Stencilgirl® August 2020 Project

Before I start to show you this project I just want to mention that I worked on this spread at the beginning of June. A time when in Scotland the lockdown was still almost completely intact. We were to stay at home, not go further than approx. 5 miles from home when exercising, not make unnecessary journeys and not visit other households indoors and stay 2 meters away from everyone not in our own household at all times. It was a bleak time already but became even darker with the tragic death and the resulting events surrounding George Floyds’ death.  

At first I wanted to abandon the spread which was made to illustrate the next lines in Ben Okri’s poem that read: “We can join that growing fight to stop our world being plunged into night”. But then I read and re-read them until I realized that in fact they contained a message of hope, of realizing that however dark times become there are things we can do in however small a way to make a difference. So I continued putting all the elements that were already made by this time, together. 

In the booklet I put words that give hope to me personally and I hope also to other people. 

It is also important that I mention here that Ben Okri himself is a Nigerian poet and novelist who is considered to be one of the foremost African authors. He has written both poetry and fiction and his work has received many rewards. I personally love his The Magic of the Lamp short story book, with beautifully written, thought provoking text and also stunning illustrations by Rosemary Clunie. 

 You can find a full step by step tutorial on how to make both the booklet and the spread on the Stencilgirl®Talk website today.

Little Journals

It’s always a good idea to have some gifts ready for special occasions so as not to be caught unaware, and one of the things I love to do is to make small journals that people can use in any way they fancy.  I thought I would share some with you as my May project for Stencilgirl®. You can find the full instructions on the Stencilgirl®Talk website today. You can also find a list of all the stencils I used there.
Don't let the fact that it involves a bit of bookbinding put you off. This is ever so simply and each journal is done using just one sheet of paper.
As you can see on some of the pages I have already started adding extra items to the journals (mainly postage stamps at the moment) and I hope to add more elements and also writing in due course. Here are some detailed pictures:

You can also find a small video of one of the journals on my Instagram account here.

Transience Book

When I had a recent visitor to the studio this book was one of the things I found when I was tidying up. It was finished quite some time ago back in February but I haven't had time to blog about it yet. And looking at it again inspired me with the desire to make another version, which I'm starting right after writing this. I made the book from the Metamorphosis class by Donna Downey.

 So I won't be saying much about techniques and the like here apart from the fact that it involved calico (muslin in US speak) fabric and something called jointing compound. I consulted with my resident expert and he advised pollyfilla, although I have since discovered it's not quite the same thing. It seems to have worked fine though. I have however found jointing compound since and will use that for my next version.

I used a wide variety of stencils, mainly from Stencilgirl. The stencilled words are all from a stencil designed by Carolyn Dube and I love all the words she has on it. I emphasized some words by circling around it with black. The other writing was done with my own hand and an airbrushing marker.   I used vintage imagery for the image transfers as well as many rubber stamps with quotations.  Images on transparencies were also added.

 I also decided to mix red in with all the neutral colours. 

 And for my theme I went for transience.

The book was finished off with a coat of wax over all the pages and that gives it a wonderful feel, almost like old leather. And I love that it looks like it has lived a long life already with the weathered and fraying edges and the grunge look of the pages.

Above is the back of the book and for the rest the pictures above are all the pages in the order they appear in the book.

 Of course there are pages I'm happier with than with others and here are the three I like best. 

I'm looking forward very much to making version 2. The great thing about the class is that you get the entire thing as a download so you can keep it forever and watch it all again whenever you feel like it.

Folded Secrets Book

Finally the third version of a folding book from the instructions in Ruth Smith's series of Folded Secrets booklets is finished. It took a long time as both fabrics and papers had to be printed and painted first. I choose to use my gelli plate for this and you will have seen details from both fabrics and papers here before. This version of the book comes from Ruth's book no. 3 and it is project 2 from this book. She calls hers: Folded Secrets Patterns and Ideas book. You can order Ruth's set of 4 books about folding and twisting from her by contacting her on eruthsmith@btinternet.com. She accepts payment by UK cheque or Paypal.

Above is the finished book. I found a large matching button in my stash for the closure and I used sari yarn too.

Here is the book as it looks when you open it, with one twisting pocket open too. As you can see there are 8 twisting pockets in total.

And underneath those twisted pockets are folding boxes, two smaller one and then culminating in one large one that is the one shown above. There are 2 of them, one on either side.

