New Journal

Long on the project table, this sewn-on-tapes journal is finally complete. Envisioned as a birthday present for my Mom in late December it’s only six months late; sorry, Mom!

This is in the style of the online class taught by Mary Ann Moss, using a recycled hardback book for covers, a mix of papers for signatures, and fabric for tapes. I created a few handy pockets from scrapbook paper. Here is the first one I made last summer.

This is one of my favorite journal styles. I love how easy the bookbinding sewing is, how flat the pages lay to work on, how well it takes lots of collage (including glued in envelopes), and how inspiring the different papers and sizes are.

What is your favorite journal style? Handmade or commercially available?

On Keeping Art Journals and Making Art Journals

For those who enjoy keeping an art journal, there are some great online options right now. First is the free series by Strathmore Paper, Visual Journal Online Workshop Series , which started in January, is self-paced, and will be open until August 1, 2011. Three different instructors give video lessons with printable hand-outs.

In a few days, Roz Stendahl begins her 3rd Annual Fake Journal month. She already has her dedicated blog up and is advising about all aspects of keeping a Fake Journal during the month of April. I’ve participated for two years and even won the grand prize in the give-away last year—a handmade journal from Roz! It’s 90 lb. hot press Winsor & Newton watercolor paper with an odd size of 3 9/16” x 7 7/8”.

This journal I found in a gift shop in Ireland last fall. I love the size, the fabric cover, and the color—it’s iridescent green on blue. http://www.hubertbookbinding.com/ 3.50” x 5.25”

Although those two journals are still blank, I am working in one below, which a dear friend gave me many years ago, “Awaken…to the beauty of your journey.” 7.50” x 7.50”.

Still fascinating with the hand motif, I’m playing with wonderful India henna stencils and Mandala illustrations. It’s mostly blank pages, a few with colorful Mandalas by Holli Zollinger and a scattering of quotes. Pitt pens on both pages shown.

How do you approach art journaling? Although I’ve read a lot of books and blogs about the subject, I cannot say I fully merge my words and art comfortably. I’ve kept written journals since my Mom got me my first diary as a child in Hawaii and I have done a lot of experimental paintings in spiral watercolor books. But in my mind words and art seem separate beasts. I am slowly trying to integrate the two. Driving home from work today, (don't we get good ideas doing such things?), I thought about using poetry I wrote many years ago and merging photos of myself at the time.

Do tell me your approach and your successes with art journaling!

Ladies & Gentlemen, Start Your Fake Journal!

Do you enjoy looking at artist journals? Do you like keeping a journal yourself? Have you ever kept a journal as someone else?

The 2nd International Fake Journal Month is approaching! Started by Roz Stendahl last year, she has a blog encouraging and describing what fake journals are all about. I jumped in at, literally, the last hour and had a great time. My character was a young wife and mother in 1960’s Ireland and she tried to sketch and jot down things going on in her life; you can see them here.

You could do a fake journal in a media you’ve always wanted to try, in a voice you’ve always been curious about. Last week, thinking and jotting possibilities down, I got excited about one in particular. I won’t give it away just yet, but encourage you to play along if you’d like.

Fluttering About

I seem be an artistic butterfly lately, fluttering from one craft to another, barely staying long at any one.

Last year my curiosity about bookbinding focused on taking classes and learning different binding styles. Here is a recent effort, my first try using coptic binding with hard covers.

Binding signatures into leather covers blossomed into designing book closures and adornments, so I landed in the green field of wire and jewelry-making. Here are some of my designs in copper and wire.

Gliding over to join a friendly sewing group, I am starting to darn socks and take up a crochet hook again, wondering if I might make a giant migration and try a sewing machine.

Which is a bit strange, given my history. With a grandmother renown for her skillful and creative stitching skills, a mother who often made us clothes, and an artistic sister, I was a bookworm not interested at all in sewing. Yet, I tried embroidery as a teenager and my step-Mom taught us how to crochet one summer and I made simple throws and bed spreads.

I am intrigued by sewing paper as described in craft magazines and books, art blog posts and online class offering. Rhonda Miller sews Christmas cards into a book and sparked an examination of my hoard of cards and postcards from decades past. Mary Ann Moss has an online class “Remains of the Day” that utilizes daily paper ephemera and special photos to machine stitch a journal together. Both D.J. Pettitt's and L.K. Ludwig's online classes, although different in approach, encourage introducing your own photos to create meaningful, authentic journals. Although I have not taken any of those classes, I am moved by their general concepts.

