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I have not many words in my brain. The little I'm doing right now is disjointed and feels forced. Sometimes. Then sometimes I feel better for getting away from words. Trying to figure out what I can do with such a foggy brain.
But here are some scans. I did them before the most recent roll-in made all the lights go out.
Looking back I see that I've been hit and miss with this pamphlet journal. I've named it Dog Days, because my days are often filled with bits and pieces of our dog getting used to us and me getting used to our dog. He's highly social. More than me. Way more.
His on-going attempt to seduce the cats has so far failed. Miserably.
Gracie, our mama cat, has no fear of him (and for good reason) but delights in growling and tormenting him. She's taught our other cat, who hadn't ever met a dog before (she doesn't like the outside) to hiss. And Pepper now spends all her time hissing and growling. I swear she does it in her sleep now.
Meanwhile the dog does everything to show he just wants to PLAY. This does not translate into cat. In cat he's saying "I am here to terrorize you." At least that's what Pepper keeps telling me he's saying. She complains A LOT.
These are my Dog Days.
I call them 4 square journals because - yup - they're about four inches square. I bound the first one made of envelopes.
But in the second one I cut up some old book pages, well, and envelopes. I've had envelopes on my mind I guess. Or maybe the pile I've been accumulating just tipped over onto the desk. Either way.
I decided to gesso the pages, something I don't usually do. I'm not so big on the gesso. Mostly because I don't really like the feel of my pen on a gessoed surface. But I sucked it up and did it anyway. I think that will encourage me to paint a little more, which I want to do.
I've put this together not in one big rush, which is my usual mode of new projects (at least before they get stalled and end up in my to-do pile), but in little bite size bursts.
I decided to use a similar kind of binding/spine for this journal.
I bought a bunch of pink and orange book cloth tape on close out. It's actually not very good - the adhesive is weak - but I'm using it anyway. I wrapped the tape around my end boards/covers which I've done before with thin journals. I wanted this to be sturdier, so I've added a thick cloth for the outside of the spine.
If you slop enough glue onto paper, it will - eventually- become flexible.
With enough glue. Eventually.
I did remember the freezer paper because the cloth was wet with glue (and so a little sticky). I layered the freezer paper on each and all sides of the book cloth/spine and put it under weights for a night. Or two. But it's dry now so no worries. And the freezer paper just peeled right off.
And when I say I'm cutting and pasting and stamping I mean - I am just slobbering around here putting it all on my journal pages with lots of gel medium and Modge Podge.
Which I guess is okay since that's where my head's at, but then - surprisingly - I do a page I like. The light is off on this, but I had fun with my new easer stamp and some impulsive squibbling.
I wish all my pages were expressive and powerful and meaningful and well - artistic-y. But I'm trying to remind myself that the process of making the pages is important to keeping me better balanced mentally and that getting the mess out on a page is probably a good thing.
That's what I'm telling myself
My pamphlet journal is slogging along. I'm cutting and pasting and stamping but it's all higgilty piggilty. I do love this ghost though. One of the parts of starting to journal has been realizing I have a place to slip in all my bits and bobs of paper that accumulate and clutter up the corners of my room/desk/house/mind.
I'm putting in tabs which make me giggle at what little pieces of trash I pick up during the day. I end of with these things in my pockets and NOW they're tabs leading me to ghosts and love notes.
I suppose I could tape over the stapled tape but... where would it stop?
While I was working on this book, I talked to myself, trying to be clear about what I was doing and why. After I got the cover finished and the book glued together, I kept turning them over and over until I realized that the signatures were so skinny, I didn't want to try to make individual holes for each stitch. As soon as I saw that, I knew I'd cut slits, like I'd done in a Diane Trout on-line class for a long-stitch journal.
That simplified a lot of things. I had thoughts of trying to do a fancy pattern with different length stitches, but I let that go.
