January Fodder School : Part 1

Our January lessons for Fodder School are with Liz Constable of Book Art Studios. As always, the lessons released at the beginning of the month are to make the fodder, and the second (released mid-month on the 15th) are to use the fodder. Liz's focus is on using materials easily found and inexpensive and using your creativity to add the 'special sauce'. I took this advice and didn't buy anything new for this project - it's fitting in well with my quest to be more Sustainable this year. I hope you enjoy the photos. I just adore all the papers and fabrics and want to capture them here for later delight. Click on any photo to see the texture up close.

I don't think I'm giving anything away about this technique by letting you know the colour bases for the different effects. First coffee 

These are (expired) food colouring

I had to have another session trying some more delicate colours with Tsukineko inks I had been gifted a couple of years ago.

And then a third session from a bonus lesson with Ricki Midbrod...cos fabric! I used the same inks above combined with the coffee to grunge them up. 

And then we had another bonus lesson with Tiffany Sharpe where she shared more tips I had to try : different fabric play where you get dyed paper and fabric from one process

and I loved the delicate colour of the hibiscus tea. My teabags are a mix of hibiscus and blueberry - so many variations depending on the paper used 

...and then since I had everything out I had one final play before I decided I had more than enough for when the project lesson is delivered mid-month! 

It's great to have so many options with colours that co-ordinate and also have different values of light to dark. So lucky I've been on holiday and could get so deep into these techniques. 

Taking a photo of the tags reminded me of the tag project Liz shared in the Free Fodder challenge in July last year which I didn't have time for. I also modified the lesson from Karen Elaine to make a pocket fodder book that could work with larger tags. All those July lessons are also available if you join Fodder School 2.

Back views

And here's a video of the entire book - I love the sounds of the paper and tags

You may have seen that the title of this post is Part 1. I will share again when I use the piles of goodness to create the project - less than a week until those lessons drop. I'm sure you'll also see these elements appearing in my other work. You can still join us in Fodder School and/or Liz has a class and a book (available Feb 2023 - currently you can pre-order) where you can explore some of these techniques (although lessons in Fodder school had a unique spin I believe). What a fabulous way to start the year with so much inspiring colour and texture.