Working on Art Journal Pages and finding some Inspiration with Lichen from my garden. I think I want to make some digital art printables with a Lichen Theme. I love the colors and textures. But how to put them into a journal? You can seal the pieces with medium but they are very delicate etc. Maybe some images of them would be much more workable. I think so.

So I'm still collaging and stitching and having fun with these pages. Some more mark making printables with asemic writing and textures and splatters. Just playing and experimenting and enjoying the process. 

 This is my first Youtube video and there is a learning curve. I thought I would add some little snippets of me at my work table etc. Still working on some little book covers. Hope your having a lovely Labor Day weekend. Me.... I'm going to try and figure out the ins and outs of Youtube a bit for now. Catch ya later Peeps. 

I'm still here plugging along. I'm working on some simple bindings. This one is pamphlet stitch.
And google says:pamphlet stitch is a simple binding often used to bind chapbooks. Chapbooks are inexpensively made booklets, originally sold by “chapmen” door-to-door and village-to-village.
And there is the term Chapbooks again. It just keeps popping up.

Anyway, I used pamphlet stitch and hard boards. I made a linen bookcloth for the spine. I have purchased bookcloth before and it was quite heavy so I wanted to make my own with a finer linen cloth and it turned out very nice. The weight was lighter and not so bulky. I'm going to be making more. The linen I used was a medium weight not too coarse. 

The cover boards are where I just played with collage, stitching, digital papers, pastels, and wax. I was worried that the wax would warp the boards but I put them into my handmade press and that worked. The edges that I left uncovered I painted and dyed. More experimentation with that is in order. To wrap the edges or not? It depends on the paper. If it is too thick it doesn't wrap nicely. Heavy watercolor paper for example, it looks better trimmed clean to the edge. I wonder if I lightly sprayed it with water first if I make it more pliable? Maybe. Ok off to the studio to take it out of the press. 

Well lesson learned. I forgot to put parchment paper on the top of my waxed cover before putting it in the press. It stuck to it. Ugh! Not too bad I got if off but I did lose a little wax in the process. No biggie it just adds to the wabi-sabiness of it. I had sealed it with spray varnish and I thought that would do the trick but now I know. It's always a learning process but that is what keeps things fun and interesting and never boring.

​The back cover was fine no issues with sticking there. So as you can see this is just a simple pamphlet stitch binding stitched with waxed linen thread. The paper is a 80lb drawing paper. It  takes all dry media very well. The next one I do will have mixed media paper  so you can use wet media. I love how the asemic free form stitching I did is bonded into the wax and also with the hand stitching on the back cover. I'm going to keep experimenting with the coldwax and when the weather breaks I'm firing up the Encaustic wax pot to use on some covers. I'll probably use wood or masonite boards for that. The hot wax might be too much for the book board. Ok, another day is slipping away. I've got to get back to it. Ta Ta and hope your getting some creative time today. We have a 3 day weekend coming up so maybe you will. The weather is suppose to be fine here so I'm going to head to the mountains again for some forest bathing and recharging of my batteries. 

Hello,
Today I played with fabric hinges for journal pages. I'm thinking about combining them with sections that are pamphlet stitched so the whole book would not be only fabric hinges. I don't know if that will work but it might. I'll just have to play around with it and see. I also got a new Digital Pack into the shop today. Asemic Art and just for fun I put an image of myself in one of the pieces. That picture is from many many moons ago. I think I was sweet sixteen in that photo. That got me thinking I might want to do a pack with old family pictures. Maybe just title it Family. So on my list it goes. 

I still have not gotten a good photo of my sewing frame. It is stormy here today. So black with no good light. Sigh... I'll get it. 

So here are my fabric hinges below. Some watercolor paintings collaged with silk organza overlays and some tea printed paper. Well, it is time to get off of this computer. Too much time on here today and I'm getting what I call a "computer eyeball headache" my body is telling me enough all ready. Later Peeps...

Good morning. Well, Saturday I got a few things on the work table and yesterday was a gorgeous day here in Pa. so we went for a lovely country drive. I try to do that whenever I can on the weekend. I just have to get outside and breathe some fresh air. I'm getting excited because Autumn is coming and I get all fired up to weave and do other fiber like things. So there will be many drives to the mountains coming. Ok enough of me salivating over Autumn. 

Back to book making stuff. We did get the sewing frame made and today I hope to get some good shots of it. But first I have to ship out an order that makes me happy. "One Held Breathe" sold and she is going to her new forever home. The reason I bring her up is because I've been thinking that a mixed media stitched piece like that could possibly make a nice book cover. I would have to find a way to do it where the edges would not be too bulky. Perhaps the stitched work would just be collaged on to it. Hmmmm....thinking about that. Also thinking about printing the image of the finished work on to canvas. So many ideas running around in my head. 

