Spring and Easter

Repetition

A page of repeated images of the fairy feller doll.

One of the first dolls I made and my favourite I think.

Garden

Colours seen in gardens, mica flakes (trying them out) and Vita Sackville-West quote-had just visited Sissinghurst. Left the word 'white' white.

"Every gardener should be an artist along his own lines.

That is the only possible way to create a garden, irrespective of size or wealth."

What a great sentiment-I completely agree!

New Toys

Naughty internet watercolour purchase-but I did need some new ones honestly! I like to try all the colours of new media so that is what I am doing here-with the little labels attached to remind me of the colour.

Animal Party!

Animal fancy dress for my nieces. One was 18 and the other 21. You have seen the donkey ears! Here are the fantastic efforts of everybody else!

Sissinghurst Visit

This page is about my visit to Sissinghurst with my Mum in the Easter holidays. We had a lovely time. She was snapping away like me! The oak leaf is a part of the paper bag design and the bug is one we saw on our walk in the woods. I like the way these pages turned out so green-not surprising really I suppose but not deliberate either-just a circumstance of the day.

Vita

Vita Sackville-West of Sissinghurst fame. Such a beautiful place. Another one I wish I could live at!

Shiny Brocade Sofa

My continuing obsession with those cruel Tudors on this page-with Queen Elizabeth I thinking about shiny brocade sofas. (you may have to enlarge the picture to know what I am on about)

A pogo picture of the scene from a couple of pages ago, me in my donkey ears and a badly painted donkey!!

Iris Leaves, Strawberry Cup and Praline Eggs

An Array of Legs

"I met this guy and he was gorgeous. We were dating and we'd had a few dates and guess what? He had a leg missing. Yeah, when he was a child his mother had left the garden gate open and he'd been hit by a car. He was lucky to be alive. He had an array of legs. A dancing leg, a walking leg, and a hill climbing leg and he used to leave the shoe and the sock on them. I found he'd been cheating on me so I got a hacksaw and I cut his dancing leg. Yeah. I hoped he'd be dancing and his leg would...
I told him I'd chuck his legs in the Thames."

This is the best overheard conversation (monologue) I have ever overheard. I heard it on the train from Littlehampton to Brighton and I had to write it down super quick so I wouldn't forget it. The phrase 'an array of legs' is just inspired!

Dolls and Travel Lodges

Dolls-Miss Felicity Haversham-who later went on to cause me much worry by taking three weeks to arrive in Hungary! Here she is with the circus girls and Aiko Cherry Blossom girl posing for her party shots.
The hair was a bird's nest is a little doodle to go with the text and the other page where it says 'but the eyes beneath were grey' is a sketch of myself looking quite haggard in the Travel Lodge in Little Hampton-the one you stayed at too Robert if you are reading! The room had an orange accent wall and a big mirror. From the bed all I could see in the mirror was my tired face!

Amaryllis Man

The page on the left has a dark grey suit to match the words. The one on the right has Amaryllis juice-from when the flowers die-they go all slimy and shiny and I tried wiping one on the page- with this result. The old man seemed to be in the shapes left behind. I added the blotchy painting of a flower later. The dried leaf in the middle is from my Dragon plant.

The left hand page is silver leaf-it is so delicate and floaty and I am not sure of the best way to transfer it from the paper to where I want it. The right hand page is a gone wrong photo transfer that I then drew a face onto. To transfer the photo, (inkjet not laser printed) you wet the page with sprayed water, then quickly rub over the back of the face down photo, and hope for the best!

Flowers and Spindly Legged Tables

Trying to think of what to write on my shrine and to use the words on the page. The flowers are from wrapping paper and the dried ones are ones I have had in a box for ages-I bought them rather than pressing them myself. I have far too many resources that I am in danger of never using up!

Mica

I was looking for flaming hearts related to the shrine project and really liked these two. I was also trying out some mica. I have not used it before and it is lovely stuff. It breaks into layers and has a soft smokey look with a lovely sheen. A bit like old mirrors which were the subject of the quote on one of these pages-''those old mirrors with black spots on the glass". The mica is not that obvious in the photo though. I read about it in a nature journals book I have got. I couldn't find it in the crafty bit of ebay-well mica flakes but not sheet mica. I discovered it also has a use in wod burning stoves and, I think, boilers-as a heat proof window material.

Sweet Cassie and Flowers

History of a Book

I left the first few pages unaltered as I liked the details of the the publishing dates and the library stamps. It is the minute history of this book.

I have left the first two sentences of the story as a mysterious introduction to the book-

" It was like running in a dream. Down the long quiet corridor of closed doors, past the heavy gilt mirrors that reflected the evening light and along the thick red carpet that deadened all sound."

The Saffron Sea Journal

This journal is an altered Mills and Boon book that nearly ended up in the charity shop. I liked the 70s feel of the cover, the title and author name too much to get rid of it though, so it stayed on the shelf a bit longer. My last journal was a re-used gardening diary and I really enjoyed the way that what was already in it sometimes influenced what I did with the pages. For this book I gessoed most of the pages, leaving phrases showing. The book is about a florist and has lots of lovely descriptions of colour and flowers. I have tried to use the phrases in a page but not always if they didn't fit. I glued some pages together, and have changed some in other ways such as printing from a photo or cutting a hole. I have really enjoyed using it so far, and wanted to do a one off blog of the whole thing. The paper is lovely to work on-either gessoed or not. It has a woven texture that is especially fun with ink and watercolour. The book needed some reinforcement as the gesso expanded the pages. I sewed through the central part of the book into the spine. I also punched holes to put a tie through to hold the book closed. One page a day to come!