Wednesday 28 March 2012

taking a break


I had been meaning to take a break from crafting and blogging while on vacation in April, but I seem to have started the break a bit early. Some of that is the stress and excitement of planning a big holiday, and some of it is the stress of training up a new colleague at work; but most of the reason I haven't felt up to doing much is the shock of finding out an old friend of ours has cancer. It's just been diagnosed and obviously we're hoping for the best. It really puts things into perspective.


Anyway, the journal is waiting for me, and I may get back to it before the holiday, or I may not. This is how it's looking: Scanned Image  0115



Sunday 18 March 2012

Sleepwalking through the week

I think I've spent more time working on the journal at home than on the bus this week. It's been hard to get my brain in gear and I've just been very dozy. One of my colleagues jokingly accused me of sleepwalking on a lunch break, and that's  pretty much how I've felt all week. Scanned Image  0114


The blue colour feels more cheerful and goes with the green page. Even though I haven't been doing much with it this week, it is easier to work on the coloured page. The paint did bleed through to the page before, so here's another scan of that page. The splodges under the "p", on the "d" and under the flower are new. I actually like how they work with the blue triangles on the pages. Scanned Image  0113


My thoughts on the presentation of art journals are the actual final product in the process, plus some more time on Spoonflower, has given me the idea of putting together a fabric printed with the all these scans of the journal pages. However, I need more fabric like I need a hole in the head, so  I might just ignore that idea.



Saturday 10 March 2012

Being stubborn

Scanned Image  0111
This week, I've been distracted by two new project ideas: a little owl with a heart shaped face (see above for doodles of the idea) and using the acrylic house paint image transfer technique to make an articulated mermaid doll (no doodle  scan available, I leave it up to your imagination). I think both these are good ideas, a bit cute for cute's sake, but using techniques I'm interested in experimenting with and stuff I already have. But, though the making of the things seems straight forward, the designing stage for both would take a lot of effort, and I have to admit that I'm just not up for that right now. So, I'll store these ideas away for later, and instead concentrate on the art journal for the time being.


I've also discovered papel picado this week, while browsing Spoonflower (a great way to relax). Though I'd love to try it, it's not the same thing as the other ideas. Are there any papel picado classes in the Manchester area?


I've felt like I've had to force myself to spend time on the journal. The page on the right hasn't been coming together well. It didn't have a coloured background, and though I thought I'd just give it a go, I'm thinking now that it does need it. The pile of images also had me spending ages looking at different arrangements and rearrangements. I've settled on one and I'm happy enough with it. I had been planning to do a pink background, but when I looked at the scan of the pages, the blues in the images seem to link the pages together, so I'm thinking now that I'll use some sea/sky blue colour. This could be influenced by the office block I work at having its stairwell painted in those colours this week. Scanned Image  0112



Saturday 3 March 2012

Is this real?

Scanned Image  0109
My P, after catching up with this blog, came into the room and said "That really looks good on the web" with all the implications that it didn't look good in reality! Evidently, in real life it looks like a pile of random bits, much like my collection of fabric, strings and odd junk that I call crafting supplies; it looks too delicate to hold together, like it's not a solid object, not a complete thing in and of itself. (I confess it has started to make crackling noises when opened.) The conversation made me think how I've never seen another art journal in real life, my ideas about them are almost entirely from what I see on the web. Is it something which in real life can only be raw, with the presentation of the thing being the completed product, sort of like props for a film?


P also noted that “anubi” was a ridiculous word. According to Sir E.A. Wallis Budge in Egyptian Language, “masculine nouns (I am assuming Anubis is masculine) in the plural end in U or IU”. So my new plural for Anubis is anubiu, just as incorrect but it sounds so cute to my Anglophone ear!


And on the topic of words that aren’t real, I overhead a conversation between two women on their way home from work, about a TV socket, “It’s not like a health and safety thing, it’s just aesthetical. (pause) Aesthetical, that’s not a real word is it? It’s just aesthetic, that’s what I mean.” Though I would have agreed with her at the time, it turns out that aesthetical is a real word, just one that seems wrong.