Well, my tea is getting cold. I'm off to the studio as I always like to start these post in the morning and finish after my studio time. Maybe I can actually open a window today, wouldn't that be great. Can't wait to say goodbye to Summer.  I'll be back with pics. 

And I'm back.....
I worked on some more of my little weavings and playing around with some of my digital papers to see what goes well with them. Asemic writing with a rosegold weaving, bluegreys and teals, blacks, creams and a navy indigo style blue weaving. It looks black in the photo but it's really more blue. That color is one that I dye that simulates indigo.

All of these little weavings are using my hand dyed yarns. The yummy texture in the digital paper under the black actually started as a photo I shot of winter snow on a brick sidewalk and a rusty fence image that I shot near an old barn. Pa is loaded with that sort of rustic rusty stuff. I love it!

The teal and greys are on a watercolor painting I did. I also cut out some more text for collage. I just cut things out and stock pile them. I also cut up an old book to use the boards and I think I'm going to add that tree digital I did to the inside cover. Nothing is glued or stitched down yet. Isn't it the worst to glue something down and then change your mind. Ugh! I try my best to not break out the PVA until I'm sure about the composition and layout. Live and learn.

Speaking of PVA glue... I have found that it drys so fast. So I have been mixing in some paste to slow it down when I'm working so I don't feel so rushed. I use Yasutomo Nori paste and sometimes I make my own. Nori last longer than homemade paste. And I love the way it smells. I love the stuff. It's great on delicate papers too and it's acid free. 
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I've tried a 50/50 mix of Nori with PVA and a 75/25 PVA/Nori just play around with it and see what mix percentage you like. For Book Cloth I have made my own paste because it takes a lot of paste. I haven't tried the Nori for that yet but I might. I keep a couple in the fridge, that is the best place to store it. You can get it at Blick here. I get the 10oz. containers. I'm sure Amazon has it too. 

And FYI I did take some photos of my sewing frame but the light was running out and I didn't like them so I'll try again tomorrow. So that's all for now. Ta Ta my Peeps. 
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A new project is at hand and I have a helper. My hubby is helping me make a Book Sewing Frame. I have drawn up a sketch and we have all of our supplies ready, and he is now the owner of a Router so that is going to help make the slots where the tapes and cords go etc. I will post some pics when we are done. I have wanted a sewing frame for some time now so I'm excited to make one. With all of the little copper tapestry looms that we have made we had several of the parts already on hand. It's very similar to making a little loom with the threaded rod for tension. 

As for todays work on my books and journals I have to get to the studio and see what happens. Still drinking my morning tea and getting ready for my studio time. So I'm off now and I'll be back and you won't even know that hours have passed....... 

And just like that I'm back. Didn't get pics of the new Sewing Frame yet, probably tomorrow. It's looking good, almost done. I'm loving it. So today I continued with the idea of something woven on the book cover page but I wove with paper. I pulled out my paper strip basket and used them for the warp and the weft. Then began a collage page on coffee dyed paper with linen, a little asemic stitching leftover, other fabrics and Japanese papers etc.

​Also a couple more digital paper print outs to play with. The woven paper is from a Japanese book, I love how Japanese text looks, it's like little mark making magic. It probably seems even more enchanting to me because I can't read it. Ha Ha 
This text is from a wonderful book with poems and it is translated to English as well but I'm only cutting up the Japanese text. Well, so far.

​So here are a couple of pics for you and I'm off to dinner for Friday night Sushi. If you didn't already know I'm a Sushi Monster. That's right. I love it!!!! One of my all time favorite foods. Yummy! I have my friend Ann from grad school to thank because she got me started on it and she created a Monster! Thanks Ann! Twenty some years later and I still love it. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Got to go EAT! Later Peeps. 

Hello, today I continued with yesterdays ideas. I used my old barn digitals to cover more boards. I really like the look of those and I'm super critical of everything so saying I really like them means I must really like them. Ha Ha  

Still playing with these little mixed media collaged tapestry pieces. Laying things out... I like to cut a window the same size as my cover to help with the layout and composition. I started  doing that all the way back to my days in school in Montana, when I was working on my textiles and clothing degree in the fashion department. It's a great trick. I use it all the time. I always save old mats and modify them to the size I need.

I determined today that the fringe on the first one seems to be fine. We will see once I glue it down and stitch the book. So a couple of people on Instagram said they would like a digital package of the old barns so I will be making one for the shop.
​Time to go and make some dinner. Thanks for stopping by and as always thank you for your kind comments on Instagram and for you support. I really appreciate it.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my little hand carved wood book corner cutter I made. You slide it up on the board corner and then make a mark on the paper or just cut it. It gives you just the right amount of paper for the corner turn in. Not sure if book corner cutter is the correct name but that is what I'm calling it. 

