Monday, October 11, 2010

A can of beans


Liz Graham demonstrated iris folding during the second demo at Open Studios last Saturday. This is an interesting technique that I've seen in cards and pictures, but had no idea how it was done. I assumed it was some kind of fan folding but I could not figure out how the spiraling technique was achieved.

Well, Liz cleared that up for us. Basically, strips of paper are folded in half and taped behind an opening cut into a piece of paper. A spiraling pattern which is representative of the iris of an eye or a camera is drawn first, as a template for determining where to place the folded paper. (Check it out on the web.)

Thin paper works best and Liz is very conscientious about the environment. She often uses wrapping paper in her designs, but does find usable papers in unusual places...... like a can of baked beans. It had a bright shiny gold strip and the colors of the label were just right for the fall leaf she was demonstrating. (Yes, that looks like the shape of a tooth on the table in front of her...... she did one for a dentist. We saw her work on the leaf, but this was such a good picture of Liz and the can of beans.)

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