Journal Pages 3 & 4

Never fear, I am not going to inflict every page of this journal on you, but these first pages, as I start, have all been quite fun, and not dark, brooding, or depressing at all. This comes as some surprise to me, as I usually go into a funk at the start of winter, and don't come out of it until the sun comes back, sometime in May. And if you wonder why I live in a place where it rains half the year, I can answer, "Because for my husband, his funk starts in April or May with the coming of the hot summer, and doesn't go away until October, when the rains come back." Well, they do say opposites attract.

For the last year or so I have been in a Turkish/Persian mood. I think seeing a photo of a beautiful patio with hanging colored-glass Turkish lanterns may have started it, but I'm not sure. I have since bought a large etched-brass platter that came with a folding wooden stand, so I use it as an end table in the living room. Suddenly the cushions on the deck took on more color and pattern. A few months ago we drove up to Eugene, OR to cruise through the Cost Plus World Market store, where I bought a few very small colored glass lanterns, for out on the deck. I also came home with a jar of apricot and cilantro tagine sauce, which I used to cook a chicken with in the crockpot.It was wonderful!

It's all gotten a little crazy, and so far I am still on a roll, having borrowed two Moroccan/Turkish cookbooks from a friend. I now make my own hummus and tagines, want to have my hands henna painted, and have long been addicted to couscous.

Which is why my journal pages seem to be more about exploring than anything else. I guess while the fog rolls in, the rain pours down, and the dark settles in over the house, I can dream of Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, or anyplace else on the planet where the sun is shining.

 

The cowboy was the last thing I added to this collage, other then the title of Modified Plan. That came from the fortune I saved from a fortune cookie, "Be prepared to modify your plan. It will be good for you", which seemed to fit the whole idea. It's as if the cowboy and the intrepid lady on the motorcycle are trying to get back to each other. Maybe she packed the wrong map?  I think the cowboy's horse knows the way, but he's not telling.

I am tossing this in as well. It is the start of the scarab necklace I am going to make. The scarab was part of a broken necklace I found in a box of junk jewelry I bought a few years ago. I've been thinking about the scarab for quite a while, wondering just what I wanted to do with it, and now I think I am ready to play. Playing means things could change—a lot—between now and when it's finished. Photo is a little dark, but that will be the story of my life until I get off my lazy butt and make a photo light box. Oh, and that's not a hair in the photo, that's a line of marker bleeding through from the other side of the paper the piece is on. That shadow...yup, that's my fat head.

 

And apologies for the sudden shift from left-centric text to centered. Blogger decided that, and for the life of me I couldn't get it to stop!

 

Journal Pages 1 & 2

Okay, so the Introvert Chronicles is up and running. Well, it's started, anyway. With the weather still rainy, I have the perfect excuse to play, not that I really need an excuse. But if it's sunny and warm outside, I feel guilty about staying inside.

These first pages are pretty simple, and I hope to keep most of the rest of the pages the same. Might not always happen, but that's the plan.

Page 1 is the back of the cover, which is only heavy cardboard. Not something I can slap paint on, so the whole thing is collage. Again, LOVE Pinterest. A never-ending cornucopia of designs, maps, photos, etc., etc. I just make sure I don't use the artwork of someone else. Only vintage stuff, or copyright free.

Page 2 was my first time in ages playing with watercolor washes, using an old set I discovered while cleaning out art supply bins. I probably bought the set back in the 80s, but I brushed the spider webs off, and so far the little cakes of color still work fine. The page is about a documentary we watched recently on bees called "More Than Honey." It was very interesting, but sad as well, to know how fast the bees are dying, worldwide. I talk to all the bees in my garden..."Hi, it's just me. No worries."...and I have never been stung.

I do like the way the hieroglyphics seem to be just as busy as the buzzing bees.

So that's my start of the Introvert Chronicles. 

Introvert Chronicles

Now that my horse event season is pretty much over, I can go back to drawing, painting, sewing, embroidery and beading. Also, journaling. As I have stated before, I have a love/hate relationship with art journals. I love them, but am not very faithful. Over part of the summer I did a quickie, small-page, slap-and-dash journal that was fun...but still has empty pages. Event season just got too complicated and I just got too tired to play with it.

A while back I popped into Michael's craft store, and they had all of their art journals/sketchbooks/drawing pads on sale. Buy one, get one free. Seemed like a sign, so I bought one 6"x8" sketch book and got another one free. I had already purchased a bigger sketchbook to use for drawings, but these smaller versions are perfect for an art journal.

The covers are bright yellow heavy paper. Not something I could paint over. So I cut up an old collage I had done at the end of last winter, and that I didn't really like (I had just slapped stuff on paper to get back in the groove of playing with paint and collage, so it was never meant to "be" anything), cut out a corner of it which I thought worked with the title I had decided on, "Introvert Chronicles."

Haven't done anything but the cover, yet, but am looking forward to filling it with whatever catches my fancy, or with whatever angst I am feeling at the time. I might post some of the pages, if they aren't too personal or depressing! Mainly I hope to fill it with a lot of ideas for beading and embroidery as well as drawings and more collage. My main concern is to keep it from getting WAY too serious or complicated ,which usually happens, and is usually why I've walked away from so many other journals.