Ok so today I'm starting my next 30 day challenge. So far so good and it really felt good to get back to my work table after all of that digital work. I was missing the hands on work. Touching fabric, and paper and all that yummy tactile stuff that I adore.

I got one book board covered to see what I think of my old barn doors on book covers and I think I love it. I haven't made a digitial papers pack of this yet but I think I might. What do you think? Read on to find out more about that little mixed media tapestry collage. I was having so much fun I'm heading back to the studio for more. Catch ya later. 

So I was playing around with some of these little tapestry weavings and I wondered if it could be a book cover? Is the fringe too long and will that be an issue? Not sure yet. I'm going to use my digital peeling paint paper and cover my board then put the tapestry collage on and see what I think. If it seems to long I'll just snip it down. This was really fun to make today. I have a whole basket of these little weavings that I want to collage etc. A little mixed media tapestry fun. A very tactile art journal experience. Old hand dyed linen, Japanese papers, tea dyed paper, text, a tiny weaving on a small weaving. Talk about layers, hand stitches, all the things I love.

This last week has been a busy one. I was working hard to get my first digital papers into packs and made into collections etc. The first six are done and now live in my shop. 
​I hope you can get a chance to pop over and have a look. The response has been great and I'm making more soon but before I can do that I have got to get back to my art journals that I promised.

I've decided that I will do Art Journals as my next 30 day challenge, this will help me push on and get some finished and into the shop. So the new challenge will begin soon. I'll put up a new count down meter and then I'll be off to the races. Now I just have to remember how I put that first meter into the site. Hmmmm isn't that the way it goes. If you don't do something everyday then when you need to do it again you have to re- learn what you did. Especially with blogs and html code and all of that annoying stuff. Ugh! Anyway here are a few of digital pack images for you. The high res images are in the packs  when you purchase/download. 

Yay! My first 30 day challenge is complete. And I don't have any images for you today because I have been working diligently on my digital papers (printables) that will be coming soon to the shop. Themes are being used in each package. Today I worked on Trees I, as I'm sure I'll do more than one package with a tree theme. So I just want to thank everyone that stopped by during this 30 day challenge. Your support is very much appreciated. So stay tuned for the next challenge. In the mean time I'll have more to post about the digital papers and art journals coming soon. Thanks Peeps.

As this experiment of 30 days of stitching is coming to a close and I'm thinking about it; I would have to say that it really worked. It got me to my computer so I would blog regularly. I just needed a self imposed push, a goal, a little discipline was in order. I'm going to continue with this 30 days of.... there is still many things I want to explore and having a 30 day concentration really works. It's not about a finished work of art it's about freedom to explore and play and see what happens.

It can help you freshen up your perspective and hone your approach to making. Also small time blocks can be used very effectively. And there is something to be said about repetition. A daily practice is very important to a self employed person. I work every day pretty much, I think all artist do because you really can't shut it off. It's wired into you. But I can withdraw into the studio and I'm finding that this ritual of blogging daily (if I can) is helping me connect more. Even if a post doesn't get read by tons of people which was never really the goal.

​The goal was about getting me to talk/blog more about my work and process and what is the point of having a blog if you don't use it. Right. And thru that process of writing and just talking you can discover and discovery is always a good thing. So I'm feeling good about it and getting ready for the next go. What will the topic be? I'm still adding to my list and deciding what will be next. 

Today I found some more of that yummy discharged fabric and discharged shibori. Little bits but enough to work with. Also some black rayon hand stitched with linen that I forgot about. Pairing these with some digital papers I made and coffee dyed papers. I'm lovin this palette. 

On my table today. Tea and coffee dyed papers and some print outs of my photography and digital papers. Just testing the waters printing out on my inkjet printer on card stock and regular printer paper. Also testing watercolor paper tomorrow. I found out today that I have to get an add on application to offer pdfs in my Big Cartel shop so that will  be next on my list so I can offer digital papers in my shop. There will be themes. Asemic, old barns, peeling paint, splatters etc. Still working it all out. I'm going to make the pages for standard printers so 8.5" x 11" so anyone can print them out. My printer will do larger but I think I should stick with what most people have. Anyway, I have a lot more to do but they are coming along. Wabi-Sabi love. And that is my hand print on the right. A little bit of me in there. 

It's Friday already. This week flew by. So here I am back at the computer and thinking about todays work at hand. I'm going to be continuing with a lot of the items I already started working on, but I can't seem to stop thinking about those Chapbooks that I stumbled on the other day. I think it would be fun to do some with little paintings or block prints with poetry or my favorite Haiku. Little free form embroideries in small format could work as well. So many possibilities.

