Back To The Books...

...at least for a moment.  I had cut a few 'pages' from an accordion book, made from Lutradur XL, and because they were lying around, and a bit battered, decided to experiment on them.  So I started by giving them a coat of acrylic paint, and then stitched into them to suggest a landscape.

Not the most exciting thing you'll ever see, but a good basis for continuing.  It had been a long time since I'd machine stitched on paint, so wanted to check that this wash wasn't going to give me any problems (and it didn't).  I had intended to add more acrylic paint in each section, a mixture of colours and marks progressing down the page, with a slightly different set of colours on each page, to suggest changing weather and/or times of day.  When I got round to actually doing something with it, though, there happened to be some watercolour crayons on the table.  I wonder....I thought... and this is what happened...

I like these strong blocks of colour, though I suspect they suggest different seasons, rather than times of day.  I was quite surprised by how well the watercolour sat on the fabric, though I suspect the acrylic underpainting was the cause of that.  I was even more surprised when I turned over to work on the other side...

The colour had bled through two layers of underpainting (one on either side), and  I think they work really well.  This side has a completely different feel to the reverse, and I'm pleased.  There were a couple of sections where the paint hadn't migrated, but a bit more water on the reverse side sorted that out.  I'd like to add some text, but the words haven't suggested themselves, so we'll just have to wait until they do. 

Back To Work...

...after a couple of difficult weeks.  Remember the watercolour book?   Well...because I had coloured the reverse of that with transfer dyes, I was able to create another, similar book...

This time, I've stitched the coloured side with normal weight thread, while the reverse has the heavier, Decora thread.  You can just pick up the stitching, I think...it's not particularly intense, by my standards.  I find the individual pages interesting; here they are as individuals, to let you see clearly how each of them stands alone as a landscape...landscapes within landscapes, if you like.

I suspect I'll add quite a bit more stitch, but this is all I could manage today.  I haven't taken pictures of the reverse, which, of course, is white with stitch.  I haven't yet decided what to do with it.  Paint is an option, of course, but so are applique and collage.  Plus, I could add significantly more stitch, obviating the need to add more colour (I think...).

I think the title of this might be 'Red Sky At Night', because the rhyme keeps running through my head...but we'll have to see.  Things might change as the piece progresses.  They usually do.

Another One Bites The Dust...

another hand made book, that is (hands up everyone who now has Freddie Mercury's dulcet tones in their ears...?).  Here is the reverse side of the purple watercolour landscape book, finally finished.

As a comparison, here's the front...

They're similar, but by no means identical.  If you look closely, you'll see the stitching on both sides.  Of course, the reverse side doesn't have the heavier thread, but it doesn't seem to have lost anything as a result.  I'd like to say it was carefully designed to fit the stitch...but it wasn't...   I'm pleased with it.  Will I add text?  Possibly.  I need to think about it, look at the piece for a while, see what suggests itself.  Writing, for me, is just the same as art making...it's fairly spontaneous, but also fairly focused. 

As you'll recall, the colour for the reverse side was transfer dye, and that means that I could get a minimum of three, and up to five (if I'm lucky) prints from the same piece of painted paper.  So I happened to have another piece of Lutradur XL cut and ready to make into a book, so it seemed reasonable to turn that into another purple landscape piece.

The colours here are more intense; that's because I ironed them on longer.  The amount of pressure and the length of time you iron a piece will affect the intensity of the colour transferred on the cloth.  I deliberately made the first of the transferred images relatively light, to reflect the tones on the painted side of the book, but this one, I wanted to be stronger.  I contemplated simply ironing onto the reverse, but decided that I was too tired, and that it would be much more interesting to add paint on the reverse, so that's for another day.  Two for the price of one...always a good deal.  Well, okay, one and a half...but who's counting...

It's Amazing...

...how much more energy I have if I don't fiddle about with a computer...  Someone cut a BT cable during some work, plunging Bo'ness and Linlithgow into internet darkness for a day and a bit.  So...I started to develop some new work (of which more anon) and existing work, namely the watercolour landscape I spoke of last time . 