Because I wasn't working from a diagram or a lesson, it took me a couple tries to get the first row of stitches in correctly. It makes a difference sometimes if the stitch is started from inside the book or outside. In the end, it didn't matter for this, but it took me a pass or two to figure that out. I actually pullled out one length, and re stitched it. That doesn't bother me, although it might someone else. I like the puzzle part. I also stitched the first row pretty loosely.
I even did the second row loosely. Then I went back and tightened the stitches up. Because it's a simple running or long stitch, that's easy to do. Keeping it loose just made it easier to get the pattern down and feel confident in what I was doing.
If you hit a snag - do NOT just yank on your thread. This was the first of only three knots, but the stupidest because I tried to force the waxed thread through. WHY? It's waxed. It wants to stick together. Several minutes later after teasing the knot out, I took a deep breath, slowed down and made things simpler for myself.
The outside looks a bit sloppy. But it's a journal of recycled envelopes so ....
I'm not sure if it's clear from the picture below, but the thread is coming from the outside of the spine. To make it easier to pass the needle into the signature, I first go inside and make a clear path with the needle, pushing from inside out. Then it's easier to take the needle from the outside and go in.
After I'd run all the stitches up and down the signatures, I decided to go back and wrap the thread around the top of each of the signatures.
One end looked neat. The other not so much. I had to kind of improvise the directions to get each signature. But again... recycled... trying new things.
So this is what it looks like now.
I have a head cold blooming, so I didn't spend the day starting to fill it. Instead I did my house chores I'd set for myself (dragging things out of corners and cupboards and sorting) and then took a nap. I have the second small square journal I started to bind up next. I got everything out to start, and then the nap jumped me. Plus the cat who sat on my while I slept. And then again when I rolled over. Stubborn cat.
Having set the book block aside to ferment, I cast my eyes on the boards/cover. Which is a piece of randomly sprayed chip board. Really... silly. But it was the right size for my silly envelopes so I willy nilly cut it in half and there it is, the cover.
I finally decided to use book cloth on the inside, wrapping to the front. Because it was pretty easy and because I like book cloth. Like duct tape but more clothy, and less ducky. I figured the book block was 20 cm, so I used my handy dandy rules to set the boards apart. I can be a little, shall I say, overly careful about things like this. Really. How important it is for my chipboard/used envelope trash journal. And yet... I measured and remeasured and adjusted.
Silly me.
Next I had a piece of fabric sample that I savagely cut to wrap around the outside of the binding. I used PVA to glue it down. Not because I was sick of Modge Podge.... oh no... but because.... I am a woman of mass indecision at the moment and decided to spread my options. Plus I have PVA and I haven't used it recently.
The part of the fabric sample I used still had a stabling paper on it, but I figured I was all about stabilizing so why not.
Then I weighed it down again. I tried to square up the binding. The signatures aren't sewn in yet, so that will change things. Again, I am in NO WAY recommending the order I'm using as a rational or reasonable or even workable order. Here's hoping it turns out to be workable. I'll be working it tomorrow. Maybe. Or not.
And of course, after I had glued it all in, I thought, what a boring color choice! Why didn't I go for something a little ... sparkier? Contrasty? Interesting?
Some choices you just have to live with. Until you decide to change them. Or not.
I stalled out on my little envelope journal, and not because it doesn't interest me. One of the myriad of side effects of prednisone is that once you've taken it long enough it shuts down your thyroid (since you are flooded with adrenaline, why would you add more?). Then as you wean off the prednisone it takes a while for it to kick back in.
But another part of the delay has been not being settled with what kind of binding I want to use. I wanted this book to be sturdy, although I haven't had any problems with my other books, but.... I wasn't satisfied. So I went back and forth. Tapes? Yes tapes. No tapes. Yes open spine. No open spine.
I finally decided to glue the signatures together. I did this before I put my holes for the binding in. I don't recommend this, it was not a plan, it was just lazy lazy thinking. So now along with a couple envelopes, each signature has a watercolor paper "cover", each of which has been glued to another. This should stabilize the binding and not have it twist too much. I don't glue the signatures into the binding as a block - just don't know how to do that yet. Maybe won't. But I will also be glueing the endpapers of the first and last signature onto the end boards/covers.
