Mozarella & Mangoes at the Pier

Mozarella & Mangoes at the Pier, stitched fused plastic 23 x 23cm

As well as plastic from two kinds of Mozarella & mangoes, this week's fused plastic collage also has found plastic (see yellow and black on right), papery plastic from a salad greens bag and some new toilet paper plastic.  I have to admit to buying a different brand of toilet paper just for the lavender plastic - shopping has never been so complicated! 

As I assembled the pieces and cut them up I was thinking about Peter Lanyon.  My point of view is looking down and out.

I have started a sketchbook project and before I had finished this, I drew from it in my sketchbook which is an altered book…

Mozarella & Mangoes at the Pier (sketchbook)

Carrot Orange Downriver

Carrot Orange Downriver - fused plastic, paint and stitching, 23 x 23cm

On Monday I gathered my plastic from the previous week and began assembling pieces and fusing.  It was the evening and  my finger hurt, my eyes were having trouble focusing and the plastic smelled particularly toxic.  I had lots of ideas and hope, but when the majority of fusing was finished the plastic had shrunk and twisted and although there were lots of exciting places I felt the the result wasn't strong.  So I began cutting it up and as I did I remembered it was Valentines day on Wednesday, so I found some pink and took off on a different path and had something a little corny but pretty to give the following morning - I don't let failure get me down. 

This is my second attempt at this week's plastic.  The centrepiece was a bag of mini cheddars I found while walking. I had lots of green organic carrot bags, some potatoes and Patrick's Private Eye wrapper. Also, Pamela returned some books in a bag I asked if I could have that came from Cornelissen art shop.  Turning the plastic so you have the right side and the wrong side results in different tones.

Before I began cutting, assembling and fusing I looked at Barbara Rae's Sketchbooks. I got the feeling of England's waterways in my veins and thought about a trip I'd taken to Flatford and the Stour River to draw with Ruth Philo. When I had my fused piece I kept thinking about Rousseau and then I started to paint the framed area.

Beetroot and Ties

Beetroot and Ties, fused plastic collage with stitching, 16x16cm

A few weeks ago my friend, the poet and educationalist Jeni Smith, gave me a couple of bags she had collected: beetroot, parsnip and vegetable crisps. They are deep colours and the plastic fuses well. Patrick had also been eating crisps: and his bag was fuchsia with black (ridged popchips - smoky bacon flavoured). That bag was silver lined so tricker to use. I may have had one or two of Patrick's crisps, but this fused plastic collage is a mixture of my dining and that of others. The wonderful turquoise comes from the bag that held the handle tie freezer bags. Other plastic comes from  potatoes, carrots, toilet paper and  there was a red bag I had that I needed to use in order to create the intensity beetroots need. As I worked I wanted to evoke a sense of the movement of unearthing root vegetables - red sky at night.

Potato Famine and Found Plastic

Potato Famine and Found Plastic
fused plastic collage with stitching, 21.5 x 22.5 cm

What I noticed as the week wore on was that the plastic I was generating wasn't the most suitable for my collages. In fact, only potatoes,  carrots and ice came in bags that melt without shrinking and stinking enormously. While walking, I found a range of gold and yellow pieces of plastic, though, a bag of quavers (with aluminium inner which is tricky, but I can make work), a balloon,  and some tobacco pouches that needed lots of cleaning to use. As I moved the pieces around on the ironing board to find a 'landscape', I knew I needed a canary yellow to pull it all together.