I have received my tutor’s assessment for Assignment 1, and I am more encouraged than ever. So far, this learning journey has opened up more ways to hone my creative sides. More importantly, however, I realized that there’s so much more to discover about myself. Like my tutor said on his feedback: “if you are too much in control you are less likely to make discoveries.” And boy, so far the discoveries have been nothing short of extraordinary.
I am still deeply intrigued by how much fun it is to create markings, especially with brushes since they still feel so… novel. That being said, I don’t want to simply do exercises. I wanted to create some functional objects with marked papers, both black ink on white paper and white ink on black paper. So I decided to experiment with some papers, and later turn them into origami treasure boxes. My aunt taught me how to make them several months ago.
To create one origami treasure box, one needs four square papers (two for the base, two for the top). Since my tutor encourages me to try creating markings by using different kinds of paper, I take some white-colored wallpaper samples I stashed over the last year or so.
For the first set of four square-shaped papers, I made some “black hole” markings on them using some netting scrap as an aid, black acrylic ink, and a medium-sized brush. I kept my mind clear when creating the marks, and I didn’t think of any words or qualities. I just let the brush ran its course. The wallpaper sample’s textures naturally got elevated.
I also played around mixing those “black hole” motif with checkered pattern on several sheets of different wallpaper sample. The contrast between the two look rather jarring on paper, but I think they’d look better when folded.
With two sets of four wallpaper sample sheets ready, it’s time to create a couple of treasure boxes. They actually turned out great, pretty good that I have given both of them away as gifts!
FIRST BOX
The black holes with jagged edges looked really interesting contrasted with the fold lines of the box’s corners.
SECOND BOX
The mix of the black holes and checkered pattern looked mesmerizing on the treasure box! They were amazing to look at, so I took more detailed pictures this time.
This is what they looked like side by side. Quite pretty, right? I’m contemplating to create more treasure boxes and gift them to more friends. Perhaps with candies or potpourri inside…the Holidays season is coming, after all.
After creating these treasure boxes, I wanted to do the opposite: making negative marks (with ivory acrylic ink and brushes) on four sheets of black archival papers.
To this day, I haven’t folded these four papers to a treasure box, however I really enjoyed making four different simple marks onto the black papers. They truly reminded me of how stitched shibori fabrics look like!
I will definitely make these four sheets into square shapes, and make a treasure box out of them. However, the real treasure for me was the experience to exercise simple mark making with brushes. They definitely ignite higher appreciation for brush control, and I’m really happy with how the results turned out.
Thank you for reading,
Mira
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