I am so excited ...

first notebook page detailing my new commission - double-click on each pic throughout this posting to see it at larger size.

Hot on the heels of my euphoria at actually completing a project (the little fabric keepsake for one of my grand daughter), my 2010 commissions arrived for a magazine for which I write every month. I am thrilled to bits about one of the topics, for you would not expect what will be essentially a craft article to appear in a gardening magazine.  Though when I come to think about it, I have had other 'craft' articles published in other gardening magazines. However, this one is different and stemmed from a suggestion I put to 'Grow it!' magazine some months back:

This is the idea I put forward: 'Garden Journals: more than a useful record, a visual delight to remember the gardening year. Starting from scratch – a bought or handmade book – and suggestions (with techniques) as to how to fill the pages.'

And this is what the editor asked for when he commissioned the article: "If we could cover this as a one-off piece, perhaps with a step-by-step somewhere within this, and plenty of pics showing relevant examples and the journey of recording the information to presenting it beautifully."

"Presenting it beautifully": with these words running through my head, I knew I must start now, even though the copy deadline is not until the end of September 2010; not just the words but the actual 'Garden Journal'. A month at a time. This is such an opportunity, to be able to combine the two things I love - journaling AND making an artifact that I hope will give pleasure to readers. I am so excited.

working thoughts are coming together on the page

Ideas were instantly flooding my mind; jottings on numerous pieces of paper all around the house, in pockets and diary and my various journals in whichever room I  happened to  be. And so I decided to catalogue the journey and make a notebook to keep all my ideas together. The first pages are a mish-mash as I jigsawed together the scraps of scribbles, and then tried to combine them into semi-decorative pages to which I will refer as I make the actual garden scrapbook/journal.

I am ready to begin

And herein lies a dilemma, for I want to make fabric pages as well as paper-based ones and I cannot yet decide how the two will marry. Then I also want to add some of my paper 'pocket-pages' as 'seed-keepers' - places to stash seed packets or notes as the months progress. I want readers to feel they are creating something they can use in their own garden, a record and a worthwhile reference to their personal gardening year.

Then came a feeling of pure terror, for as I pulled out some of my samples prepared for other projects using techniques I want to suggest, I could not in many instances remember the sequence of how I made them! So as I work through experiments and the actual making of this new fabric/paper journal, I decided only this morning that I must record instructions for every single technique I use. I only have 2,000 words for the article itself when I come to write it, but at least all my notes of the making will be there to guide me, and to be able to respond to anyone who asks for further instructions.

next stage is to prepare the base pages - both fabric and paper and start to assemble the materials I will use. Everything must be documented in photographs to visually record my progress.

I hope you will follow and share my journey. I will post my notebook pages and little experimental pieces from time to time, though not the actual 'Glory of the Garden' journal, for that should wait until the article is published in a year's time. Please join me on my journey, and feel free to comment; I welcome input from my dear online readers - your thoughts, constructive or critical, will encourage and sustain me in the long months ahead.

Fabric Keepsake Finished

At last the fabric keepsake I was making for the birthday of one of our grand-daughters is finished. I was fortunate to be able to spend a whole week on its construction. It didn't turn out as expected, for I decided to adapt what I had started making after K. said she would like something connected with swimming for her birthday. So the lacy little book I was making shifted into something quite different - a loose-leaf book with spaces to add details of the races she wins and medals she is awarded, with the story of why she learned to swim included.

The various pages and pockets are show below, and because I like to know how the artefacts I look at on other people's blogs have been constructed, I have added a few notes on materials and construction. Click on any of the photos if you want to see any page at larger size.

Textile pages were made from some fabric I bought at least 30 years ago, using the reverse side which had almost a watery feel to it. I also scanned a dictionary definition of the word 'swim', and tiled them on the computer to give a sheet of text. This was printed on 'Cool Peel' transfer paper, ironed onto muslin and backed with bondaweb (wunder-under). Whenever I wanted to use some text, I cut out a portion, ironed it in place on the page, stamped letters where needed, and stitched around the shape.

The right hand page is one of my hand-made paper-bag pocket pages, with little hand-made journal inserted into which K. can record her races.

Definition of swim on left hand page, printed on 'Cool Peel', mounted on muslin and then stitched to the paper page. Right hand page featured in my lastpost - the hand-stitched page with bead embellishment (before I realised I could no longer manage to hold a needle easily to hand-stitch). At that point, my machine took over.

More part hand stitching (the hearts are cut from the text panel sheet I prepared); the flowers are taken from a spray of artificial flowers obtained from the garden centre, with beads sewn into the flower centres. The right hand page tells the story of why K. learned to swim - typed on computer, printed on cool-peel, ironed onto muslin and stitched onto the fabric page; click on the photo to read what happened.