I used Modge Podge because for whatever reason I like the smell.
Then I left it under a little granite triangle I use as a weight. So far I have managed, with the judicial use of freezer paper, not to glue all the envelopes together or to the table. Yay me.
Sometimes I have a whole idea in my head for what I want a book to look like. I thought I did for this, but it went hazy and is only slowly coming into focus. At first this was disconcerting, but I'm enjoying it now.
The other week I made a new stamp.
I got the idea from the binding of a book I'd made.
And although I'm not so skilled with the cutting tool, I was pleased with the results.
I'm doing more. No one can stop me. Short of stealing my horde of blank erasers. And I have my eyes out and my attack guard cats on the prowl.
Don't even think about it is what I'm saying.
We haven't had too many rainy days this fall, so right now I'm enjoying a reprieve from outside chores. I got my desk cleaned off and immediately wanted to set everything out again - semi organized. After too many frazzled evenings, I had a great evening playing in various journals.
Flying pigs have become quite a folk art motif - at least around here - but I love them. I could fill my house and yard with flying pigs.
I hate to think it, but it might be the most apt theme for my life.
These days I only have so much energy. Luckily for me, I have some flexibility in what I can use that energy for. Right now, that is mostly getting the yard in shape before the cold sets in. And I'm making progress, so that's good. Unfortunately, that has left little for my crafty pursuits. A little can be enough, though.
Still at the Renaissance festival.
Tried to move quickly with these and not get hung up on detail.
Don't know how much is too much detail and how much is focussing. But I know I get bogged down sometimes, so this felt good. Very fast and raw.
I got to be a chaperone at a Renaissance festival without actually having to do much chaperoning. So I did some sketching instead.
Wish I'd had more time, but there was fudge. I had to finish it because I didn't have a place to put it. Except my sticky fingers. And my mouth.
This weekend did not go as planned. Really.
I had cleaned off my desk, anticipating a very quite rest filled time with a little bit of art dabbling.
Hmmm... well. That didn't happen.
Some quick visiting with my brother (yay brother!). Some helping the new doggie remember where the appropriate place to potty is (not so yay). I over did some things, and then had to under do quite a bit.
I have big thoughts in my head about illness and art and being kind to yourself and self care and ambition but... all of that will wait.
No brain at all today, but still in motion. I don't have the links I want so I'll have to finish this post tomorrow, but - a peek - just a peek. Because as i've been brainlessly surfing Pinterest I saw not ONE but TWO little journals that made me stop everything and start hunting through my recycle pile (not my bin, my pile in my room). So now I have two little journals taking shape.
That's all I'm going to say until I can get the links sorted and find my brain.
Nothing much to say. Having fun with the EDM prompts. Have a couple challenging ones coming up. Inside of frig - medicine cabnet. Dogs and bikes - so much easier.
I have carved a couple stamps out of erasers recently, and got a shocking degree of satisfaction from them. This may continue. Definitely the carving. Hopefully the satisfaction.
The new dog and the established cats are still in negotiation. Growing has become the cats favorite pastime. Trying to touch noses is the dogs. There is an inherent conflict here.
I am resting after an exhausting morning, but feeling well satisfied with all I got done. Have a great day yourself. I have a couple bookmaking/binding ideas I am playing with. In my mind.
Because right now I'm really in the middle of some.
Not only do I spend my days reassuring our new housemate that when he actually has a home (after nine months in the pound) but along with a late summer heat wave, I'm perpetually flushed from the meds. I wasn't this hot all summer.
Well, maybe i was. Maybe I exaggerate. Maybe.
That was the cover above. This is the first spread. I didn't start it on the 13th. I don't know why I wrote 13th. The next morning that date stared out at me - blinking. What's going to happen on the 13th? DId I think it was the 13th? Am I caught in some time leaping vortex? I'm so confused.