I started by folding the book, so that I could see how each 'page' worked.  As it turned out, it also made the piece easier to handle with the sewing machine, as I could fold and unfold as I went along.  I'm happy enough with the colour and structure ... now, it needed stitch.

I started with some variegated cotton, in purples: it doesn't show up all that well in the main image, but you can see it nicely in the detail.

I wanted some sort of contrast, some heavier thread, so raked out some Madeira Decora, which I put in the bobbin.  I haven't used it in a very long time, and  struggled with it, somewhat...but decided to leave some of the catches in the stitching as they were, added texture ( she said firmly)...

Not necessarily a good decision...but I don't want to run the risk of redoing the stitch, and missing the original holes... so it's going to stay as it is.  So, as I say, not necessarily a good decision, but the best I can make in the circumstances.  I've kept it very, very simple.  I don't feel the need to add more stitch.  I had contemplated adding some applique...but I think that would be overkill.  A poem, perhaps, but no more visual imagery, I think there's enough going on as it is.  It's interesting to swap between the individual landscapes, as designated by the folds that make up the pages, and the entire landscape, across them all.  Anything else would be distracting.

Being a book, of course, this isn't the only side that's important.  The reverse needs to have treatment, too...  Some of the watercolour has leaked through, so the choice of colour is already made for me.

Why?  Because whatever I add, the watercolour would mix with it.  And, on reflection, I don't want the colour on the other side to shift at all...so I need to add dry colour, rather than wet. That rules out conventional paint of any kind.  I could fuse on fabric, but then I would lose the stitch, and I want to retain that.  So... I painted up a piece of paper with transfer dyes in these colours.  That monoprint I showed you was on a large piece of paper, and there was enough room on it to colour a piece for dye transfer, so that I was sure that it was both deep and wide enough to cover the entire strip. 

So far so good... now all I have to do is iron on the colour...

This wasn't the only piece I worked on yesterday... I went on and painted more paper, as I had the paints out anyway... printed with some bubblewrap...  and I designed and stitched another piece... and then had to lie down... but hey, I had fun.  More anon.

Watercolour...

...isn't something I've worked with in a long time, but playing with Cara using Granny's Magic Crayons at the weekend inspired me to try them out on Lutradur XL.  I'm not a huge fan of acrylic on lutradur, because, unless it is thinned down to the nth degree, it blocks the little holes, which give it its transparency, in my view, its greatest asset.  Besides, it does unpleasant things to the hand of fabric, and I'm not overly keen on stitching through it.  By and large, I stick with transfer dyes for lutradur, because they do none of these things, and were designed specifically for colouring polyester.  But hey, a girl can try other things... and it's tiring, by my standards, to work with transfer dyes, because they have to be painted onto fabric, then ironed on.  Great results, and fixed, to boot...but needs must when the devil drives. 

So...I wetted out the lutradur with clear water, and started adding colour direct, mixing it on the cloth.  I chose red because there was some red dye already at the corner of the lutradur, so I wanted to work with that; watercolour wouldn't have covered it up, of course, being transparent.  The risk of doing that is that you don't like what you get... and I didn't... so I took a monoprint of sorts from the wet paint. 

I didn't bother to unscrunch the paper, hence the white tree shape to the left hand side, and the crackle texture of the print in general, which I rather like.  It got rid of a fair amount of the paint, and I was able to continue...and finally made this...

This was taken while it was still wet; it will dry slightly paler, but hopefully not too much.  I'm planning to add another wash to the reverse side, so that this can become a book after stitching.  No, you're right, it's not particularly interesting at this point...but it has lots of room for stitch...and possibly some applique... we'll see.  I then went on and played a bit more with a block of lino and some paint, to make a selection of monoprints.  I don't have enough energy for lino cutting, so that seemed to be the best way of using the block...

I did some prints on paper, some on lutradur, the last image is the one I like best, but, like the painting, it has plenty of room for stitch.  Should keep me out of mischief for a while...

