Fabric and Paper Journals

               Apropos of absolutely nothing related to this post! Just a lovely healthy bowlful.

Phew! Well, I'm all musicked out, and I expect you are too, after ploughing through all the Burwell photos  - about a quarter of the ones I took. Never mind, here we are, back in the land of cloth, paper and ...er......yes, the odd pair of scissors. Now obviously you know I haven't been stitching away diligently the last week or so, and very little journaling has been done either. So in order to get this blog back on its tracks, I photgraphed some fabric journals I made....ooooh, at least 6 years ago, and a couple of paper books. Unfortunatley the sun went in just as I assembled everything outside, but I think the shots are reasonable.

The first is a card book designed in a Gothic arch shape, called 'Crowns and Wings'.

I recycled the backs from used note-pads as the bases, and covered them with 'altered' wrapping paper and my own hand designed papers.

I used rubber stamps, collage and marker embellishment. I coated each page with some kind of varnish, maybe Mod Podge, I really can't remember!

Both background papers are mine, I merged inks on a piece of butcher's wrap and when dry I stamped text all over it. They remain my favourites still.

 Background right side is wrapping paper, left side, one of mine. I bet several of you have a roll of that paper somewhere, it's really lovely; I've never used it for wrapping!

Finished off with some yarn and beads Lots of gold outlining!

These next pages are from a slim volume that I'm still working on. I took it to Burwell with me-- hah! as if I'd have any time to work on it! However I did want to take it to show Martina, whistle and flute player from Vienna, who now blames me for the fact she HAD to go out and buy a small collection of Copic markers as she is now addicted to journaling! We swapped ideas and checked out each others pages, Martina you have to put yours on facebook! Anyway, here are just four double pages, some of which I haven't finished. I intend to coptic bind them as four signatures. Eventually.

The backgrounds are mostly inked, one or two may be watercolour pencilled, before stamping, collaging, then finally adding text and doodling.

  This spread is waiting to be 'journaled' upon. You can see clearly the background was crayonned.

                                        This one needs some more work as well.

             Waiting for some words of wisdom - not sure how successful the background is.

                      This one needs tidying up, and more emphasis on the right-hand page.

This tiny book is called Rare Egyptian, and depicts Cleopatra.

                                                 It's about 3" tall. Lots of gold ink.

This one is merely a '7 Gypsies' slim book which I covered with stamped papers and a little collage.

This next little fabric book I made using my own hand-dyed fabrics, and image transfer techniques.

I stamped images onto paper then scanned and printed them onto treated fabric so the images wouldn't wash off. Each page is sandwiched with wadding, and hand stitched to make this little accordian House Book.

This little hand-stitched book is my favourite. It's so simple yet somehow perfect to me. Inspired by the hymn 'Glad that I live am I', I used my hand-dyed fabrics and used the same omage transfer technique to get the text onto the fabric. Finished off with oversewn edges and a few beads - I love it!

I did some sun dyeing here, treated the fabric, then laid leaves on it and left it out in the sunshine - lo and behold, you get a kind of 'sun-resist'! Brill! Right hand page I used coloured foils in the bottom corner to suggest the rainbow.

I have three other fabric books to show you, but I think I'll leave them for the next post as this is getting rather long! Hope you've enjoyed these, anyway.

Now before I go I must say something about comments. Comments, as one of my bloggy friends has said, are the best thing! It's great to have some feedback on your words and pictures; I do try to leave a comment regularly on a number of my favourite blogs. If you leave one, check back because I always reply. (I know bloggers with huge numbers of comments would find this impossible! Not a problem for me!)
I have done everything to make it esasy for you to comment, but if you sign in as 'anonymous' can you mention your name somewhere in the comment? The I can reply properly.  One thing I have done to facilitate things is to disable the 'Robot check' thingy because I know how frustrating it is. I could scream sometimes when I have left a comment and then find the botcheck thing is indecipherable. I KNOW you can click 'refresh' and get a new attempt, but today I clicked FOUR TIMES simply because I really needed to leave this particular comment. Ordinarily I would give it two goes then give up. WHY do they make them so impossible to see? PLEASE, bloggy friends, see if you can disable yours, give it a try, you won't get inundated with spam, it certainly hasn't had any effect on my blog.  Who on earth designs these things? Total rubbish. get a proper job!

Anyway, (yet another) rant over! The rain is pouring down but I have some gorgeous homemade veggie soup in the oven then later I am off to my melodeon lesson YAY! (as they say!) and after that....I'm taking myself to a new-to-me Folk Session in Dereham, which is on my way home. I'll give you the low-down next time! Enjoy what's left of the holidays.xx

Art Journals, Castles and Scalded Fingers!

