Sunday 9 August 2020

2020 #14 Topic Introduction: Fused

  2020 Topic 14: Fused


Hello everyone! It's new topic day. For a while, the culinary world has been intrigued with fusion cuisine and here, we're going to look at fusion art, or at least, art inspired by some type of fusion. As usual, we'll wander down a myriad of avenues, stopping to pause at artistic examples along the way. 
Fused. What sort of techniques does it bring to mind? Fusing disparate things? Joining substances together. Permanently bringing things together. Whatever your definition, we have plenty to show you and the PaperArtsy blogger's and designer's 'cupboard' has more than a few ideas to kick us off.

One of the first people I thought of when musing about this topic was Seth Apter. He is known for his multi-layered art and using texture and paint to create wonderful pieces. Having his own range of embossing powder (which is not your usual embossing powder) results in some amazing art. This piece is a great example and fits in beautifully with our fused theme- note the fused powder on the circles and the fusing of colour, paper, ink and paint together.
 

Dounia is known on the PaperArtsy blog for her love of experimenting. This post covered using PaperArtsy Rusting Powder and she tried a myriad of ways. I think my favourite was using Rusting Powder in a lemon juice solution sprayed on leaves and put through a die cutting machine. You have to read the blog to see what else she did.


Taking the idea of fusing literally, I thought that combining a powdered texture and glue is a form of fusing? Anneke de Clerck did just that in this gorgeous piece.


When searching around for examples, you often find hidden gems using PaperArtsy products. This artist used PaperArtsy paints and embossing powder to create this wonderfully grungy and textural piece.


If you pop in 'fused art ' to most search engines, you'll be presented with a whole host of beautifully glass art. This is probably the most 'fused' of all. Glass art covers decorative items through to stained glass, and this set of windows in Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral is magnificent. Thankfully they were spared during the awful fire last year, but it'll be a while before the cathedral is restored to its former glory.


Let's try a different tack- how about fusing things together that aren't natural partners? This artist, Alfred Basha has a talent for fusing his pen-drawn subjects together.


Solder is a fusible metal alloy used for making permanent bonds. You might not think of it in an artistic context, but there are plenty of artists using it to make quirky pieces. I thought this next piece blended fun and function.


You could argue that sewn items are fusing fabric together- but it's more joining than fusing. This piece however cleverly 'fuses' separate elements together with thread and just about squeezes into the definition!


One fabric based discipline certainly doesn't need 'shoe-horning' into this topic is felting. Using wool roving, water and often soap or detergent can create mesmerising fabric. Renatos Veltinis is a textile artist who draws with wool. Her detailing is exceptional.


Many of us will have messed around with melting plastic (or is that just me!). This next artist has fused plastic bags together and stamped on them. She's sewn the finished plastic together to create a bag.


A little while back, using metal tape and fusing elements (sometimes with embossing powder) using slides or glass pieces was really on-trend. This is taking it a whole step further to make a piece of wearable art.


I thought that this next piece was clever; fusing two things that don't normally go together. I wonder if the artist removed anything that wasn't worth reading?!


For a further blast from the past, anyone remember the fad for Angelina fibres? Hot fix type fibres that fuse together and you stamp or emboss the new 'fabric'. My attempts certainly never looked anything like this!

How about some examples a little more akin to papercrafting? You can fuse pages by wetting, moulding, sewing or introducing interfacing that fuses two substrates together. I wonder which of these this artist has used?


This next piece isn't papercrafting at all, but I was hunting for cool ways to use fuses in papercrafting. Guess what? I couldn't really find any. These vintage fuses turned into handles were the best I could find. The internet needs fuse based art projects, so the gauntlet is well and truly thrown down for you all!


Fusing paper is actually a thing and dates back to the ancient Korean art of Joomchi. One of its best known modernisers is Jiyoung Chung and she produces stunning pieces of artwork.


It wasn't easy to find a myriad of examples of fusing to show and inspire you all. I just know that the PaperArtsy bloggers will have some ingenious ideas so I can't wait to see how they interpret the topic too.
If you want to create along with us, please share on our social feeds so we can see what you get up to. The best places are Instagram @paperartsy or post in PaperArtsy People Group on Facebook. Make sure you tag us in your contributions, we love to see what you get up to in your creative world!

3 comments:

Miriam said...

Oooh great inspiration there. That's an interesting topic. When I saw the topic name I never thought of half these interpretations. Can't wait to see what people come up with!

Jo said...

Absolutely loved this topic! Fabulous inspiration.

Deborah Wainwright said...

Being a fusion person in lots of my art endeavours, I was intrigued to come and gave a look, and as usual I wasn’t disappointed. Great inspiration and a challenge I hope to enter. Hugs Debs