Adapting one of the original panels - the keepsake was to have been a collection of verse specially written for K. with embellishments. This is again associated with swimming. The little fish 'racing' on the right were purchased in a craft shop whilst we were on holiday in Wales.

I discovered how to lay words over a text scan using Photoshop, and then printed it onto Cool Peel - more ironing onto muslin and then stitching onto the background of dyed muslin which had a lovely sea colour. Right hand pocket-page holds a collection of tags for K's swimming notes.

The right hand page - and the left that follows, were one of the original hand-stitched pages - if I'd continued hand-stitching I would never have finished.

Right hand page is furnishing fabric overlaid with an angel cut from printed net curtain, attached using bondaweb.

Left hand page incorporates some gorgeous velvety flowers that came from my friend, Kristin Steiner (South Carolina), as does the little cream flower; all stitched on with buttons and beads. Right hand page shows K. racing.

Finally, my last poem written for this sweet child, kingfisher blue ribbon (also from Kristin), a silk flower from the garden centre fixed to the page with a large blue brad. K. right is truly a bronze, silver and gold girl.

And here she is on her eleventh birthday looking at the little book which I hope will remind her of her swimming journey to date. Maybe I now need to think of a football keepsake for her brother's birthday next Spring. 

Progress - of a sort

Nothing seems to be going right today; one thing after another, when I had hoped to spend the whole time stitching my grand-daughter's fabric keepsake. Since I first mentioned this (in my post of 24th September 'Experimental Mode'), I have hand-stitched four pages - two 'spreads', but found it so tough; I could hardly hold a needle for the nobbly and painful arthritis affecting my hands; I can't believe it is almost ten years since I did much hand-work, when it was easy to work with needle and thread. The pics shown above and below are poor but show stages two and three: hand-stitching around the patchwork pieces, with corner beads attached at the corners of each, and then the super-imposition of the first embellishments. Click on either pic to enlarge it, and then click your back button to return to my blog and the rest of the post.

More stitching is now needed, but I will have to resort to free machine embroidery for all the other pages. There are to be ten five double-sided spreads, so twenty 6in x 6in (15cm x 15cm) in all, and all have to be edged as well. Most now at least laid out; but the week ahead is more than usually hectic and I have so few days left. Panic - well, I always do, but at least this is one project that will NOT be stuffed into a project bag!

To the Hills! (Malvern-2)

Landscapes never fail to captivate me, yet all I can do is try to capture them in words; the wrong side of the brain is dominant. But I always feel this incredible sense of wonder and anticipation whenever we leave for Malvern (not so much the town but the Showground of the 'Three Counties Agricultural Society', and the various events we attend in connection with magazine commissions).

I look to catch the first glimpse of the far hills as we descend Broadway Hill - sometimes you cannot see them at all in the murk or mist, at other times you can see beyond them, into Wales. A long line; such distinct shapes, with all the colours merged into one; they disappear from view for a while, and then re-appear ever closer, as if painted in oils. Close up - almost there as we run along below their magnificent upstanding - every shade and nuance becomes clear. Photographs do not do them justice; the light is forever changing, within the day and throughout the seasons.

click on the text box above if the print is too small to read easily

More to add to the pocket pages, words and images, and much else, about which I will post on my other blog in due course.

Journaling a Wild Harvest (Malvern-1)

cotoneaster berries

Now home from the RHS Malvern Autumn Show and its celebration of food, plants, harvest and 'the good life', my pocket page colours (shown in my last journaling post) are perfect for recording all that we saw and did - over one hundred photos to analyse, from factual to pure whimsy, and words running into thousands. Our visit started as all do with 'the journey'. I like to capture the anticipitation as we leave home, and the feeling of impending excitement as we near the showground. Whilst I manipulate words and juggle images for magazine features and my other blog, which will take me the rest of the working week, here are my first notes scribbled into my travel notebook. The photos were all taken at the show, in the harvest pavilion.

crab apples

rowan (mountain ash)

All this, and more, will be added to the pocket-page journal. There just isn't time whilst we are away to play 'on the spot'; but come the late autumn, sitting by the fire will be time enough.

