Borezo.
Panel No. 94 // Tokyo Platform
I love photographing the surfaces below my feet, particularly tiled floors, manhole coverings and subway platforms. This is a paper collage of a subway platform in Tokyo using a range papers including: green/gray abaca paper, teal Cave Paper, black Hahnemuhle Ingres, pebble grey Lokta paper, white Arches, yellow Moriki and fire red Canson. Keeping small scraps around allowed me to use such a range of papers on this panel. So it worth it to save those cut-offs.
Photographed on a sheet of pastel Chiyogami paper.
Panel No. 95 // Italian Ice
This panel is covered in a piece of raspberry goatskin that have been sprayed with Krylon Looking Glass that is typically used on a smooth surface like glass or acrylic to create a mirror-like finish. However, on the leather it offered a textured and uneven metallic finish. Pieces of speckled light blue Zerkall paper were ripped to create a feathery, scarf tear and adhered to the sprayed surface of the leather.
Photographed on a page from Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by Pénélope Bagieu
Panel No. 96 // Positive Vibes
This is another panel inspired by the technique I first implemented on Panel No. 57. The pattern was laid out first inside of an irregular grid and then punched into the paper. For this panel, I choose to use a repeating “+” for the pattern. Stitching with pale pumpkin cotton floss through granite Cave Paper.
Photographed on an animation still of a flying tricycle designed by Jason Fletcher.
Panel No. 97 // No Direction
Using the same punching template as the panel above, I created a different pattern with the same sets of holes. This time the panel is covered with tomato red St. Armand paper with arrows stitched in light blue green cotton floss.
Photographed on a tangram map of the United States.
Panel No. 98 // OMG, No Way
I had so much fun creating Panel No. 93, that I wanted to play around with looser and more organic shapes. Plus I wanted to incorporate embroidery into the panel because that’s what I do. This panel is also covered with 4 different papers that include: handmade paper from Katie MacGregor in ochre yellow and mauve with blue and tomato red St. Armand colored paper. Again I used only my Olfa knife and a Japanese screw punch to create the cut-outs. A loopy line is stitched with silver grey cotton floss.
Photographed on a page from Ant Colony by Michael DeForge.
Panel No. 99 // Weirdo Shrine No. 2
This panel is playing on the same concept as Panel No. 37. The difference here is the inclusion of leather as the base rather than paper. The panel was covered with strawberry cowhide and paper onlays and then the holes for the embroidery were punched from the backside which creates these “volcanoes” of material to emerge on the surface. This burst of material was then pared off with a scalpel. Depending on the pressure or movements from the scalpel larger areas of the base materials were also removed. Finally, the holes were embroidered in a whipped back stitch with gunmetal metallic thread.
Photographed on my living room rug.
Panel No. 100 // Farewell
For the final panel in the series, I was really struggling to come up with a new idea or technique. But I finally rested on something that I hadn’t experimented with yet. For this panel, I punched through the board prior to covering and embroidered the word “farewell”. Then I covered the panel with a piece of natural handmade paper from Katie MacGregor and pressed it with a piece of foam to pick up the shape of the lettering. It was mildly successful, but sets up plenty of experimenting for the future.
Photographed on my collection of red and pink coloring utensils.