So here is the cover of the Introvert Chronicles. I still don't like the bright, in-your-face yellow coming through, so may end up trying to paint it and hope the cardstock doesn't crinkle. We'll see.

Icon

They covered my hair in black veiling, encased my body in heavy brocades, and assigned jeweled insects as my familiars. Surely the small miracle I performed did not warrant becoming a prisoner of their adulation?

Small mixed media collage, done about ten years ago. Alas, the gold in each corner isn't showing up in the photo as well as I would have liked. The piece was done for a members show at the Grants Pass Museum of Art, with the theme The Number Three.

The Astronaut's Courtesan

She always worried about him, alone, way out there is space. Sometimes she wouldn't see him for months and months, but she didn't mind waiting. While he was gone, she took other lovers, but he was always her favorite, her special one.  The others brought her flowers or jewelry. None of them had ever brought her rocks from the moon, or rings from Saturn.

This is a collage I did years ago, when I was first experimenting. It's still one of my favorites. Only thing I would change is the signature placement. I use a cartouch now, and that would fit in better.

"Trickster's Hat" Lesson 3

This is lesson 3 from Nick Bantock's book "The Trickster's Hat." It is supposed to be a landscape. I decided mine ended up looking more like detritus washed up on a beach. Because of that I cheated a bit. None of the stamps could be used for what was actually pictured = a tree couldn't be used as a tree. But I couldn't resist using the leaning capitol dome, buried to its pillars with trash, to finish my lesson.

Mixed Bag Wednesday

Here are a few updates on things I have been working on, and a new journal project. Also, a bit about the Nick Bantock book The Trickster's Hat, which I just bought, and am looking forward to playing around with the 49 creative exercise challenges he writes about.  Here we go.

First, the Drunken Spider Vest. I have pretty much finished the web part...I think. I will add more beads as time goes on. I still need to find little bugs to add to the web, and a nice spider pin for the center. I have also started beading around the armholes, and will bead around the neckline.

This is all done in back stitch with either embroidery floss or doubled quilting thread.



Next is a photo of three of the many hair ornaments I have done lately. I sold several of these at a recent SCA event, and got lots of positive feedback, so that made me feel good. I was attempting to rig a quickie light box by holding a white sheet of paper behind the ornaments, but with dubious success. Light box is still on my "to do" list. The wire is either hammered copper, aluminum, or steel. I really enjoy making these and unless I add vintage pieces to the prong, I can keep the price fairly low. These three would have gone for $10 each.

Moving right along...

I bought Nick Bantock's book The Tricksters Hat, mainly because I love anything by Nick Bantock, but also because it was a play book for creativity. By play book I don't mean a list of tunes from the local radio station, I mean play...as in get out in the dirt and build a town with whatever you can find (yes, that is one of the lessons). I am not going to go into detail because I would much rather you bought the book ( I imagine Nick would rather you did as well). All I am going to do is give the lesson number and post a photo of what I did. Maybe it will pique your interest enough to go see what the fun is all about. I hope so.

So, this is a photo of lesson one. The lesson only involved the two 1"x1" boxes, the rest of the doodles I did on my own 'cause I was having way too much fun to stop.

Lastly...and you might want to sit down for this one, since I have posted many times here how unsuccessful I am at this...I am starting another journal. Now, before you scoff (and you would have every right, considering my past stalling out with previous journals), this one is a bit different. I put a limitation on it, mainly so that I wouldn't get bogged down and too serious. The journal itself is small, only 5 1/2" by 4 1/4", so I can't get too carried away. It was a thank-you gift given to me last October. The cover is actual vellum (sheep skin) and the pages hand bound. It has been sitting on a shelf in my "studio" ever since it was given to me. However, with this new spur from my Nick Bantock book, and the fact that I really do like journals, I am giving it another go. Here are the limitations: I can only pick one thing from the day to write about, and the artwork must be quick and small. Actually there is a third limitation...the artwork must be done within 15 min. The reasoning behind this is that, with my previous journals I would start out gangbusters with wonderfully complex pages...then slowly lose interest because they took too much time. Also, my handwriting is ghastly and my spelling worse (which I am going to ignore) With this small journal, I am forcing my brain to KISS — Keep It Simple, Stupid!

I did the first page yesterday, the day after the lunar eclipse, which I thought a good omen for starting something new. I stayed up until 2 am watching the magic of it, and even woke Robert up from a sound sleep at 1 am because I couldn't bear the thought that he would miss it all. I think he was grateful, but he was still half asleep, so it was hard to tell.

The last photo is about the farrier coming to trim the horse's hooves this morning. The number three is because we have three horses. Sorry for my finger in the picture, but the journal doesn't lay flat so I had to hold the page open.

Again, the main focus of this journal is to keep it quick, simple, and not overworked. Besides, my days aren't all that exciting, so for today, the fact that the farrier was due was sorta the high point. Endless entries about where I go (pretty much nowhere), how I worked the horses, or did blah, blah, blah, is what got me bogged down before.

So that is Mixed Bag Wednesday, with lots of fun stuff to look forward to all summer.