This brings me to something I've been thinking about a great deal. Art you can touch. Something you can hold and use. Art that isn't just for the wall. Of course I'm still making art to hang but I've been longing to do something more tactile for the owner or user. More interactive. That is why I've started working on these art journals.
And the famous words from the Bauhaus are ringing in my ears "Form follows function"  that phrase just popped into my head the other day when I was working on a book idea. I was thinking about the size of a journal that fits perfectly in my hand and what it feels like to hold a really beautiful book in your hands. I thought about coptic stitch and how it works perfectly to make a book or journal lay open for the user to write or paint in etc. At that moment  I thought that was a perfectly simple example of "form follows function". What do you think?
What does this have to do with "Stitching" well, stitching a book together is a massive subject. So many ways to do it. There are many methods of sewing book signatures so I'm sure that is going to be popping up here and there in this 30 day stitching challenge of mine. Just sayin....
Ok it's time to get to work. I'm off to the studio to see what I can get into. As always I'll be back with pics later. Which is no time for you....Just keep reading. 

Ok just like that...the magic of the internet. I'm back from the studio with a couple of pics. What did I do today? As follows:
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1. I made an Accordion style book. Very small and cute. Thought it might be a great way to do those Chapbooks I've been dreaming about. Covers are in my digital papers.
2. I made a small bookcover in black fabric with discharged rayon and paper collage. Still need to do some topstitching etc. on that and put in digital papers on the inside. 
3. I had a piece of painted canvas that I collaged with discharge fabric, linen, my favorite Japanese poems etc. and stitched it all down. 
4, Worded on little bits to go in art journals.
5. Printed out some of my digital art for papers in art journals. FYI I'm going to be putting those together in Pdf format for download purchases in my shop. More about that when they get listed.
Overall a pretty productive day. Hope your doing well and ready for the weekend. Later Peeps. 

Good morning... I'm getting into a routine of starting my post with a cup of tea and thinking about what I'm going to do in the studio for the day. Then those thoughts start to become thinking out loud in a post. Kind of fun to see if I really get any of those ideas done in the studio. So list are helping. But sometimes it's just a matter of going into the studio turning on my music sitting at my worktable or sewing machines and seeing what happens. A lot of the that really depends on what materials are around me. So my table and work area are really kind of crazy right now with this challenge. Baskets and bins every where. Bits and pieces and more bits and pieces all over the work table. But then it gets to a point where I say it is time to "clear the decks" and I have to clean up. And then the whole process starts all over again. And today this morning as I'm writing this I know that I'm going to have to do that when I get upstairs. So sigh... Another cup of tea is in order.

​My computer is downstairs in the weaving studio and that has also become my husbands make shift office during this pandemic. He works among the looms. And the cats love having him home so they sit on the looms and gaze lovingly at Papa. But for me no weaving is going on right now because he needs his space and I don't want to be banging around while he is on a business call so I've been upstairs all summer in the sewing and painting studio. So stitching and painting continue and weaving may start back up in the Fall if we get hubby moved into another room that needs some work but is an option.
At first we thought this was only going to be for a month or two but as we all know now this Covid-19 situation is not going away anytime soon. 
Ok back to the subject at hand. What am I going to stitch today? Not sure yet. But I'll be back to finish this post and put up some pics. All you have to do is scroll down and it will be there. So clicking draft mode for now and off to the studio to clean up my mess and make a new mess. Ta Ta 

Several hours later....I'm back. A few items to share. One failed attempt at my canvas pleater board. The pleats are not deep enough and some ended up bigger than others etc. So back to the drawing board on that. I've got a plan. So after I decided to give up on that and move on I cleaned a bit and then did a little work.
In the center I did a book cover with my digital art paper and then added some dyed organza overlay with a little fabric collage and hand stitching. There it is. Stitching did make it into todays work. On the left yesterdays faux endbands with brown twill tape and grey bias binding with elastic cord as the filler. Nice and round. I think I will hand stitch over the cord area to add more of a decorative touch and see if they end up looking like real endbands. This of course is purely decorative hence the word faux. They are fake. In case you don't know real endbands are sewn into the the book structure by hand on the book spine and into the signatures. But modern books that you get today have faux ones glued in. I'm going to learn how to do the real ones at some point. That is if I ever do a big rounded spine case bound book etc.
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Continuing with this pic I did some playing around with little pamphlet stitched books and did a cover with a digital paper that I made. And look! there are speaks of blue in that digital paper. Go figure! The cardboard is recycled from my kitchen. I have been saving cereal boxes, tea boxes, protein bar boxes etc. you get the point. That stuff is good for making light weight art journals. And my pleated linen from yesterday made the shot and I love it so I will be doing more experimenting with that. OK it's time to say goodnight and go make some diner. Later Peeps.