Module 2 - Chapter 10 - Making Sketchbooks.

Above are my two practice books made up from various painted, collaged and recycled papers. To stitch all the books I used a strong space dyed cotton thread as I couldn't find my linen thread.

This is the cover of my stab stitched book which I decorated with lines from a poem entitled 'The Treadmill of Fear' by Elisabeth Bewick. The papers used are similar to some of those used in the practice books plus a few better ones.

Worry and fear, your two familiars,

Walk always beside you,

matching their steps to yours,

certain you can never escape

their joint dictatorship.

To break the pattern they impose,

the treadmill of fret,

quicken your step,

push them behind

to whistle to heel and bind.

Use worry's grit to hone your thought.

Give keenness to your brain

with fear as taper set alight

imagination's wild delight,

and learn to live again.

I liked the idea of an alphabet book so made a folded stitch book with more papers for this one.

This is the cover - back and front are similar, being made from one sheet of paper which you will no doubt recognise.

These are the end papers - similar at both ends of the book. I cut the pages to size before making the book and decorating it. In some respects this made things easier, but it also created problems owing to the various lumps and bumps on some pages and the fact that many were already quite strongly coloured. This interfered with the writing in places and made it difficult to know what colours and media would work best. I used acrylics, brush pens, Sakura craft pens and a gold marker pen, as well as rubber stamps and my own card printing blocks and stencils. I drew each letter and made templates for them before tracing them onto the page.

I realised part the way through the alphabet that it was the first time I had worked directly onto a project and not made a drawing or pattern on a separate sheet of paper then stuck it into the book - progress!! However, that is how I tackled the letter A.

I think the letters are fairly self-evident. G and W were cut from magazine pictures and given outlines. I like the mistiness of J and the way that K becomes part of it's background. L had to go on that particular page as the book was already made but it sits quite nicely on the 'l' of the word 'blue'. I cut the shape for P thinking to cover it with oil pastel and rub the colour off onto the page. This didn't give the effect I was hoping for, so I used gold marker to fill in the shape. When I thought the design was complete, I accidentally dropped the blue P shape onto the page and it looked so good I stuck it down. I had intended to use a sheet of my own yellow painted paper for the letter shapes on the U page, but again this didn't look good and the recycled envelope gave a much better effect. I am not very pleased with Q and Z but can't think of any way to improve either.

This completes my work for Chapter 10.

I apologise for the length of this post and hope the spacing will behave itself.

Module 2 - Chapter 9 - Letters and Pattern.

Activity 2.9.1:
I simply sketched these patterns with a black pen as I observed them, looking through a book of Klimt's work.

For these coloured pages I drew the patterns in first, very faintly with pencil, then added colour with various brush pens and markers. I really enjoyed myself.

The gold marker is very metallic looking but unfortunately doesn't show up well in my photos.


Activity 2.9.2:

I went back to my medieval style capital H for this exercise, enlarging it by eye and drawing it directly onto a sheet of very nice gold paper, before cutting it out and glueing it into my sketchbook. I washed the page with acrylic paint.

I used freely cut shapes from sweet foil, my own painted papers and commercial gold and copper papers for all my collage shapes, glueing them down as I went.

Again I washed the page with acrylic paint and cut out the letter from gold paper. I lightly drew in some shapes before painting them, using Stewart Gill and acrylic metallic paints. I also took some colours from Derwent colour blocks to see how they would work. The gold details were made with a gold marker and the faint gold motifs down the lower righthand side were made with a Sakura pen.

Extra Activity:

All the colour for this exercise is done with acrylic paint. I cut out shapes from gold paper for the blue on apricot designs on the edges and gold detail elsewhere was made with a gold marker pen.

I found working with paint much harder than with brush pens although it was helpful to be able to mix and create the colours I wanted.

This completes my work for Chapter 9, and has been a lovely chapter to work on.

Module 2 - Chapter 8.

A short and sweet post this time!  I took all the photos myself, except for the W which features my own hands so my daughter took that one for me.    She also cropped and arrange the photos as I haven't yet reached her level of skill with the computer.   I am pleased with the way my photos look all together here and think they are self explanatory and I found everything without leaving the house or garden.   The printer has cut off a small strip at the base of the group - the Z is complete in my original photo.

