Hello Darlings

How are you all? Hoping you all are well, and in fine arty fettle. I am doing well, but I do find the extra work of the new studio being built and the preparations of the classes I will be offering in September not daunting, but there is a certain amount of anxiety shall we say. I think it has more to do with the swapping over of business and the fear of it not working, which is of course totally rubbish. That with the fact that I have given myself two year for this transformation  process, is so cautious it is untrue. Fear is a natural human condition and a very good one, or we would end up doing considerably more stupid things, than us humans already manage. I think it's just, I provide everything for my family and myself, being very happily divorced and my babies depend on me to get it right,....so  no pressure. I know everything is going to be just fine, and dare I say it, even better than I can imagine. Faith is what is require here, faith in me.

Now onto some art, yippee.  I am happily still working on life book, and every time I create a new page I need to trim a strip of paper off the edge. Being me I can not just throw this out as rubbish, but I put it with other things that just haven't found a new life yet. Well I found them a job! They have teamed up with some old and empty cotton thread spools.

Like I said, old empty spool.

Of course, these come in various sizes, you should see what I am doing now, but you can't. You will have to wait until next week. Suffice to say the electricians are in at the present and you should see the things they throw away!

I spray painted  the spool black. But there are lots of colours out there.

I actually did this in the garage which is turning into the new studio, so this is the first piece of art to come out of there! How exciting is this.

Stitch the strips of paper together

Opps! Forgot to take picture of strips in progress, but I will tell you what I did. I took several of the strips and joined them together with glue. I then painted them, with kooh-I Noor dyes in greens and blues, which I have to say I am a little obsessed with at present. Then I added decoupage, stamping, and mark making with whatever I could find. Next I added stitch detail, by running it through the machine a few times changing the stitches as I go.

Join the two together

I attached the strip to the spool with double sided tape, and made two end caps, just by drawing around the spool and decorating it. These where glued on using Gel Medium. I think there is a lot of potential for these,... watch this space.

Onto other things.I have been working with Crafty Dolly Birds on journaling these passed few months, and the next time I see them we will be exploring, incorporating flaps and pockets into our journals. I love making my journals more interactive. It adds so much more interest and it makes me smile.

I started off with a small, 7 x 5 inch water colour spiral bound book. with twelve pages. Removed some of the pages to create the pockets and flaps.

Now this book has eight page with all sorts of interactive flaps and folds.

Add paint, greens,

and blues again!

Start on the pockets. Now I couldn't really stitch this pocket to the page, as I can not get the sewing machine that close, so stitch the pocket on its own, so you get the stitch detail, then glue it to the page.

Well that will have to do for now. I will continue with this journal next week for you. I will post a day early this week as a treat, and to make up for the fact I have been late the past couple of weeks.  I have created my own web site this week, which I need to provide a link for, this I am failing to manage, but I will do it! Technical support, seventeen year old son, has discovered girls! If asking nicely still doesn't work I shall have to tie him to a chair and deny him food until the link is created!

www.artefactory.org

I will be having an Artefactory Open Studio, 13th and 14th of July 2013. The full address will be on the web site nearer the time, and when I have worked out how to do the map! But I am in York, North Yorkshire, UK.  So that gives you and idea of where I am.

Oddles of arty lovikins to you all.