Turning Over A New Leaf...

or, in this case, turning a leaf into a book...books are made from leaves, right?   I've been contemplating making shaped accordion books, and decided to make a couple of small ones, just to be sure it would actually work... well, you know how it is...  A leaf shape seemed a good idea...

Not only did it work, they actually stand upright...though, given that they're yellow, they're more reminiscent of lemons, than leaves...so...

That's a bit better...  This has potential, I think... so I went from the leaf, to the tree... drawing an outline first, and then following it...roughly...with the scissors... well, I don't colour in the lines, so why would I pay attention to the lines I've drawn...

Mind you...these have been cut from card; I'm not sure that making them in fabric, other than in Lutradur XL, would actually allow them to stand up... but the principle is good.  Perhaps if they're stitched intensely, and made from the heaviest Lutradur other than XL... Hmm...

Growl.

Having a frustrating day (and it's not even 11 am).  Woke very early, around 5am, and couldn't get back to sleep, so read a bit, got up around 6.30am, which lots of people do routinely (like Robin, for example), but I'm so not a morning person...  Thought I would do a bit of stitch on the book from last time...here's the image of the reverse of  one of the first pages that I promised you...it works fairly well.

So, finished the second of the two leaves on that spread, which I had left half done, and started on the second spread.  I admit, my heart sank somewhat when I realised what I had to stitch.  One side is another one of these leaves...but the other...isn't...sigh...it's a good deal more fiddly...

So, I did one, and left the other two for another day, as my energy had dropped considerably after that.   Here's the reverse...

So...I thought I'd have a wee browse. I came across these fairly abstract goddesses while browsing through the box I showed you a few days ago...

They are rubbings of an original lino cut, using metallic Markal paint sticks, or Shiva sticks if you're in the US.  Not overly keen on the green one, but the other two seem to work quite nicely.  These were done a very long time ago, probably when I was demonstrating for Colourcraft; the fabric is a bit of my hand dye.  I was going to stitch them individually, or as they are in that pairing, ignoring the green one altogether (or cutting her up, perhaps)...but I did think, they would be more interesting 'framed' with a contrasting fabric.  Did I have a suitable fabric?  Of course I didn't.  Well, actually, I do have one that would work, but there's not enough of it.  Hey ho.  Frustrating?  Yes.  Do I really know what it is I want?  No, not really....sigh.  A batik, maybe. Do I have the energy to dye something suitable?  Oh, don't be silly...  So no, I won't be doing anything with them, anytime soon. 

So...I may not have achieved much, but I did achieve a bit.  I'm not going to consider why I'm not overly enthusiastic about the leaf book; that's altogether too big a topic for today.  Nothing seems to be working as planned at the moment. Dammit
.

Done And Dusted...

...at least, where the stitch is concerned...have a look...

The top 'side' is actually a lot more yellow than that, but because Lutradur XL is semi transparent,  and the piece is back lit, the pink from the other side is showing through...and vice versa.  I did contemplate noodling a line across the whole piece, with the occasional leaf on it, but decided against it.  I like the feeling of space in this work.  I am, though, contemplating adding some text...'dreaming the crimson daisy', which is the title of the book. 

Have another look at an individual daisy.

The stitch is fairly even, but it's by no means perfect.  It's the stitch equivalent of colouring outwith the lines; I wanted a relaxed, modern feel, and I also wanted to even out the relative sizes of the petals, hence the stitch.  I usually vary stitch length too, for visual interest, but decided that it would be a distraction rather than an enhancement.  What I'm trying to say here, I suppose, is that I wouldn't win any awards for stitch with this piece, but that doesn't make it any less beautiful.  It works, and that's what's important.  So many of us worry about work not being perfect...well, guess what?  Perfect, by and large, is boring.  And it's really not necessary to enjoy either making or appreciating a piece of art.  Mother Nature doesn't make each petal of an individual flower the same; she doesn't like boring, either.  That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

Getting Sidetracked...