Experimental mode

paper bags painted in 'Autumn' colours

waiting to be folded and stitched into 'pocket pages'

I am in a whirl; it's Malvern weekend again (food and flowers and edible gardens; a veritable 'celebration of nature's harvest' that must be captured one way and another, apart from in words for two commissioned features. For personal 'art from the heart' enjoyment, I will be taking photos - up a ladder this time, and making notes and sketches, for I do not have my pocket pages ready. Painted, yes, but folded and stitched, not yet. But while the farmhouse fruitcake is baking to take with us in the motorhome, I determine that photos at least can be taken. The sun streams through the window, making lighting difficult as I lay out pages to photograph, and then I can't find my camera. Panic as usual!

Colours are those that to me convey flaming Autumn (Fall) though we rarely experience a real blaze of colour. So I think dahlias and ripe plums dripping from the tree, Gascoigne Scarlet apples in the orchard and all shades of red and orange.

'Pocket Pages' have in fact almost done their turn - they were my chosen experimental project for this year's travel journals, ranging from verdant spring green, through summer gold to these reds and vermillions of autumn; the soft blue-greens for the Shropshire Hills (which we never did capture for it rained most of the time), right through to slate blue - payne's grey- veins of stone and mountain colours for my Welsh pages. See previous posts for ongoing pics and explanations. When all are complete, they will form 'my year of travel': always working you understand, but these are my personal memories and thoughts.

I turn to my beloved fabric once more - a lifetime of it, combining it with paper and paint and whatever takes my fancy. I am again in experimental mode (having said only recently that my brain was numb, it has come alive again). So I am working upon little hand-stitched patchwork pages for a grand-daughter's birthday keepsake, combined with a couple of turquoise/indigo paper pockets to hold tiny secret notebooks; and then out with the muslin, gesso, inks, neocolor and gel medium. Her book will be a collection of my experimental samples, themed in shades of blue, with linen coloured backgrounds for the poem inserts I have written her, pearlescent buttons and tiny jet-blue beads with stamped or embroidered fish. Lace? I can't decide; somehow it does not fit the watery swimming theme, though it would make superb surf.

watery blue fabric with patchwork snippets attached,

awaiting hand-stitched embellishments

(the fabric will be folded to make a double-sided page

measuring approx 6ins square)

I made my first usual exploratory notes last week - but for once I have progressed beyond the notebook stage and have started stitching. I have five weeks to complete this. And now the cake is ready, my 'technicals' for tomorrow must be prepared - laptop, camera, tripod, notebooks, etc, and a little light reading for evening on progressing my website - I hope to create an online journal page on the Malvern Show, but need to learn how to do so first!

my notes of last week: click on the pic to enlarge it and read

from top left, top right then bottom left and bottom right.

(Then click on the back-button to return to the blog post)

Cataloguing

click on this photo if you want to view it at an enlarged size

Despite a hectic work schedule, an article that 'wouldn't come right' (though it has now) and working on my revamped website, I pulled out one of my project bags last night, determined to add just one element to one of the pocket-page journals. A napkin-tissue motif perhaps? But before positioning the bright white daisy, I had to decide what words would also appear on the page. I dove into the bag looking for the words that I knew I had written at the time I planned the journal content.

Oops! When allocating materials to the project bags about which I blogged last post, I quite forgot about the words which MAY be on snippets of paper but more usually in one of my black, leather-covered notebooks. I had also forgotten that these notebooks also contained many ideas and a record of experiments with paper, fabric and paint, as do my working experimental art-books. So now I have to catalogue all my notebook entries, and allocate copies of them to the relevant project bag, with a second copy filed in an overall 'master catalogue'.

An odd way of working, but I can only equate it to the method I used for years when producing layouts for the magazines I edited. You needed to assess the whole picture and know what was to fall where and on which pages. Working page by page without all the relevant elements (text, photos, advertisements and infill material) always resulted in an un-cordinated jumble, a magazine lacking any thread of story or continuity; no storyline. A habit of a lifetime is hard to break, hence all this preparation: project bags and catalogued notes.

Earlier posts will demonstrate that at times I do actually manage to complete a 'piece of art'. But for the moment I am stuck in a rut and the creative spirit has deserted me, though cataloguing hasn't.** As to the bright pink notebook (called 'blossom'), that catalogues ongoing work and ideas for my revamped website, about which I wrote last week in my 'wild somerset child' blog. I don't know quite what I have taken upon myself, but it keeps me out of mischief!

** Oh bliss - it hasn't! This is an update: three hours after posting the above, I have a flash of inspiration for a paper/fabric book that has been at the back of my mind for a while now. And then, after reading a couple of posts from fellow bloggers (Jude of 'Spirit Cloth' and Lynne Hoppe), everything begins to fall into place. Their blogs have sparked ideas; not copying, but leaping off at a tangent. (I know I should put links to these two gifted artists/bloggers and I will, but I have sneaked up to my office and the supper is burning !!)