Apparently I had questions that night.
Today it rained, the first time in a long time. I loved it. I love love love sitting inside with the windows open and listening to the leaves and the splatter and being warm and dry and cozy and safe. Today I was VERY grateful not to be standing trying to change a tire or ... so, given the first conditions, I love the rain.
Even if it means I couldn't do any of this. I have been spraying the brains out of old food boxes. Cereal, crackers, pasta, they're not safe from me. All zombified now.
Since I had to stop my attack of debraining, I switched to inside work. Which for me today was play (tomorrow on the other hand....). Rest and play. Above is the Urban Sketchbook I made in Dawn DeVries Sokol's on-line class. She didn't have the spray paint, I added that because I was also Mary Ann Moss Stitch & Stencilfied at the time.
This is what it looks like inside. Subtle, no?
I haven't done anything to the cover yet. That can wait. But I started on the first 'page spread' although anything made of cardboard is hard to call a page. But it works.
I have too many art supplies (retail therapy during convalesces, but with the different journals I'm working in, I've been able to pull out a lot of stuff and experiment. Different pens, markers, paints, pastels, oils, crayons. I'm jumping around while things dry or I rest, and it's SO MUCH FUN! Plus when I'm awake at four in the morning and know I'm up for a while, it's great to have somethings so BOLD and outrageous. Outrageous for me, in any case. Plus I'm loving the freedom of cardboard and spray paint. Talk about un-precious materials. What's the worst I could do? Really. Tell me. I'll give it a try. Mostly I move on whim right now.
Like when this moon appeared. I wasn't looking for it, but there it was.
Did I mention we got a dog? Chester. I decided to alert the neighbors.
I cut a stencil from a photograph I enlarged - all very high tech and exacto knify. And I used an old political yard sign (did I mention I save things?) I thought it was brilliant but apparently if you are not mentally in the context of dog/yard you might mistake this for the flag of Brazil Or, as has been suggested, the signal for an underground rave. Or perhaps an Olde English Inne - The Red Dog. Which I wouldn't know anything about and the lights go off at 11:00 so don't even think about it. Plus the dog would bark.
My brain is often bubbling with ideas. It's taken me a good part of my life to realize that I don't have to act on most of them. Hardly any. I could just savor them. In my head. Where they take up less room and don't make me feel guilty.
A couple years ago I bought a piece of linoleum to make a floor cloth. Yada yada yada, this week I actually did it. I should have taken more pictures, but that would have interrupted the flow of the stars aliening, lightening striking and hell freezing over. All I can say is spray paint is inspirational. Plus the stars things.
I have an un-remodeled 50's kitchen. Maybe the 50s. Well, I replaced the countertop because of the buckling, but the rest... maybe 40s?
But the floor cloth looks dazzling.
It was inspired (if I can use that word) by the number of compliments I got on the drop cloth (old shower curtain) I use to spray on. Everyone kept saying - "oh, I like THAT." Ignoring whatever I was actually spraying. I didn't take it personal. An idea went ping in my head. I'm sure it's not original, but it was original in my head. And I actually did it. Plus do you like the edging? Duct tape. It's a pretty old piece of linoleum, so as soon as it starts cracking - more duct tape.
Which is appropriate for the kitchen that it's in.
I am a spraying fool.
More will be revealed tomorrow. I'm so excited.
I have to get the image of the clarinet mouth out of my head, so I'll continue with a few more of the EDM challenges. Below is something that folds, a beloved childhood toy (okay, it's not from my childhood but it's a toy and it's beloved) and a article of clothing. I took off my sock. I wasn't willing to disrobe further. Oh, now another image I have to get out of my head. Tomorrow kittens and flowers. Erase, Erase.
Still working on the Everyday Matters Challenges. And yes, I did come across a stuffed shark. It wasn't on the list. It didn't need to be.
Above, just to make it less scary, was an musical instrument (part of a clarinet) and a mouth (done at 3:00 in the morning). I am not wearing braces.
