Paper and Threads

I never thought that I would LOVE a square watercolor journal, but Roz and Kate both talk about them regularly.  When Fabriano Artistico changed their watercolor paper from "grain long" to "grain short, " I made a square book that is approximately 7.5" square.  It takes 2 sheets (22 x 30") -without any waste - and it JUST fits in my mini-backpack  

I just made my second square journal.  The cover was made with cloth that I dye-painted with Procion MX dyes and fused toThai mulberry paper with Wonder Under.  The paper is FA 140 lb soft press extra white - 6 signatures with two folios per signature. 

FRONT COVER:

BACK COVER:

Since the book cloth is so "busy" I used Canson Mi Tientes for the end papers.

I started making my own watercolor journals because I couldn't find any that I liked.  I took a 1 1/2 day workshop on making cased - in journals and now love making and using the journals.  There is lots of information and photos of many journals in the Bookbinding category on the right.

Posted by Shirley at 8:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Moleskine lost a customer forever, when they ignored requests to make their watercolor journals in a portrait format in addition to a landscape format.  I now make all of my watercolor journal sketchbooks in a 6 X 8" size using 140 lb Fabriano Artistico soft press paper.  Recently I decided to make my own book cloth using fabric that I create with procion MX dyes.  Here is a picture of #5 and 6 in the series.

The book cloth on the left was created using the pole-wrapped shibori technique.  The book cloth on the right was first dyed with thick procion MX dye - blue to green - and then stamped with one of my newly made fun foam stamps using a darker color dye.  The cotton cloth was then fused with 45 gm Thai mulberry paper using Wonder Under.

The covers of this new series of journal sketchbooks are so "busy" that I used solid color Mi Tientes paper for the end papers.  There are so many colors available that I can always find one that I like.  And the weight of the paper is perfect.

More Bookbinding:  Our small Journal Study Group made Tag Books at our meeting in June.  I made one previously, based on a Gwen Diehn design, and we used the same method to make these.  The books hold many shipping tags which are  our "Art Trading Card" equivalent.  When we are working together, everyone needs to make enough of the same tags to give to each other.

These are the books we made:

Posted by Shirley at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I am uploading the last 2 page spread, acknowledgements, and the back cover of my mixed media journal.  It was a great project and I'm already making another one of these 8 X 10" watercolor paper journals, although I'm not sure how often I will work in it. 

Single Page Plus back of Rear Flap: 

Over the past several years, I celebrated my love of coffee while doing Every Day Matter weekly challenges.  It seemed like the perfect topic to use to finish this play project.  The collages were scanned, printed, and cut out from sketchbook pages that show how many ways we have to make coffee at home.  The square stamp is actually 4 small square stamps of different sizes that can be combined using different stamp inks.

Inside Back Cover and Back Cover Flap:

I wrote myself a long note about the circumstances of this challenge by Melly and Pat, and my process and the fun that I had.  I decided that I definitely needed to acknowledge my muses and used pieces of a photo of the 3 of us on a recent field trip to see Art Quilts at the Morris Museum.

The Back Cover:

I looked up the 3 Graces and the mytholocial muses and decided that this was a perfect image for my back cover.  I previously did the drawing in the Greek and Roman Galleries at the Met, and scanned, printed, and collaged it to this page.

This was a fun project, and an interesting watercolor journal to use.  I made it from Teesha Moore's YouTube video of the 16 page journal (really 12 pages plus flaps which are slightly narrower).

Posted by Shirley at 7:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My art buddies brought their sketchbooks to the Met when we went to see the Picasso exhibit and I told them how much I loved their mixed media pages.  Melly said - try it, put more than one thing on a page.  Pat said add layers, many layers.  I had an 8 X 10" journal that I made from Teesha Moore's 16 Page Journal You Tube video several weeks ago so I decided to use it and to accept their challenges.  However, I wanted to make collages from my own sketchbook pages and add at least one new drawing to each page.  

I pulled out all of my random art supplies and played for one week - just letting the pages evolve from printed sketchbook pages.  Here is the front cover, and the first 2 pages.  The collage painting on the cover was from the Poiret Fashion Exhibit at the Met and she reminded me of a muse.  The Picasso page has several of his Barcelona artist caricatures collaged in one of the layers and a Picasso inspired drawing on top.  My Maternite page has several of my pregnant model stamp images which I cut out and added as collages and the drawing of mother and child on top.  Both drawings were done with acrylic ink and a dip pen.

 The next page is a double spread and will need to be photographed, not scanned, so I will probably add it within the next few days.

Posted by Shirley at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

I was just about to start my daily journal page last night when I found a 4-part video on Teesha Moore's blog about making quilted books.  In Part 1 she showed many quilted covers, some of which contained paper, and two of them started me thinking about another project.  These two books had a cover that opened in the center and either two faces - one on each front half - or one face - in the center back.  I don't know how the faces were made - transfers from photos or painted - probably the former.

She makes little "quilt pillows" and then stitches them together to make her covers.  I would adapt my regular quilt-making techniques and  just borrow the ideas about a center front opening and faces.  I'd like to put hats or paint hair on the heads and add arms, instead of wings.  If I made these books for family, I would make the face theirs.

So, in order not to forget the idea, my sketchbook page became drawings and notes for the project.  The colors and way of coloring the book are mine.

Posted by Shirley at 6:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)