Journey being artisan 手作旅人

 

The batch of art journals telling stories....... First from the hands of the creator ....... then to the hands of the owners ......

I can tell the stories of being artisan of the art books. If I was asked what I'm most passionate about lately.  Thought the answer is the art journals making. From wool felt, nuno felt, eco dye, botanical imprints, paper prints, ceramic making to book binding.....  In a nutshell a book tells all what I'm doing.  

每一本手作美術小本訴說一段故事，可以是旅人日誌， 可以是生活小記，從開始製作已概括我近來醉心的興趣  - 天然植物印染、羊毛氈手工、陶瓷....以至小本釘裝，正正是我的一段創作歷程開端。

I must say two persons, Ruta and James are the ones inspired my making of the art journals. Few years ago Ruta, a blogger from Lithuania was so kind to send me a beautiful wool felt covered notebook.  From then on I felt in love of wool felted book covers.  Then I stumbled into a blog Dip and Stains of paper prints. Jim Dennisons' wealth of botanic knowledge and his paper prints are wonderful.  He's so kind to share his knowledge.

From making one book to two.......

then a few more........ 

I walked through my journey of making.  My previous post mentioned it.

I used some swatches of my eco prints for the cover.  

Papers are discarded file index from my nice friend. My previous post of paper prints here.

Most leaves were from my area and a few from friends. The big castor oil is a good keepsake for myself from Israel last year.

This is the beach near my studio. I like to take shots listening to the rhythm of wave.......

......at times with the flapping sound

Cover of swatch I printed with two species of euc and mandarin leaves .

Purple from logwood dye

Each book with 7-8 signatures, each with a set of paper prints and other blank pages for writing.

Set of five

Complete set enclosed with my handmade ceramic button.

One of the pages with Hibiscus, that's the tree the book rests on.

A leaf after pigment given on the paper still on the front page, tied by a Teeswater fleece dyed in Irit's class in California.

Prints with iron mordant thus have outlines and shades

These are castor oil leaves on cotton from Israel.  Very bold prints with iron.

This page with printed fabric and dried euc as well the onion dyed fleece

Nuno felted cover of textural surface with dyed chiffon

Oak leaf from the US

Swatches with euc silver dollar, red is good to show off

The dried Hibiscus gives bold prints, much better than green ones.

 

I enjoy my journey of making and adore own creation

Each of unique and touch of love. Though I do not want to part with either, they're going to be a giveaway on special occasions.

Beauty through my impaired eye 我視障所見的色彩

Friendly reminder. This is a pretty wool felt flower but my post here mention you may feel uncomfortable.

Three days ago I'd an eye operation of Pterygium removal. A kind of membrane removal due to my long time sensitivity to ultraviolet. Planned to have a 30-min operation but finally took 1.5 hours. Though I was partially anaesthetized, I can hear and see the images of knife and feel every motion of thread stitch ! It's scary and nervous. Whenever I see something uneasy, such as injection or tooth polish, I've to close my eyes but doing this operation I'd opened wide my eye and know what's going on. My heart was pounding.

The 1.5 hours was like a year long on the threatre bed. Finally finished and my eye was covered with bandage for 24 hours.

I thought only one eye is impaired I can see clearly with the other. In fact it's uneasy in the first few hours as my hurt eye couldn't open wide, single sight was not clear, floor was uneven. Whenever I blink, I felt pain.

After 24 hours my bandage was removed but still a bit pain and not clear. I've nothing to do and don't want to waste time. Found doing something I love can kill pain. I started to make a wool felt book cover again. This is also a challenge for myself if I can make use of my weak eyes. I made it. (But I told my hubby I can't make dinner I've pain and can't see well ! Is it an excuse?) In fact something we like to do we can manage well, otherwise it's an excuse. I always think of Laurie who does amazing paintings.
This is the book cover I just made yesterday.

This is how to make it. I bought a writing pad, glued the hard covers on front and back, wrapped a foam sheet to make it thicker and softer. Nuno felt the wool cover and sewed it as the book cover and stitched on thenuno felt flower. That's it.

I made one book mentioned in my last post
I know this sort of book cover looks nice. I'm happy that I can make it after my operation.

I can even make this nuno felt scarf and already given to my pottery studio owner CC.

I've a belief if we've confidence in doing something we can make it. So on the 9th Dec is our wedding anniversary, I promoised hubby I can prepare the BBQ for the celebration with family in our renovated patio. (No excuse this time.)

Mogi said " it's not worth a single glance".
Oh, really? I hope to give it away to someone who loves it.

This is a 90-page, 18 x 25cm single line pad. Any one would like to take this away, please just leave your comments before 9th Dec. I'll generate the winner and mail to your doorstep. Finally I must thank for Rutenis who inspires me to make this book cover. Her line of books is amazing. Anyone would love to buy from her may contact her Eziukstis

Wool felted book cover

The other day my colleague Wendy asked me to show her how to make a wet felted wool picture. The reason was her teenage daughter Winkie has a school project to do a book cover with fabric materials. Popped up her mind was to make it with wool. Without hesitation I took a lunch break in the office demonstrated to Wendy the process, so that she could give Winkei the ideas and let her do it by herself. All finished in a weekend . See how it looks like. The book is very impressive and the teacher gave Winkie the highest full mark 10. I’m really delighted Wendy is so clever to pick up felt making which is new to her and Winkie is so talented and made it such creatively. See how pretty it is - "Cats looking forward to ....... " Each page with Bible verses and pictures show how it’s made. Love to share with you all…. What I want to do is also to spread the arts/craft of felt making – such a versatile medium. Wool ! Cool.…. I love you !!

Teacher's remarks "Unbelievable" Full score 10 !

同事Wendy的女兒 Winkie學校老師指定一研習項目，要學生各人做一本以布料為封面的本子，Wendy想起我會做羊毛氈畫，於是我用了一個午膳時間，很快的教曉Wendy如何制作，她回家把過程示範一次並以Winkie 自己的點子創意做了這本子，看，好漂亮啊！"草原上一對貓貓等待著 ...... " 每頁以圖片介紹制作過程並附以聖經金句，老師很欣賞Winkie的創意並給予最高的評分 - 十分。高興之餘，我很希望宣揚這可塑性甚高的羊毛工藝啊！



Each page with photo shows how the book was made