Cloth Journal 2

I know better than to say I will never make another something because inevitably I end up breaking that rule and producing yet another of the item.  This time it is a cloth journal.  This one folds out into several pocketed sections for postcards.  I have  some laundry pins attached for decoration.  Also my friend Irene Rafael gave me some very tiny safety pins that are quite unusual.  They are a bit camouflaged in the upper right along the grey fabric.  As I fill this journal I will find things to add to the tiny safety pins.  My first cloth journal is bursting and so this one had to be made.  I got the cloth at a recycle fair last fall.  I love using things that might have ended up in a landfill.

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5 Top Kitchen Tips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMmEvCNTEgM

Tacket Binding - Bird Book

I just love the tacket binding as I have mentioned before and this is my eighth one I believe.  Did I tell you that I was told one is not proficient until they make the twentieth one?  I guess I am close to half way or 2/5 to be exact.

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The Both: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nivz7x_TMK4

Faux stamps - Seattle - Park II

Three more faux stamps....I was able to rename the files that I could not open yesterday as psd files. Then I resaved them as jpgs.  It worked but I could not locate a single car wash stamp.  So I am sharing the sheet instead.

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Death Cab For Cutie: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi6uRT7PxTQ

Seattle Faux Stamps

I made a series of faux postage that represents Seattle, six to be exact.  I will publish the other three if I can get the files to open later today.  I had planned to create a collage piece for the upcoming NW Collage Society Show at Seattle City Hall using the stamps but time got a way from me.  I will use them yet at a later date.......

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Corinne Bailey Rae: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h--fvyPu5e4

Trader Joe's Journal

Trader Joe's (Cover)

Trader Joe's (Back Cover)

My friend Jacki Long shared a Trader Joe's journal with me last October.  I just happen to collect Trader Joe bags from around the country and I loved seeing her journal.  Since I frequently need storage for art mail that I receive, I decided it would work to make a journal for that purpose out of the bags.  If you have not experienced Trader Joe's they sell shopping bags for 99 cents and they change designs in regional areas frequently.  Each region has its own bag.

I just cut up the bag and sewed "papers" back to back leaving the top open.  I then assembled them together and sewed down the middle and voila, a easy journal was made.

Here are the insides of the journal.....

PS  If you send me a bag I will send you one from the Seattle area or a postcard.  We all love to get mail art. :-)

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Andrew Bird: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGAzPtwUJJU

                            

My version of Linda Welch's bound books......

In late April when I went to the Newport, OR Paper and Book Arts Festival I stopped at 23 Sandy in Portland to check out the handmade books bookstore.  I fell in love with the work by Linda Welch who use to live in Portland but now resides in Ames, Iowa.  I loved her work so much that I purchased four of her pieces.  When I got home from the workshop I immediately tried to dissect how she went about her little books.  Many of them are housed in little boxes and the books themselves are bound and perhaps waxed.  I am unsure exactly how she finished them.  So I had to make one or two of my own using my best guesses as to her process.  Here is one that I made.  If you are interested in Linda's work please go to Pinterest and enter her name.

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Genevieve: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

I especially enjoyed how Genevieve created the first song and her take on social media in the second song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ4Hum70sTk

Needle Book

Needle Book Cover

Needle Book Interior

Needle Book Spine

Doing as much bookbinding as I have been doing I needed a place to keep the needles.  I found several great samples of needle books on Pinterest.  I looked on Etsy, too.  I just decided I could make my own design.  I remembered that I had made a cloth cover that resembles quilting some time ago for a journal.  So here I am again but this time I used batting between the cardboard and the cloth. The stitching came after I used a glue mixture to connect the cloth pieces.  There is one mistake in sewing the interior pieces together but I am not worried about it as it is my first attempt at using felt and such to make this type of book.  It is great that it serves a needed purpose.
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Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

There is explicit language in the lyrics of this group's songs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ferZnZ0_rSM

Secrets 20 - Bonnie Post

Bonnie Post

Bonnie Post has Ailurophobia, a fear of cats, and she also has a fear of trapeze artists.  Her friend, Ben, is always on the lookout for neighborhood feral cats.  Bonnie attends weekly meetings of the Ailurophobia Society.  She feels understood once a week as it is a great relief to be with other ailurophobics.

