Sketchbook Project

I got word that my sketchbook will be part of the whole 2014 tour to Canada and America not just the Northeast of America.

You can see when and where the sketchbooks are going here.

You can see what my sketchbook for 2014 looks like if you scroll down through these images.

Sketchbook 2014 - pages 22-32

The last pages from the Sketchbook "Punctuation and Symbols".

22+23

24+25

26+27

28+29

30+31

32

The back cover is blank.

As you can see, I could have worked into these in a variety of ways and made it much more artistic. But I am satisfied with it as a 'sketchbook'--a place to explore ideas.

I didn't pay for digitising the book this year. The cost went up quite a bit. So this will be the online record. It is registered though, and in the list of projects I have done for the Brooklyn Art Library. The venues for travel have been restricted, too. So I have selected the North East Tour. (United States)

These posts about the "Punctuation and Symbols" sketchbook are now linked to Off the Wall Fridays at Nina-Marie's.

Sketchbook 2014 - pages 12-21

The next few pages from the Sketchbook "Punctuation and Symbols".

12+13

14+15

16+17

18+19

20+21

Sketchbook 2014 - pages 2-11

The next few pages from the Sketchbook "Punctuation and Symbols".

2+3

4+5

6+7

8+9

10+11

Sketchbook 2014 - finished and posted

It took me a bit longer to finish the Sketchbook to send to the Brooklyn Art Library, but it is done. And I have posted it!

So a photo today of the front cover.

the little guy was from a scrap of fabric from an experimental session with Margaret Cooter years ago to try to learn how to screen print fabric. He has been tossing around here and there in boxes and cupboards for quite some time. So, it was time for him to come out and play. No relation to the topic, but makes the cover more interesting.

 (I decided not to chance messing the barcode up again this year!)

And a sneak peak of the first page.

Full Stop

Then I will show the other pages over the rest of the week. They may all be rather fuzzy like this one. I hope not! But I was rushing to get a record of it before I sent it off.

As you can see, I changed my plan. Instead of stitching into the fused pages. I went a step further from letters. (Last year was Letters and I am also involved with A Letter A Week.) I have cut punctuation marks and symbols free hand from a variety of fused fabrics and fused them into place on the pages. The only writing is labelling each particular symbol.

It is quite interesting and gives me the idea of exploring these further, mainly because they look quite different when not in context. It would be interesting to develop them into design motifs as well.

on the work table

I sort of wrenched my back yesterday trying not to fall over something whilst getting something out of the fridge. So, today was a bit slow and painful.

But slow and steady gets it done and it isn't so bad now.

What I was slowly working on was the pages for my entry for the Sketchbook Project.

I decided to fuse fabric to pages like I have been doing for the postcards. But instead of drawing into them, I am just going to do a bit of stitch on the pages. They need to be in the post in a few days.

A few more to go and then I will put the book back together in a reasonable order and see what it wants next. I will be doing the stitching before I put the book totally back together.

Letter Sketchbook finished

The Letter Sketchbook is finished. It took me a little longer than I thought, but I have enjoyed working on it.

Stitched letters glued in.

and silver letters outlined.

Should get it in the post tomorrow. I wanted to give it time for the glue to dry because things were a little damp.

I am linking this to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday. Click on the link at the beginning of the post to see the other entries about the process to make it.

Now to start a bigger project! Fabric!

Letter Sketchbook

I have sewed the pages into the cover. Because I added pages, it meant they were sticking out a bit, so I have chopped the edges of the paper with deckle scissors.

I also used the negative from cutting out the letters as a stencil and traced each letter on the blank side of the pages. Then coloured it in with a silver pen.

Tomorrow I will put in the stitched letters and see if I can get it in the post.

Pages tissue papered red

Next step in my sketchbook was to put the red tissue in the pages. I decided to stick it in with acrylic gloss.

OK... glue would have been easier. But maybe it still would have done this?

slightly curly!

But when everything was dry, a bit of ironing between baking parchment gave this...

Not too shabby.
So, let's press the cover, too.
Front -

and the back?

Oops.

Word to the wise. Do not press your barcode with a hot iron. Even if it is in between baking parchment! For some reason it went black!

Frantic attempts to contact organisers has occurred. They may need to replace it when it gets there. The post by date is 15 Jan. No time to send a barcode over here before that.

Apart from that, I am really loving the glossy pages. I think the facing pages may get a stencilled letter. Have to do a trial after I have trimmed things up a bit.

Gold Lettering stitched

Finished stitching the gold letters

Tomorrow getting the red tissue paper onto the sketchbook pages...and maybe putting the letters in the book.

Hope to get it out in the post by the weekend for the Sketchbook Project.

Gold lettering

As I mentioned yesterday, I am taking part in the Sketchbook project again this year. I haven't left it as late as last year, but the deadline is approaching! (If you want to see the sketchbooks from the last 2 years, you can go to my page on the site.)

