Author: Shelly

Bookarts

Red Fleece Journal

Shelly

Book_RedFleece_FrontSM
Red Fleece Journal, Front
6 x 4 inches
140lb Cartiera Magnani hot press watercolor paper
buttonhole binding with coptic and long stitches

Book_RedFleece_Spine2SM
Spine

I’ve been wanting to try a buttonhole binding, but, as always, I got hung up on what to do about the cover. Then, I remembered a remnant of fleece I’d bought with the intention of making some braided tug toys for the dogs. The bright red color is cheerful and the fleece is soft on the hands. Since it’s a small book, there was still plenty of fleece left over to make a few tug toys–a win-win solution.

The paper came from my stash of 140lb Cartiera Magnani scraps that were left-over from the Blue Book. There are ten signatures of two folded sheets, so the book has 40 pages.

I ended up attaching the cover a little too tightly to the book, where the eyelets are. At those four points, the cover pulls around the edges of the spine. Next time I’ll be careful to leave a little slack at those points. Other than that, I’m pretty happy with the stitching. It’s nice and tight without being too tight. And, for once, I didn’t tear any of the holes by applying too much pressure.

Art

My Inner Smurfette

Shelly

I’m not a big fan of painting with acrylics, though I use them for priming backgrounds in my journals/sketchbooks and, occasionally, for painting. I do, however, love to use them for dying fabric. Even the ubercheap (44¢/bottle) craft acrylics work well for this. I use about 10-20 parts water to 1 part paint. It’s not a precise measurement–you want to water down the paint enough that it doesn’t affect the hand of the fabric, but not so much that the color becomes washed out. It should look like a nice, rich dye bath. The reason I prefer acrylics over dye is that the acrylic will not fade. In fact, you can even bleach it without lightening the color.

So… I had some left-over paints from the Blue Book and thought I’d use them to dye some of the little paper scraps I’d reserved for making more miniature books. I got out a small mixing bowl and went to work. I combined a pearlized teal with phthalo blue, which made a gorgeous Mediterranean blue. The paper is absolutely beautiful, with just a hint of shimmer. My hands, alas, are also blue. I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed, but I couldn’t remove all the blue dye.

Art, Artist Books, Collage, Paintings

Pandora’s Jar

Shelly

Pandora's Jar
Pandora’s Jar
acrylic, Neocolors II, and collage on paper

This is the second spread in the Blue Journal. The background is acrylic, again. The jar was done in Caran d’Ache Neocolors II. I also used Neocolors II to color the fortune cookie slips. Like the previous spread, the tealy colors in this piece did not scan well. I ended up knocking down the saturation and contrast, which helped a bit, but the color itself is still off.

This spread could’ve doubled for the Vessels book. I may end up repeating it there, using a different color scheme.

Art, Artist Books, Paintings

Rain Bird

Shelly

Rainbird
Rain Bird
acrylic on paper

I spent over an hour Photoshopping this spread and the color still isn’t quite right. Tealy-aquas are a pain in the ass to reproduce, especially when there are metallics involved. Grrr. This is the first spread in the Blue Journal, which is for an Art Erratica round robin. I was supposed to get this stupid thing mailed out yesterday, but held it back so I could make scans. I figured I’d have plenty of time to get them done this ayem, then I’d run into town and pop this puppy in the mail. Now, it’s looking like that’s not going to happen until tomorrow, which will make it two days late. I suppose I could send it out as is, without getting scans first, but it’s going to be traveling for almost a year. If it gets lost or damaged, I won’t get a second chance. Who knew that it’d take me as long to scan and tweak as it did to make the bloody thing in the first place?

Anyway, this particular RR is color based. Everyone picked a color scheme that appealed to them. Mine is “underwatery blues,” so everyone who works in my book will work primarily in shades of blue.

Obviously, the Rain Bird is not anatomically correct. He’s sort of half bird, half betta fish, with feathery blue fins. I used quite a bit of metallic paint, hoping it would give a “silver lining” sort of effect. Metallics don’t scan well, but the original is nice and shimmery. Oooh, shiny!

Pets

Lemons!

Shelly

There have been lots of discussions in the dog groups about weird things our dogs will eat. Sunday night, I tried grapefruit. Both dogs said, “More, pleaseandthanks!” While I was at Babbs this morning, I picked up some lemons, with the intention of seeing what they’d make of them. Elliott ate a few pieces, but was less than thrilled (he’ll eat anything I give him). Harriet is a little more picky, but will give most things a try. Surprisingly, she really seems to like lemons. Altogether, she ate about a quarter of a lemon, peel and all.

Crankypantsing

Wow

Shelly

People amaze me. I guess some people are so thoroughly, completely, and desperately unhappy that they have a compulsion to try to make others just as wretched and miserable as they are. Don’t dare let them get a taste of your blood, because like sharks, they’ll swarm and attack until they devour you.

But oh! The irony! While lecturing others on the workings of Karma out of one side of their mouths, they spew such lovely pet names as skank, malicious, piece of shit, moron, stupid bitch, hateful, scum, liar, and cunt out of the other.

How overwhelmingly depressing. My cold and I shall repair to our sickbed.

Art

The Beanie!

Shelly

The weather was gross yesterday–cold and sleety and grey, grey, grey. All day at work, the only thing I could think of was going home, making a cup of hot cocoa, and relaxing. When I stopped at the end of the driveway to check the mail, there was my copy of Michael Nobbs’ The Beanie. Oh frabjous day! I could hardly wait to get up to the house and dive in. I let the dogs out and opened the package. Standing at the door, where I could easily check on the dogs, I started reading. It was just as lovely as I’d imagined it would be–funny, gentle, warm, and comfortable. It also is a much needed reminder for me to try to appreciate and live every moment, even the ones that try my patience.

So, go order your copy of The Beanie now!

Art, Artist Books, Bookarts

Blue Journal

Shelly

Blue Book
Blue Journal, Front
140lb Cartiera Magnani hot press watercolor paper, Coptic bound with cotton thread
8 1/2 x 7 1/2 inches, 10 signatures of 2 sheets (40 pages)

Blue Book
Spine

Blue Book
Spine detail

This is the (mostly) finished book for the art journal round robin. It’s a color-themed RR and, as you can see, my journal will be focusing on shades of blue. I used more Cartiera Magnani paper (140lb hot press watercolor paper), which should allow everyone to work in pretty much any medium they choose. The soft denim cover will, I hope, hold up well in the mail. The sewn, open spine binding is flexible and ought to allow for some expansion.

Between folding and tearing the paper down to the right size and sewing the bindings on two books today, my fingertips are hamburger and my hands ache. But, I’m finished! I still have a couple of spreads of my own artwork to do before mailing it off, but the hard part is done.

Oh, and I’ve got tons of small pieces of paper left over to make some more silly little books with. I should be able to get a couple of 3 x 3 3/4 inch books and one 2 1/2 x 1 3/4 inch book out of it.

Art, Bookarts

Dial-A-Tale Journal

Shelly

Dial-A-Tale Book: Front Cover
Dial-A-Tale Journal
exposed spine binding
7 1/2 x 7 1/4 inches

Dial-A-Tale Book: Spine
Spine

I’m working on making a book for an art journal round robin. I knew I wanted to do another exposed spine binding, but hadn’t decided on exactly which types of stitches I wanted to use. I hadn’t done a multi-stitch binding and thought I’d give it a try. I did a test run on something a little less ambitious than the journal I’m making, though. For this I cut down a old kids’ board book and used some sketch-weight paper. It’s not the most elegant binding job, but I think I’ve got the basics down well enough to go ahead with the main course.