Altered pages

These pages all have paper napkins and my home made stamps for decoration. The bottom one has some of my handrawn images that I photo copy then use them as transfers, that way I can repeat them on other pages. I never start out with a theme, I just put down colour and go from there.



I've finished my pages in my current ABRR and sent it on today. I find when I'm working in the book, my journal pages tend to reflect the colours I'm using in the ABRR, so Ursula if you read this, your pages are quite colourful. I had to tone my colours down for Judy's book and for Marie's, but I let my hair down for Ursula's and Megan's books. I'm now waiting for my next one to arrive. There are eight of us in Australia and seven ladies from American, we receive a new book each month. We get our own book back in November 2008 so we have to be patient and not show our work until them. I'm amazed at the diverse range of styles and the fabulous work that everyone is doing, it's like receivinga present every time a new book arrives. Bring on the next one.

Altered Journal pages

Three more pages from my altered journal. This is the book I use for teaching my workshops, hence the hinge and eyelet connections.
For anyone wanting to start a journal go and visit Suziblu, what a breathe of fresh air this lovely young lady is, she makes videos of her journal making and has a new video each week. Thanks to Judy for putting me on to her.
Another site I've just discovered for anyone who loves pattern and design like I do is print and pattern They have some great designs that could be adapted for stamp or stencil making.

Mail Art and altered book class

What a lovely surprise arrived in the mail on Friday. This lovely package from Sharon as a thank you for visiting her blog and leaving comments on her 'Art Party' weekend. If you haven't visited Sharon's blog it's definitely worth a visit, she produces some great art.



Last Thursday night was the monthly get together of our altered book class, these are all students who have taken my altered book workshops. We meet for three hours once a month and work in our books, swap ideas and goodies and I go over the things we've covered in the workshops. Sometimes I teach them something new, as I did on Thursday, I showed them how to carve their own stamps from Ezy carve blocks.
What a fabulous group of ladies were there, Margaret, Sue, Patsy, Claudia, Nicky, Pip and Cheryl, the owner of the store. We did a swap of paper napkins and anything else we had more than we could use ourselves. The photo above is my collection that I received, including two art books that were no longer wanted by Sue, and three fabulous optical lenses from Claudia who so generously gave them to me after I'd complained in the previous class that they were hard to find.
This really is a fantastic group, so inspiring, I love seeing their enthusiasm for my recycling of anything that can be painted or glued, they never throw anything out now. Show and tell is also a fabulous part of the night too, Patsy always has so much beautiful work to show and gets us all going.
Can't wait until the next one.



This is a new metal cabinet that my brother in-law dropped off to me a couple of weeks ago. I've had to re-arrange my studio to accommodate it, but now my studio works so much better. I have three of these cabinets and the tops make great work areas, as you can image by now the drawers are almost full, it doesn't take me long to fill them.



This is the top of the cabinet, as you can see it's already well in use.



This is the collection of 'stuff' that sits on my jewellery bench top, it's ever increasing, but it's amazing how seeing things jumbled like this, helps when it comes to putting items together.

Sharon's surprise

What a fantastic surprise awaited me when I arrived home tonight. A beautifully decorated box with this gorgeous painting from Sharon. We organised a swap last month and this was my lovely surprise. It now has pride of place, for all to see, on the shelf above my computer.
I couldn't write a post without a piece of art so here's my latest journal page, back to the colour.

Judy's challenge

Never one to turn down an art challenge, Judy has presented me with two this month. The first is her altered book which is similar to her Of Elephants and Dreams anthology on Judy's blog. Now we all know how I LOVE colour, Judy's book was quite a challenge. It's a magnificent piece of art that I was honoured to be a part of, I'll be very sad to see it go to it's next artist tomorrow. I've thoroughly enjoyed this challenge and I hope have been successful. I won't be able to show any of my art in Judy's book until late next year, after it's done the rounds of Australia and US.
The second challenge was a comment she left on my blog in the previous post. Judy said she wanted to see me do a black and white page. Well Judy here it is. But I couldn't resist taking it into photoshop just to let her see what a touch of colour will do.
On another note Beate has nominated me for a Rockin Blogger award. Thanks Beate, you should all pay a visit to her site and see her wonderful textile art. I nominate anyone who wishes to rock.

Back to the jewellery

I've finally got back to the jewellery making, I haven't made anything for over three weeks, so I'm aiming for a brooch a night for the next few days. I work in fits and starts, but I get there in the end.
I've been asked to teach another Altered book workshop in August at Hann Made Studio so if anyone's able to attend I'd love to see you there.
Now I'd better get back to brooch making, the nights ticking away.

Altered Book Workshop

I've been so engrossed working in someone else's altered book over the past weekend, that I took no notice of the date or time.
It wasn't until I remembered on Monday night that it was my daughter's birthday on Thursday, that the penny dropped and I suddenly realized that I was teaching an Altered Book workshop this Sunday. They say we work best under pressure and that certainly proved to be the case, I've been creating, printing and collating every night this week and I'm almost finished. I like to hand out a workshop instruction manual so that students have notes to take home. I also include laser copies of my papers, clip art, old photos, fabric and my drawings.
This time I used A3 envelopes as covers. I decorated both sides then folded the envelopes in half. The manual is A4 so I attached that to the inside part of the envelope. I put the papers in plastic pockets and added them to the open end of the envelope. I decorated the flap, added eyelets, then tied them up with fancy yarns.
Now all I have to do is put all my materials together, luckily I drive a little 2 door Rav 4, so I can take the back seats out and load up.

The top photo is a new page from my journal, it's the first time I've used a face from a magazine and altered it, it looks nothing like the original, which was what I'd hoped for.

Mirror image

I haven't any art to show today as I've been so busy working on my book for our ABRR. While I was working I happened to glimpse the view out of my studio window, in a mirror I have hanging on my book shelves. It's funny how you see things differently in reverse, I take my view out of the window for granted, but in reverse it's like a whole new garden.
I can't show any photos of my book until it returns in November 2008, I hope it has a safe journey around Australia and the US, I'd love to be visiting some of the places it will go to, some of the stories it could tell, I'm looking forward to working in other peoples books too.