 A detail of the twisted pockets in their closed position.

Unlike the previous versions of folding books that I made, this one has pages as well as boxes and pockets and above and below are details of these pages that I spray painted with permanent inks and through stencils.

 Finally below a view of the back of the book, wrapped with sari yarn.

Cardboard Crush Journal

The Documented Life Project, in which I participated last year and again this year, is completely free to do. All you have to do is sign up. That is incredibly generous of the organizing artists as the project must take huge amounts of their time and energy to organize, so I like to try and pay them back in a small way by signing up for their online classes. The latest one is called Cardboard Crush. It comes in 4 different versions, all included in the price, each by one of the artists in question. I have thus far only done Roben-Marie Smith's version and this is the finished journal, made as you would expect, from cardboard!

I would find it quite difficult to explain just why I love making such journals which it must be said I seldom use after I've made them. For me the fun comes from the making and from the looking at the finished article. There is something deeply satisfying about it that resonates with me. I won't be walking you through how I made this as you can sign up for the class yourself if you are interested. One day I will no doubt make the other versions too but I know by now that Roben-Marie is the artist whose work I like best. Above a close-up from the cover. The amount of layers we added to the cardboard is quite incredible but that is how you achieve that wonderful mix of colours and shapes. The closure that you see above features a stamp called Sunflower-Ornamentum from the Uptown Design Company.

 This is a detail from the back cover. 

The inside of the journal is as satisfying to look at as the cover. There is a decorated Moleskine journal in there on the right and a luscious mix of papers that you can fold in and out using tabs on the left.

The journal can be folded out completely to get this overview of the cover and as you can see I have used some treasured Liberty ribbon on the spine.

The last day of 2014

My feelings about the end of one year and the start of another are much like those of Jean-Paul Sartre who said: "There is only one day left, always starting over. It's given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk". And what a dawn it was this morning. A curtain of light was projected up into the sky and a hint of gold touched the clouds. It is hardly surprising that sacrifices were made in the past in order to persuade the gods to give humanity a new day. Nowadays we understand much more about why those days dawn but in a way that also makes it much more daunting. Only one small thing needs to go wrong in our universe and we will all cease to exist. And no sacrifice will save us.

I tend not to worry about things I cannot control so simply enjoyed the light show this morning in the certain knowledge that it was much more beautiful than any fireworks to come this evening.

Nevertheless the coming of a New Year is a good time to clear the decks as I showed you recently and in the process of clearing my desk I discovered a project that was finished in April this year, put on that desk to blog and then got lost in the general chaos. So what better time to blog it and then stow it away than on the last day of 2014.

It was part of an online course called Snap and Share by Roben-Marie Smith and is project no. 4 in that course called Journal and Photo Portfolio. It is still available if you are interested and if so perhaps a good idea to click that Buy button today before the new EU VAT rules come into effect tomorrow. I have indulged in quite a few online courses myself which I won't all take at once but since they will be available for all time once bought I now have them without having to pay the additional 20% VAT. And yes, officially places based outside the EU must charge it too although it will be interesting to see just how the EU and our tax authorities plan to enforce this.

Roben-Marie's classes are among those that once acquired can be done for all time and it's now so long ago that I did the Snap and Share one that I might well have another look at it. As it is her class there will be no explanation from me, but just a show of what the finished article looks like. The first one is the front of the closed portfolio and above is a glimpse of the inside.

Above is what you see when all 4 sides have been opened out and you can see part of the vintage page enclosing some sketchbook pages as well as the embellished envelope enclosing some of my own pictures.

These pictures of my artwork were printed off by Printagram on 4 x 4" squares. Love this size and finding this project reminded me to have some more done very soon!

And here is the back!

 

Now I can tidy this project away finally and leave my desk ready to tackle whatever will come it's way in 2015. I am going to do The Documented Life Project 2015 (DLP15), Life Book 15, and well as the next round of 21 Secrets (starting in April), while still working on projects from the Autumn 2014 21 Secrets. And a few other smaller classes. I also hope to make some quilts if I can squeeze them in! Only joking! Quilts remain the priority and I'm pleased to report that I managed to finish the one I was working on before the year is over! It's on the theme of migration which I wrote about yesterday. No picture until it goes to it's first public outing but for once I'm very content with it. It worked out better than my wildest dreams could have imagined. Sometimes art works like that and it leaves you in awe of what came out of your own hands. Wish it was always so but sadly not! So when it happens it's a cause of great happiness.

