Soon after finishing my previous Erosion Bundle I started a new one! You can see the results of my previous one here: Art & Beauty In Decay.
An erosion bundle is simply a pile of paper and/or fabric layered up with stuff that will leave stains, marks, colour and texture etc. I use tea bags, coffee, paint, rusty stuff, household chemicals – literally anything that has the vaguest hope of leaving marks, stains, patterns or some colour! I use lots of different paper types and sizes and different fabrics, Sometimes I finish with a fabric wrapping , sometimes I don’t! Then I tie it up with string and out it goes into the garden to be left to the mercy of the elements for a long as I dare! Usually anything from 6 to 12 weeks, to let nature do it’s thing…
This erosion bundle I left outside for about 8 weeks. I had planned to leave it longer, but due to the sub-zero icy weather alternating with warm rainy weather, the bundle eroded much quicker than I thought it might. The above two pics are both sides of the same piece of paper – just look at that wonderful rusty, crusty stain on the paper…
I scanned some scrapbook paper and printed it off – into my erosion bundle it went! More lovely rust stains. But do you see that darkish grey-blue stain in the bottom right corner above? The stain left by a blueberry!! Next is the other side of the paper…
… delicious colours and textures…
Scrapbook paper with rust stains, blueberry stains and paint. But look how beautifully aged and crinkled the paper looks – this paper was white copy paper when it started out! Next is a detailed section of the above pic…
Next the reverse side of the above paper…
The two dark marks in the above pic on the left are blueberry remains! Here’s a more detailed look…
Another detailed view of the same piece of paper…
Beautiful blueberry stains and rust…
Lovely turquoise paint stains. Do you see the white mark on the right of the above pic? It’s the remains of an effervescent vitamin C tablet! Nothing is sacred when it comes to an erosion bundle… Next is the reverse side of the paper…
In the top right corner is another one of those tell tale blueberry stains. But do you notice some tiny bits in the rusty stain in the bottom right corner? When I looked at them closely I realized they were raspberry seeds! The raspberries didn’t leave any colour in my erosion bundle but they did leave their seeds behind for some added texture! Next a close up view of the blueberry stain:
Well, this is going to conclude Part 1 of my Winter Erosion Bundle results. There will be a Part 2 and a Part 3 in due course! This was a very big erosion bundle and the results were very mixed and varied.
Click on any of the images to view them larger…
These papers will get stored very carefully till I decide on the right project to use them on. As a girl in love with colour and texture, I find these erosion bundle results very exciting! A blog friend called this “garden art” – I like that! Nature is very good at creating it’s own art!
What I love most of all about these papers and all the other papers from erosion bundles is that they are all totally UNIQUE, ORIGINAL and ONE OF A KIND! There will never be another one exactly the same ever… !
This is so cool. Do you need to dry this Paper when you bring it in? Iron it? Do you use scraps for collages? So intriguing.
Thank you Jodi! The papers are damp when I bring them in and I have to separate them very carefully. I just lay them out flat on a large work top in my kitchen to dry. I use these papers in mixed media art work and collages. When photographed I can also use them as textures and overlays in my photography work too! I don’t iron them, but I guess you could if there was a particular need to…
Awesome. Thanks for letting me know. 😊👍
These are marvelous, Evelyn! I am loving those ‘blueberry remains’. Such rich colors.
Thank you Carol! I’ve never put blueberries into an erosion bundle before, so I wasn’t sure what results I would get. But they turned out really good!
These are all so interesting, Evelyn, and very beautiful too, I think. I really love how using the blueberry made it look. These are truly so unique, and truly works of art.
Thank you Lisa – it’s such an easy and fun thing to do and you never know how it’s going to turn out… !
Yay, I’ve found it! Thanks for the tips. Great idea to use some printouts of vintage papers. I just LOVE all these photos!