So, here is how the idea developed. Last year I used different paper in the book because I wasn't really happy with the work I started on the pages. But I kept all the paper. The book contains 16 pages (front and back one page). Last year I kept thinking of things to do with the alphabet, but didn't have enough pages.

So, this year I am adding the pages from last year that I didn't work on...which, surprisingly enough, is exactly 10 pages.

So, letters. I have enjoyed the work on the letters for the other book project I am doing. So, I looked in one of my Medieval Manuscript books and found one set I liked. I enlarged it several times till I got the letters big enough for the book. I decided to place them on an old book background. I had these blue pages from a foreign language book. The letters would fit just right if I cut the blue pages in half.

----Related sidetrack-----
I am sort of following the 365 Creativity book *(see description below) I got for Christmas...but not as my daily project prompts. More like using it as a connection to something I am doing that day. For yesterday, it said use paper but don't glue or use scissors or draw on it.
So, I cut out all the letters with a scalpel. Then I coloured them with a gold pen.

Now I am stitching them onto the blue paper with black crochet thread!

I am thinking to make it more interesting I will cover the white pages with red tissue paper. The faded blue pages will stand out much more. As it is no longer day 4 - don't use glue, I might glue it. But I am toying with the idea of using acrylic gloss medium or acrylic wax. It isn't glue!

I might do a bit more stitching across the top and bottom of the red part of the pages with the variagated pearle cotton.

*365: A Daily Creativity Journal - a gift, but one I requested. The book has 365 prompts for getting ideas to make things. There is a blog run by the author Noah Scalin called Make Something 365 and Get Unstuck. Unstuck is another book by him.

I am linking this to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday. Not specifically an Art Quilt, but it is really priming the pump as I sit and work on it. I am definitely getting ideas for how to get started with a piece I will be starting soon. and maybe ideas for continuing more work related to the Communication series I worked on before.

Just a quick post

My computer refused to start this morning, and I had to wait til my Thoughtful Man replaced the battery. Okay it was plugged in, but it still wanted a different battery.

So, here is a quick glimpse of what I have been working on. I am trying to keep from succumbing to some sort of chest or throat ailment, so I will head to bed. I will show you more about this project tomorrow. Just to say the result will be my Sketchbook Project entry for 2013.

Another idea - bead on again

So, I still didn't know where to head with this "And the Bead/Button goes on..." idea today. But into the post popped my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project 2013.

And I remembered the little book I made from the trimmings of last year's sketchbook.

So, I have started putting beads on the pages. I will see how long I can carry on while I consider what I really want to do for a full year of something.

If you want to see the Sketchbooks I did for 2011 and 2012, you can go to my page on the Art House Co-op pages. If you want to see some of the other projects, you can go to the Digital Library.

Wish me luck.

and sketchbook...

Today is the Thames Valley Contemporary Quilt meeting. So, tomorrow I hope to have some photos of the day to break things up from the sketchbook!

The last 2 are from my design unit work for Folklore from my City and Guilds! That started the dragon explorations and when the chance to be a Bernina Designer came up, I jumped at the chance to carry on with some of the ideas!

sketchbook ...

a whole story!

I showed a few of my friends the book and said perhaps I should have typed the stories, but they all said they thought it was better handwritten. Hope you can read it!

sketchbook...

and more! I actually filled the book. I understand some who were putting fabric in needed to remove pages. Some have only got about 20 pages...or maybe they meant 20 spreads?

the little dragon's nose got chopped off because it was a photocopy.

more sketchbook pages

I didn't include just the journal quilts in the Sketchbook. I also put in dragons I had made for other occasions.

You can see the techniques for each of them at the bottom of the pages.

I even included the dragon - and dragon gown from the Epic Quest of the Last Dragoness.

scanners and sketchbooks and dragons

So, I found out that if you try to get the scanner working and if you get to the point that you can't go any further....if you leave all the dialogue boxes open as to why what you tried to do has failed...and then you leave a "please will you - if you have time - see if there is a solution - I have left the dialogue boxes open" note for the resident computer expert when you go off to teach...and sign it I love you...
well, when you get back the scanner will scan to the computer and you even get a proper security programme installed. Phew!

So, I am scanning the photocopies of the Sketchbook. (If I had done this note thing last week, I could have scanned them straight in, you see. But you can't have everything.) Some of the writing is obviously too light for it to think about and it chops off the edge. So, I am tricking it with a strip of coloured painted paper I had lying about...like you do.

So, here is a link to some of the pages I showed so far.
And here is a look at a few more pages. I have reduced the size so as not to overwhelm the blog. I am hoping you can still click on these to read the stories. As I said before, some of the stories got edited some when I was writing them in the book.

If I can get my head round the pages bit of blogger, I will put them all on one page so they are all in one place.