I keep checking to see if there are any other tasks for this chapter!

Chapter 7 - Jasper Johns.

Activity 2.7.1.

Having googled Jasper Johns images, I downloaded these four pieces and had them reproduced as enlarged photocopies. They are the ones which appealed to me most after looking at dozens of his paintings.

Activity 2.7.2.

I was right out of my comfort zone with this chapter and had to pluck up the courage to start work! To apply the paint - acrylic from a tube - I tried a strip of stiff plastic, card and finally a palette knife, which for me was the easiest to work with and I used this method throughout.

I needed a 'rehearsal' to see how things would work and to get the feel of using a palette knife and below is the result. Not too promising - but it was done on slightly textured watercolour paper and the pages of my sketchbook are smooth and nicer to work on.

I chose part of his Alphabet picture to start with as I like the variation in tones from the basic primary colours and tried to emulate them here. I found it far harder than I imagined to get them as subtle as the original. In none of my examples have I set out to try to replicate Jasper Johns' work, but I have tried to capture the colours and textures.

In his 8, the colours seem more basically primary but his use of white is very controlled and mine isn't! I tried a brush for some areas but that didn't do what I wanted. I was not in charge!

I am happier with this page though again I found it difficult to control the paint and colours.

I think this page is my most successful and in some areas I feel I did gain a bit of control over the application of the various colours. They seem to sit more happily with each other and don't look quite so stark.

Once I had made a start I really began to enjoy myself though I am not sure I will ever apply paint in this way - but who knows?!

This completes my work for Chapter 7.

Chapter 6 - Printing.

These two first sets of stamps were borrowed from one of my daughters.

The smaller sets are my own.

I made this set of letters from a product call Softsculpt which is a type of heat reactive foam and can be sculpted, painted and stitched. It comes in three thicknesses and the thickest one is too heavy for my textile purposes but perfect for making stamps. They are very nice to work with and gave good results.

After much searching I found these children's foam letters. These particular ones were disappointing and not easy to work with.

First stamps trials in my sketchbook using each of the above stamp types.

Activity 2.6.2. Using the stamps.

Both the above samples were made using my homemade stamp blocks. The top page uses the letters ABCDE and the second page is overstamped with the words Spring time.

This page was made using the children's foam letters which I found very difficult to handle even though I stuck each of them to a piece of card. I had to add a little water to the acrylic paint and if I pressed the stamp it was too wet but if I didn't press I got hardly any image from it. This page says TIME FLIES.

This is my mirror image double page spread. I did the background colourwash first and got quite a nice result from turning the page over and pressing it down to make a reverse print. However, even though I thought I was working really fast, when it came to doing the same with the printed letters, I got a very disappointing result and hardly anything appeared on the left hand page. I do like the colourwash background though.

I used Stewart Gill fabric paints for this sample on a piece of previously spray-dyed polycotton with a leaf shape mask, and worked with an upper and lower case i.

Multiple layers printed onto a sheet of cut strips of newspaper glued to another sheet. Home made, bought sponge and rubber stamps all saying 'heather' and HPM as the top layer.

This is one of my machine stitched sheets with coloured gesso allowing one or two words to show through. I repeated the words in capitals and lower case letters using my homemade blocks and small rubber stamps.

One of my woven sheets of newpaper this time with capital As, rubber stamp HPM and a home made block of a motif made up from my initials which I am afraid I forgot to photograph.

One of my collaged sheets here with the initial block in repeated layers plus a commercial rubber stamp.

Strips of various papers stuck to newspaper form the background for this sample which is a double layer of homemade letters ABC.

My initials block again with red capital H on a handstitched newspaper background.

Handstitched spirals form this background and the words 'I wake to sleep and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go.' I used two of the commercial rubber stamp sets for this sample.

Homemade letters A and i arranged in a formal pattern on a background of machined grid newspaper.

The words GREY, BLUE and ORANGE overprinted on a machined background using an automatic stitch.

This completes my work for Chapter 6