...is a fairly common occurrence for me, and it usually leads to something creative.  Unfortunately,  it also brings problems.  The days are gone when I can just poddle about in my workroom, doing a bit of this, and a bit of that...or at least, not if I intend to do something specific.  And I did have that intention.  I wanted to do more machine stitch, and thought I would work on this book, which has been hanging around for ages, waiting for me to feel well enough to do it.

First, I needed suitable threads...and finding those took quite a bit of the available energy.  I realised, as I did it, that unpacking and shelving in order of finding things, was not the most effective way of doing it.  I need to have the threads near the machine, so I don't have to cross the room to get them.  Yes, it's only four or five steps there and back, so ten in all.  But add in the amount of time it took to stand and work out what I wanted, and select them, and you're into a major energy drain.  So I'm going to have to get someone, probably Robin (sorry, Robin) to move stuff around for me.  But I digress (at least digressing in my mind doesn't take quite as much energy, huh?).

While photographing, I noticed the little ME quilt on the cutting board...okay, I thought, two minutes... and that's what it took.

I'm pleased with it, though I have to say, it looks better in real life.  But back to the book.  Bobbin wound, machine threaded, I worked on a single flower.

Reader, that was enough.  No more energy.  But it's a decent enough beginning.  Here's the back...and this is why I like machine stitch on books.  The back is the same as the front, other than being a different thread (cotton on the front, rayon on the back, both variegated); no need to worry about what the stitch is going to look like, as you do with hand stitch...and for this particular book, it's important, because it was designed with that in mind.

I'm pleased with how it's looking so far.  I wanted to give the idea of a sketch, rather than a full blown representation of a flower, and I think this is working really well.  I may only be able to do a couple of flowers a day; tracing the image with stitch requires a lot of concentration, and that's tiring, too.  But it's worth it.  

Dry Run

I said in my last post that I needed to try out the ideas I had for the book I'm currently working on.  Yesterday I went on the hunt for a bit of paper, not a difficult task in my workroom, where a whole long shelf is devoted to different types.   And I got sidetracked by this piece, torn from a sketchbook.  The image is a variation of the kind of thing I want to try out on yesterday's book, based on semi abstract landscape.  It depicts stratum on stratum of different colours, with drawings on top reminiscent of the kind of thing you see on weather maps, denoting the movement of air, or indeed on OS maps, denoting the topography of an area.  The strata are in chalk pastel, the lines in marker pen.  Sadly, as I found when I started folding, I didn't fix the pastels, so ended up with somewhat chalky hands...but I managed, nonetheless.  Must buy some fixative (probably hairspray, easier to source than formal fixative, and works well).

This is how it looks folded

I think it's quite interesting.  The reverse is, of course, blank, and I'll have some fun deciding what to do with it, again, probably a variation on the patterning that's going on on this side.  I like the way an already random(ish) pattern has become even more so here.  Food for thought, anyway.  Really must get that hairspray...

Distracting Myself...

...from the thought of hospital tomorrow, I picked up this book, which you read about here.    I wrote a poem for it at the time, which has been sitting in my sketchbook...today, I edited it.  So...it went from

Dreaming the landscape
a blur of colour and
movement
a rickle o' stanes
glinting in the light.

to

dreaming landscape
blur of colour
and movement
rickle o' stanes
glint in  the light.

I'm happier with that, it's more condensed, more direct.  I'm not a poet, not really.  I know bits and pieces about how things are supposed to work, but really, I just write it down, and then take away all the bits that don't seem to belong.  It's reminiscent of sculpture; the sculptor works with a whole piece, and takes away the bits that don't belong, to find the form within. 

So...what to do with it?  My original thought was to have words on every page, but that didn't seem right...plus, I was worried about the pen bleeding through to the other side, as the paper is quite thin.  It didn't, as it happens, but I'm glad I made the decision I did, a word on the first and every second page.  I've spread out the first few pages (just as well they're not attached yet), to let you see what that looks like.

Looking at that second image, it would be interesting to make a stepped book like this, showing the whole poem at a glance...one for the sketchbook...  But I digress.  I had intended to stitch this piece: looking at it now, I don't think it needs it.  I only stitch when stitch would add something to the work.  I know that's not the fashion, and probably hasn't ever been...but it's right for this piece.  The other book I made at the same time will, I suspect, need stitch, as well as a poem.  First, though it needs a good trim; looking at it, I realise that some of the pages are smaller than others, and I'd rather they were the same. 

