Travel Vietnam: Lanterns

Besides dragons, another item I saw a lot of was lanterns, especially in the town of Hoi An. Located on the central coast of Vietnam, the historic district of Hoi An dates from the 15th century and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It's very scenic and everywhere you look there are lanterns. At night, the lanterns are lit up and it's very beautiful. Most of these photos were taken in Hoi An.

Travel Vietnam: Lions, Tigers and Dragons, oh my!

Dragons play an important part in Vietnamese mythology - carved and painted dragons were everywhere, from dishes to roof tops. Many temples also had guardian lion dogs (fu dogs) and I even saw a tiger (the Indochinese tiger is native to south east Asia).

Incense- Temple of Literature, Hanoi

Dragon Boat - Hue

Roof Detail - Thay Pagoda (outside Hanoi)

Detail - Tomb of Minh Mang, Hue

Detail - Tomb of Tu Duc, Hue

Detail - Thay Pagoda (outside Hanoi)

Mosaic Dragon - Hoi An

City park in the Cholon District, Ho Chi Minh City

Lion Dog - Jade Emperor Pagoda, Ho Chi Minh City

Lion Dog - Jade Emperor Pagoda, Ho Chi Minh City

Tiger - Temple of Literature, Hanoi

Travel Vietnam

I mentioned previously that I had just returned from a trip to Vietnam. I went on a 12 day tour through Gate 1 Travel and had a fabulous time. I'm still going through photos but  will post a few every day this week.
Here are a few to start with. Many of the historic buildings had beautiful tile work in rich colors.

Detail-Tomb of Tu Duc, Hue  This was a rain spout and water flowed out the mouth.

Detail-Tomb of Tu Duc, Hue

Detail-Tomb of Tu Duc, Hue

Detail-Tomb of Tu Duc, Hue

Detail-Emperor Jade Pagoda (Phuac Hai Tu), Ho Chi Minh City

Detail-Emperor Jade Pagoda (Phuac Hai Tu), Ho Chi Minh City. Such a beautiful shade of green!

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 23

I really like doing collage cubes and working on all the sides. This cube is 2.5" square so it's smaller than the 4" ones I've done in the past. I layered acrylic paint, rubber stamps and gold star tissue paper. On top went vintage type, postage stamps, black and gold washi paper and more rubber stamps.

week 23 - sides 1 & 2

week 23 - sides 2 & 3

week 23 - sides 3 & 4

week 23 - sides 4 & 1

Group of Collage Cubes

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 22

Another small collage this week. Last week I created a background from a lot of different type scraps. I used half last week and half today. A hand colored bird  and hand made paper scrap are layered on top.

collage week 22

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 21

I've missed 2 weeks of my 52 weeks of collage but I have a good reason. I've been going through my bucket list for 2017 and checked off #9-Plan A Trip. I've just had a fabulous vacation in Vietnam and will be posting about that later.

Meanwhile, here is my collage for week 21. It's a small 4" x 4.75". The butterfly is hand-colored and it's layered on vintage documents, hand made papers and rubber stamping.

collage week 21

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 18

I love using old documents in my collages and this week I used lots of my scraps - tickets, ledger paper,  a love letter from 1916.

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 17

This week's collage features some of my Japanese scraps -a vintage photo of a geisha, an old apothecary label, some Japanese calligraphy, and floral washi paper.

collage week 17

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 16

This week, I did my collage on an 8" x 8" wood panel. A nice piece of old ledger paper, some tickets, postage stamps, and a rubber stamp were used.

collage week 16

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 15

This week I did another tiny collage on scrap matte board. The board is a beige color and I used scraps  of hand made papers and vintage documents.

collage week 15

Janusz Stanny

I love the illustrations of Polish artist Janusz Stanny (1932-2014). I purchased this book on Ebay - it dates from 1962 and was published in Warsaw. I thought it might be poetry but I've translated a bit it's more of a nature lesson. The images are beautiful in their simplicity. I particularly like the way the fur is done on the wild boar and deer.

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 14

This week I used a bunch of scraps for my collage. I have a box of tiny scraps that are left-overs from larger pieces of paper. These always come in handy for something and I hate to waste them.

my box of scraps

Sometimes I try to do a whole collage using only pieces from the scrap box and this week I came up with a pair. The duo is done on scrap mat board that is a pale gray. I stamped on the boards in gold and brown ink and then layered on bits and pieces in different patterns of pink. Vintage type and music make it not too sweet.

collage duo week 14

52 Weeks of Collage Part 2 Week 13

This week's collage has a gardening theme. I used a vintage gardening book cover, an old seed packet a vintage butterfly, some hand made papers and a tiny bird.

collage week 13