Sniff. Sniff. Sneeze. Watering eyes. Sniff sniff. A...a...a....tchooooooooooooo! Sniff. Sniff. And a happy summer to you!

                                      The windswept Pollen Fields of West Norfolk!

Oh dear me, yes. A month and a half late, the hay fever season has hit me like a brick in the face. Not helping that I have to walk down and up the garden path each night and morning from my 'home from home' sleeping arrangements! Still, now I have found a gigantic pair of wrap-around sunglasses things have improved. Goodness knows what a passing stranger would make of us, sidling guiltily from our back driveway over the road to the pub, me in my sunglasses at 1030 pm, clutching my Cath Kidson overnight bag. I'm probably being put down as Jim's secret 'other woman'...except that most of our neighbours are 'in the know'!

Sunday saw me cooking a roast for 9 of us - would have been 10 but Beccie is obligingly in America so we had enough chairs to go round without resorting to garden furniture! Whilst I pottered in the kitchen, Jim Kit and Krissie took Fraser and Dylan to Castle Rising to see.....the Norman Motte and Bailey castle there. Dylan is currently studying mediaeval history at school and so was thrilled to hear we have a genuine important twelfth-century building near us. Its most famous period was when it was the home of Queen Isabella, mother of Edward 11. In 1544 it passed into the hands of the Howard family, who own it still.

                         

                       Obligatory stop-off at the Tea Rooms - hmm, lovin' that applique, Fraser...

                                                             Arise, Sir Dylan!

Meanwhile back at the ranch all was ready for family and guests. Jim laying the table, Krissie sorting the serving dishes, and I was....checking the steaming veggies....yes, you guessed it! Steam scald right across the fingers of my left (fortunately) hand. Arrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhh! The excruciating pain for about 30 seconds. Then just normal really really really bad pain, folks I kid you not! Quick as a flash my hand was under the running cold tap (drought? What drought?) and clingfilm was being sought. Between us, an ex-Girl Guide/ Nurse and a Paediatric A&E Nurse, we sorted me out and I directed operations from the sink whilst Jim and Krissie saw to lunch - Kit doing the child-care and entertaining. I tell you, never a dull moment. Anyway, lunch was great, with top marks to Krissie's famous baked Chocolate Cheese Cake. (well, actually it is Nigella's but we won't tell)

So the Kiwi's are off for a day or so visiting other relatives and we are chillin'.

                                              jim was chillin' at the water's edge.............

                                                  There, you see.....proof!

And while Jim was out doing manly, outdoorsy things, I have been in my sewing room doing some of Krissie's quilt, and also looking back at my old art journals. I got into journalling briefly during the two years I wasn't stitching. Then I stopped. Quite abruptly. Now, though, I have a yearning to be messing about with marker pens, and inks, and carving stamps, and ..........but this time I want to incorporate my paper art into textile work. I just have to get my head round  what I want to be doing. I enjoy collage, whether paper or textile, and I enjoy using text with cloth, so I think I will be having a bit of an experiment. Here are a few glimpses at the sort of thing I was doing.

                                    My early attempts are clearly very derivative.....

                                       ....the wings, the crown, the stripey legs..........

                                           .....oops, another crown, more stripey legs!

             zzzzzzz...zzzzz......more crowns.........birds, the EYE........

           But these are all mine. Sorry about the flash. Collaged cutouts glued to painted background.

                                                rather duller than in real life

                              The bottom is missing from this page  - wouldn't fit on.

So, just a few pages from the journals, now I'm really itching to get going, but have to remember I have a few other things I need to be doing ! OH! and speaking of which, I had a nice opportunity come my way the other day.

I was browsing a rather nice household-ey kinda shop near LynneK when I spotted a .....three tiered wooden tray thingy for putting pot plants on....the name will come to me eventually.. I was having it folded to pay for it when we got chatting at the cash desk and I said as well as holding plants, I might paint it white and use it at the next craft fair. Well! Floodgates opened. What kind of crafts? Did I do workshops? Might I be interested in a plan she (the owner) had for a large back room she was having painted out. More details later, but the upshot is....I will be offering workshops and classes in the autumn! Hows about that for happenstance?

Tomorrow Jim and I out for a nice birthday lunch with Mike, number One son and his partner Vicki. The fun keeps right on happenin'! See you soon, Lx.