The last thing to do for this book, though, is to fasten the pages together, a simple three hole binding. Not sure what yarn I'll use, or if I'll plait some threads together, so that's for another day.  Perhaps a heavy gold thread, to relate back to that last line of the poem.   Meanwhile, though,  I've made a template, a simple piece of paper cut to size and folded to work out where the holes should be.  When I'm feeling better, I'll use a hammer and nail to make the holes, using the template to show me where to put them.  For now, though, it'll need to wait.

Writing It Out.

You might remember this book...I wrote about it here

I said I needed a poem, which I would write on the reverse. And lo and behold, in my sketchbook...

I know, it's not easy to read on there... here's the final text...

random
marks
embedded
in stone
lifetime's work
to grasp
that process
make those
rune-like
forms
both with
and without
meaning

That seems to express everything I intended.  The challenge, of course, is to write it on the back of the book in a reasonably regular manner.  I started by writing it again, removing a few words, just looking to see how many lines there are...fourteen, it turns out...

Next stage...measure the book itself, which, it turns out, is the length of an A4 sheet of paper.  So I folded an old letter (yup, we recycle...) to the correct width, then folded it in half, and added the words.  On reflection, should have folded it in quarters, but hey... this isn't about perfection, it's solely about distributing the words in a fairly even manner, without huge gaps...

So...it's possible.  Basically, I added the words on line seven, worked downwards, then upwards.  Looking at it, I decided that capital letters were out.  And then wrote the words again, on the book, this time.

Unfortunately a couple of stray capital letters got in there...a sign I was thinking about too much at once. I can't correct it, so it stays that way.  What happens now, is machine stitch on the other side, which will, of course. obscure the words to some extent.  I like the thought of that; it's not easy to 'read' the marks on stone, either, so it's consistent with the original inspiration.  That may not happen for some time; hospital op on Wednesday, which, while minor, may cause a flare up of the ME, which has been pretty bad recently, so I'm not planning anything.  If I get to work, it will be a bonus.  I am going to take my watercolour crayons and pencils upstairs, so that I have something to play with.  Might as well make the most of the down time, if I can.

An Unexpected Find.

While unpacking boxes in late January or early February, I found a roll of hand made paper, which I put aside to bring downstairs to my workroom, with some other art stuff, but somehow never got round to it.  Yesterday, before returning to bed, I went to get the paper to have a look...and found that two of the three pages already had sketches on them.

These are pastel drawings, made around 2007, I think, when the ME wasn't quite so acute.  Doesn't time fly, etc...  I got interested in semi-abstract landscapes, and these are examples.  I was using a lot of pastels at the time, and going to a drawing class, mainly drawing faces, but playing around with the pastels in general, seeing what might be done with them.  I really enjoy working with pastels; there's something very direct about them, applying pigment directly onto paper, using fingers when necessary to blend them.  They're a bit messy, as they generate a lot of dust, but the mess is worthwhile (well, ok, I would say that, being the queen of mess). 

And as soon as I looked at them, I thought...book... a different version of a folded book.  First, though, I'll need to make drawings on the reverse of the paper.  I did, though, make a mock up of the folds required for the book, using the third piece of paper, which doesn't have drawings on it.  This, too, will be drawn on eventually, a different approach to the same thing (see below).

The folds indicate the size of the pages...I won't try to explain further for now.   I do think that it'll be interesting to take a pair of large scale drawings, like the ones I've just found, and divide them up, through folding and cutting, so that they present in a different way, each page standalone, the two drawings interrelated...and yet be able to unfold the book to see the whole thing united again in the original way.  The third book, though, will, I think, have individual drawings like these large scale sketches, option upon option, sixteen in all, relating back to the original drawings, but quite different in approach.

And that's it for today: energy finished.  It really doesn't take much...sigh.