 

I wish for myself that it will happen a lot in 2015 and for all of you my wish is that all your own wishes for the coming year may come true!

 

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Folding Book 2

It is now quite some time ago since I showed you Folding Book 1 and promised to also show Folding Book 2. Somehow no. 2 lingered on my desk while other things to blog got in the way but now is the time to clear that desk in time for a New Year to start and here it is. It's made following a pattern in book 3 Paper Folding Projects of Ruth Smith's Folded Secrets book series. She calls this book Dragon Book with 19 compartments. You can order the whole set of 4 books directly from her at eruthsmith@btinternet.com. She accepts both UK cheques and Paypal. Contact her direct for all the information.

I have a hatred of white paper so I cut all the sheets to size and then coloured both sides of all of them, using the gelli plate and acrylic paint. A word of advice: let the paint dry completely before starting to fold them as otherwise they can be very sticky and cling to themselves and each other. Above you can see the book in it's closed position.

 When you open it up this is what you see.

 And folding it open even further you get your first glimpse of the 8 twisted pockets.

This is a closer detail.

And this is a view of one of the twisted pockets opened up (as well as the unhoovered rug!)

It's very hard to show how the folding works in still photographs but above and below are details of some of the large folded boxes opened out.

I have just cut up papers to make another project from book 3 i.e.  Folded Secrets Pattern and Ideas Book and will start gelli plate printing them to make that book in due course. So far, I haven't done anything else with these folded books. For me the fun is in the making but maybe one day I will start filling all those pockets.

You may have noticed that my Blipfoto widget in the sidebar has disappeared. The code no longer worked with the new website that is now up and running. I have been assured that new code will be written and it should be back and when it is it will reappear in my sidebar too.

I'm not universally impressed with the new Blip website, it has to be said. No doubt we will all get used to it but one thing that I take real exception to is the stark white background where before we had soft grey. From an aesthetic point of view photographs look much better against grey than white.  I'm not the only blipper to have a problem with it so hopefully we will get that grey back before too long.

Star Book

I have had several projects on my desk which I finished quite some time ago but that I haven't blogged about yet and this star book is one example. It's one of Kiala Givehand's free videos on YouTube in a monthly series on book making. This was her June book. I didn't make her May book as it involved a book binding machine and I don't have one (although I'm thinking about it!). Kiala made this star book without content using gelli plate printed pages but I wanted to add text so instead I used coloured craft paper. Above is the front cover.

This is what the book looks like from the top and it explains why it's called a star book. I haven't added a closure and when folded the book is flat.

However when it is open it acquires the star shape and as a consequence is difficult to photograph. Above and below are some of the pages. I have used printed versions of my own photographs inside (printed by Printagram from my Instagram pictures) and on the front and back cover used two of my Polaroid pictures.
I also wrote a poem for this book using sentences from a vintage book. Here is the full text spread out over the pages:

For what then was I born?

The day-dream of deep thought

Shall all things else be in mystery.

The vision was sealed upon my soul

How small the glimpse of knowledge.

I saw, and asked not its name.

Reflection is a flower of the mind.

The glance of recollection.

As you can tell below on the back cover, I finished this book back in August and I love the shape although next time I would make a separate cover to go with it and a means of closing the pages.

I won't bore you with the power upsets we had during the night. Poor John was still awake and dressed well past midnight (2 am in fact) to accommodate 2 Scottish Power engineers who fixed a loose connection on the electricity pole replaced back in July. Ever since then our lights have been flickering but despite reporting it to inspectors nothing had happened. Last night the flickering became non stop and we called out an emergency engineer who discovered that a fault had been made installing the connections and had we not called them out last night the entire pole would probably have gone up in flames. Between the pole being erected and last night we have had engineers looking at it three times and all were told about the flickering! None took any action. Glad to know we are in safe hands with Scottish Power!!!

At least that has now been fixed and we're left with our ongoing telephone saga. Is it really possible to call out a British Telecom engineer and end up with a worse line than before. Yes, it is! More engineers will be arriving to work on the line tomorrow. Fortunately I will be doing lots of fun stuff with our visitor and will leave John in charge which I have to say is lucky for the engineers in question. I'm a much harder task master than he is. And far less polite!

And they talk about an idyllic life in the country.

 

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