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ink, paper and thread...

add a little glue and you are well on the way to making a book.

Day one of the embroidery workshop yesterday and our first exercise was to make a book with a decorated paper and fabric cover.

One of the aims of the workshop is to use hand and machine embroidery and to work beyond your usual boundaries. My natural inclination would be to stop here, or at the most add a little texture and depth to the body of the cover using (most probably) white thread so that it blends into the background. Maybe a small amount of blue or even red thread for contrast but nothing too alarming.

Do I stick to my usual aesthetic ( simple and fairly minimal) or try to do something different - maybe add some shocking colour or bold texture? The materials requirement list included beads, buttons and lace to embellish the cover.
All of the above which are still sitting quietly in my workbox. All around me there is a riot of colour, texture and embellishment happening. Lace, crystals, heavily stitched surfaces.

I have already taken the bold step of messing up the surface of the accordion pages I am going to stitch into the book.

Crumpled, ink stained and torn - quite a world away from my standard clean ivory pages.

Embellished or unadorned?
Need to think about that one.

a journal page...

I just knew that there would be more of these small houses...

This page is from a journal I am working on as part of this project...we are almost at the end and I am looking forward to seeing my own journal when it makes its way back to me.

shades of pink...

A good use for a handful of paint colour chips.
I always enjoy wandering about the paint section of the hardware store...full of colour, brushes and possibility ,not to mention paint chips!
I try to be good and only take what I actually need but some of the colours and names are impossible to resist. I think I would be hard pressed not to feel a little bit happy in a room painted a lovely shade of 'mint melody'.Or perhaps 'spearmint rush' would be just the thing.
Whoever gets to think up these names- I want his job.
Fun,fun.

just add glue...

A few evenings ago, I really needed a break from all thing wedding and moving related. Out came the paper and glue and I made a start on these decorations for Christmas.

Really, there were so many other things I should have been doing...which is probably why I enjoyed the simple act of cutting and pasting so much. A welcome change indeed from stitching meters (and meters) of silk chiffon ruffles.
I need to add a little bit of something shiny and they'll be ready to hang.

brown things....

are not usually my thing.
Howvever,these paper mache decorations caught my eye when I was hunting down a particular shade of pale green cotton to finish the girls flower girl outfit.

I thought that in my spare time when I have finished The Horror and before I pack up and move I might squeeze in a bit of Christmas craft.
Maybe.
Maybe not.
At least they won't take up much room in the shipping cartons.

distractions....

I'm in the middle of packing up my office.
I need to sort everything into piles of Things to Take, Things to store and Things that need a new home.
This includes my magazine collection which in theory should be a simple and quick task - pick up a magazine and put it on the Yes or No pile.
Except first I have to open each one and have a brief look through just in case there is Something Useful in it.
Which I then tear out and add to the Pile of Pages of Useful Stuff.
This Pile must then be filed away for future use in a group of folders that I have especially for these types of Pages- let's call these the Folders of Pages of Useful Stuff.
This can take a while.

When I stop for a well deserved reviving cup of tea, I often take a look at what I have just added to my Folders of Pages of Useful Stuff. Then I might pick up a glue stick and my favourite Micron 005 pigment ink pen. Just for a minute or so, because I have come across exactly what I was needing for an idea that has been floating around my head for quite a while.

A quiet song that I have sung all of my babies off to sleep with.
At last,a small collage to hang on Grace's wall.

And a still sizeable pile of unsorted magazines. 

and so to sleep...

In the envelope...

not just a bill.

paper cut...

five red doors...

the class art work is finally finished.
After the last session with the children, where they decorated their paper mache boxes, it was time to start constructing the finished piece.
Except that I changed my mind on what the finished piece was going to be.
When I laid all of the work out in front of me, I was really taken by the graphic simplicity of the mono-prints. Most of the children had asked when they could take their boxes home and I still had this very large, incomplete canvas from last year kicking about my office.
So out went the idea of a shadow box type 3-D thingy ( see- even difficult to describe) and I went to work on putting together a mixed media collaged canvas. I have to say that I am so happy and just a little relieved, with how it turned out. So happy that I think I might even have to put a bid in on it ( I have just the spot for it on my big white wall...).

It's called 'five red doors".

Don't ask why because I really couldn't say.

One of my favourite images is this leaping figure

This village is a place I could see myself living - perhaps in the skinny tall house right next to a giant flower pot.

Hope it sells....I think.