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Chris Stapleton: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcHL0kUFPhw

Look Out For Hooks

postcard closed for mailing

Postcard opened to second layer

Postcard fully opened

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Tash Sultana: Tiny Desk Concert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVDJ8O3lPBA&list=PL1B627337ED6F55F0&index=16

Secrets 19 - What Did Monkey Say to the Flies?

What Did Monkey Say to the Flies?

Busy times around here with company from Canada.  I totally forgot to publish yesterday.

This is Secrets 19.  Aren't the flies and the monkey just great?

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#MoreThanARefugee  -  Yesterday I saw a piece of art about hate groups in the US.  It was shocking how many registered hate groups there are in this country....when I say shocking it was thousands upon thousands. There is a story for every immigrant in our country.  We need to listen to those stories with compassion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lxbdvo2vFwc

Set It Free

Set It Free

It is difficult to tell in the image above but the bird is only attached near the head.  So when the journal is open the bird looks loose as if ready to be released into the air.  When I found the henna hands and arms image I had to find a way to use them.  The background may be competing with the hands and arms but in the "flesh" it seems to work.  There definitely is a skill to photographing something so that it looks as good as the image itself.

Off to Oregon this morning to the Focus on Book Arts Festival.  It will be a long day....217 miles each way.  Going just for the day sounds crazy to me but I am doing it with two others and I was the one who had to be home tonight.  Wish us luck!

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Shawn Mendes - There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT2owtxkU8k

Trifold Postcard

Add caption

The trifold easily folds into a postcard with a flap that can be sealed.  It costs more to mail it because it does not easily slip into the post office measuring device.  No matter since it is fun to receive.

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Avery*Sunshine: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNEhfztkCdc&list=PL1B627337ED6F55F0&index=12

Love Birds

Love Bird

I did a lot of sanding on this piece.  I like the softness created by this technique.  I especially like how the layers look.  To me, this has a painterly look.


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Aimee Mann -

http://www.npr.org/event/music/526859139/aimee-mann-tiny-desk-concert 

Six of Spades

Six of Spades

I love how sanding a piece distresses it.  The woman's dress is transformed with this technique.  Since I am advocate for gun safety, probably to the far left of many people, I am so pleased how the sanding obliterated her rifle.....in fact, one might not know what she was doing looking at this collage.

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Perfume Genius

http://www.npr.org/event/music/532216532/perfume-genius-tiny-desk-concert

Secrets 18 - Mrs. Matzo

Mrs. Matzo

In late April I was visiting Portland, OR and went to lunch near the now closed handmade art bookstore, 23 Sandy (it is open online only).  The "store" where we ate had deli items, seafood, and a variety of groceries that were unique.  I went  around snapping photos of food items and  I came across a chip bag with the image of a wonderful woman who I am calling Mrs. Matzo.  I cut her off the bag to create this collage.  Thanks "Mrs. Matzo,"  I love your image.

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Danilo Brito -

http://www.npr.org/event/music/527450798/danilo-brito-tiny-desk-concert

Secrets 17 - Ghostly Knight

Ghostly Knight

I have so much ephemera that it spills out of most of the storage locations in my house.  My art students have full usage of it.  Every once in awhile I come upon something that students plan on using in their work and I ask, "Where did you get that piece?"  Their response is usually from your stash.  That is the case of the knight below.  Thanks Ann for giving it up to me.

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Gabriel Gazon-Montano

http://www.npr.org/event/music/529874786/gabriel-garz-n-montano-tiny-desk-concert