marking (making) time .......

I have been unwell - a rotten winter for it really and it seems to have gone on for ages.  This last week the worst and hopefully soon will turn the corner.  I mention this because I am not doing my usual posting, nor have I been feeling like anything creative.  I think this happens to us all when we are unwell and creativity slips out the door.

I have actually kept busy and distracted though and caught up on the 'making' of a couple of  promised bits and pieces that I hadn't made time for previously.  Steve's daughter Karly married Doug, a Scotsman, a few months ago and I have been wanting to make a special wedding book of their day ... something intimate and personal.  This was finally completed - after about eight long days of work beginning with looking through 1300 professional photographs of the wedding and deciding which ones to use.  I also had said, months and months ago that I would make Karly a perspex box for her shells .... something that could sit on the coffee table as an art piece ..... something with room enough to collect more.  The box is lidded rather than sealed as this way more shells can be added.

Both these projects are finished and can be crossed off the 'to do' list.  Some times being ill can be a good thing!

I used a heavyweight Magnani cotton paper - 350 gsm for the pages which have either been embossed or cut into to frame the photos.  I left the pages open until after the book was sewn and then each doubled folio was stuck down.  This meant I used both sides of the paper and it meant a huge amount of measuring and cutting to make sure all the photos were properly framed.  The book is coptic bound with perspex covers and then I also made a perspex slip case which gives a lovely contemporary feel to the book.  Gosh I hope they like it.  They will be up over the weekend staying with us so I will pass it on then.

Hopefully next week will see me more creative in the studio but it has been marvellous to get some of the 'making' completed.

road trip book - journal

I was able to revisit a little journal I made a couple of years ago when I visited Wim and Del in their studio last week.  Sitting up high and dusty on a shelf, I was able to bring it down and take a few photos.  I should absolutely be more diligent about taking photos of my work.  I think blogging will help as I take photos now of both the making of a book or artwork, and then photograph the final piece.  This has not always been my practice though....

I made this book as a journal - titled 'road trip' hoping that some one would take it on one of their trips and write in it, thus adding to its character. White ink on the black and visa versa.  As it is, it works quite well in its perspex box as a little sculpture.  Maybe one day it will have a story to tell inside.

The partial partitions in the perspex box I made, allow the hinged ends to fan out.

Lots of threads left dangling .

Not how it is meant to sit but this is the way Wim has it standing up on a shelf in the studio.