• Blog

    Art Journal remake

    September 28, 2010 - By 


    A while back my good friend Elizabeth sent me one of her wonderful sewn art journals as a birthday gift.

    You can see the first set of signatures here and the second set here.

    She lamented over and over about how much she hated the cover she made for mine. She even told me that I should try and fix it.

    I love the inside covers as much as she did but the covers were over-sized. We talked about how I might be able to salvage the insides while doing the remake.

    Time passed…I did nothing.

    But now I’m really wanting to start a journal so I figured I’d better listen to Elizabeth and refit the cover.

    I carefully cut the “spine” from the rest of the cover salvaging as much as humanly possible of the gorgeous inside fabric.

    Since I seem to have a thing for denim, it seemed the natural choice for a scrappy cover.

     

     As you can see I used Elizabeth fun hand-dyed fabric with pen pockets on the front inside cover.

    And her even more impressive bird mono-print with pocket on the back cover.

    I made a flower from the lace to cover the sewing of the closure strap and added a vintage button for interest. 

    Now time to get writing…

  • Art - Blog - Creativity

    Journal pages

    May 18, 2010 - By 
    I’m still having a hard time getting back in the groove of making art on a regular basis. I want to but then I sit down to do it and nothing comes. 

    I decided I needed to do something different. Something experimental. So I grabbed a book and started slapping down some paint. I added what ever felt right at the moment. I didn’t even wait for the paint to completely dry. I just made art for the sake of doing it, not for what my end result might be.  It was very free and very fun. I’m positive I didn’t spend more than 10 minutes on each one.

    I don’t know if I’ll go back and add actual journal entries in these pages or if they are done but who cares right!?!  

  • Blog

    Handmade book

    April 14, 2010 - By 

    I’ve thought about making a book like this for a long time. I wanted to to look time worn.

    My first experiment was to put a stack of printer paper into a glass pan and fill it with instant coffee and warm water. I sprinkled grounds between some pages as well. The next day I poured off the water and let it sit. Eventually I began separating the pages. Each one has a unique look and texture. Just what I was looking for.

    Some of the pages are slightly torn and darkened. Scrumptious!

    For the cover and end pages, I used a suede jacket that had seen better days.

    I’d like to do a little more with the cover of the book but for now I’m satisfied.