Sketchbook Project Limited Edition

I completed my Sketchbook Project Limited Edition yesterday and will show you the spreads inside over the coming days. The project is closed for sign-ups now but I'm certain the creative people at the Brooklyn Art Library will keep coming up with ever more exciting projects in the future. For my theme I had selected Thread and Surface (surprise, surprise!) and when still considering what to do I came across a cotton nightie that I had dyed some time ago. When dying I always start very organized but towards the end of the dying session I get carried away and use the left-over dye to go slightly mad with. John knew to stand guard over his uniform shirts at such times as I would cheerfully have added them to the pot. But this originally white nightie got the full treatment and I decided to only use fabric from this for the entire sketchbook.

And then it hit me that I could use the top of what once had been a lovely Victorian style nightgown as the cover of my sketchbook and positioned the button bit on the front cover. I'll show you more details in the near future but you can see the finished sketchbook with cover above.

This is the very first page in which you can just about see that I have painted the page with purple and orange colours. Something I've done for every page in the book. As I'm adding fabric by using stitching and thus making the pages a lot heavier I have taken the precaution to glue two pages together for every spread so they can cope. The fabric is layered on every page to make stitching easier and on completion every fabric piece was stitched onto the paper page.

This first page is made by glueing on vintage text as shown and then hand stitching all over it using purple and orange threads.

Spread no. 2 features on the left a vintage image of a tomb as well as a poem put together by using vintage lines of text. It reads:

And what within is richly shrined?

A sculptured woman form

Lovely, in perfect rest reclined

The solemn sweetness of those eyes

As one beyond the storm

Yet not in death, but slumber, lies.

On the left hand side is a Polaroid picture of a purple flower, layered on top of shiny red fabric, stitched down with underneath hand done running stitch with interlacing pattern. This patterning is something I use a lot in my work so seemed appropriate to use in such a personal sketchbook.

This is spread no. 3 with on the left a vintage initial A image and the words Appreciation, Admiration and Amusement, accompanied with hand stitching using variegated threads.

On the right 3 circles cut out of a vintage page. They were stitched on to the background by machine and surrounded by hand stitching. Some of the vintage text has been circled and those words read: honesty, pleasure and thou art a result.

More spreads will follow in future posts in the coming days!