Rationalizing that I only have so much time and room to create, I have resisted learning how to sew. But, given how butterfly fickle I've been lately, perhaps I'll soon relent and begin sewing old cards and letters onto journal pages, start making photo transfers onto fabric as well as paper, and maybe appliqué a memento to adorn a book cover.

Re-reading books about art journals, I like ideas that use personally significant pieces. Sorting old paper and fabric pieces, I am gathering ideas how to showcase them in mixed-media journals or paintings instead of filing or boxing them away.

But, first and foremost, I need to clean up my studio. You don’t know what a mess a fluttering butterfly, with projects all over the place, can make!

April Fake Journal Ends

The International Fake Journal Month is over and so is Ashling's journal. It has been wonderful thinking about my character's life and sketching in her journal last month.

I will miss hearing about her life in a small town in Ireland, back in 1961.

But, there is some room left unfinished in the little green journal where black pen sketches and longhand written entries graced the slightly-textured buff colored pages. The door is left ajar, in case she has more to share or draw.

More Fake Journal Sketches

As the International Fake Journal Month winds down, I've done more drawing and writing in my book, or Ashling has. It has been tremendous fun doing something I didn't know I'd like to do--sketch--and also to be a bit of a novelist inventing this person, her family, and her life.

Keeping a fake journal can allow you to step into another's shoes and view the world through their eyes, something we rarely think about as we go about our daily lives.

The last few sketches I've relied more on my travel photos from Ireland than from other sources. Probably, Ashling wouldn't have been able to visit the length and breath of the island like I did several years ago but doubtless some of the countryside she'd have recognized.

Starting a fake journal, I did not pre-plan whose life I would live for 30 days. But it has reminded me of the struggles we all face, especially women, as fellow human beings sharing the planet regardless of time period, economic position, or national origin.

Fake Journal

Since April Fool’s evening, I’ve been keeping an International Fake Journal for the month, suggested and encouraged by Roz Stendahl (http://officialinternationalfakejournalblog.blogspot.com/). My best creative work usually arrives from not thinking too much so I decided at the last moment to dive into this. Near the end of the day, I looked on my shelf for a blank journal, and got out a Sakura Pigma Micron black pen, brought up a photo I’d take on an Irish beach, and began—gasp!—sketching.

I don’t sketch! Well, I did play around with drawing when I bought the original Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. But I haven’t done much since, except when I sketch an idea in my Art Idea notebook. I don’t really count that as sketching because I’m not looking at anything as a guide to the drawing.

But, as soon as I did the first sketch, I turned the page and wrote the first entry. Slowly, a story unfolded, written by a married Irishwoman. The next day I discovered she had three children. Using either a photo of mine or one from a book, I would sketch an Irish scene. The next time I opened my book, something new would appear from the pen.

So, who is she? Her name is Ashling McDurmut, which means “dream” in Gaelic (perfect since she’s my made up dream person), she’s in her thirties, married to Ryan; their children are Sean Patrick, Ann, and little Kerry. The year is 1961. Frequently, Ashling doesn’t have time to finish a sketch or journal entry. Her husband wants another child but she does not want a large family, even though three isn’t considered large by any means in her time and place.

Choosing a blank book I haven't worked in before—a small Hand artist’s journal (3½" × 5½", portrait orientation) with a green cover (perfect!)--I find the paper is good for sketching but the Micron pens (05 and 02) are very scratchy for writing.

Last week I tested some Sakura Brush pigment pens, something new to me that I really liked, and was tempted to introducing them into the fake journal by suggesting Ashling received a gift of watercolors. But, I decided to keep this fake journal pure with just the black ink pens, which would be in any case heads and tails above anything available in her era.

Although we have little in common, although we are separated by time, culture, distance, and of course, reality, I think we have a connection.

I like Ashling and I’m enjoying my first fake journal.

Nature Books, Artists Books, Fake Journals

Spring Splendor (Red Bud Leaves)

Gelatin Print (acrylic on watercolor paper)

9” x 12”

This print was done last summer and seemed appropriate as I continued making pages for a small (4” x 4”) nature book. Inspired by L.K. Ludwig http://gryphonsfeather.typepad.com/the_poetic_eye/ and her book Mixed Media Journals), D. J. Pettit (http://www.djpettitt.blogspot.com/), and Judy Wise (http://judywise.blogspot.com/) , who all spice up their books with fabulous fabric, sewing, photos, drawings, gelatin prints, 3-D items, and so much more, I’ve decided to make a Sampler Book and see just how many materials I can make “pages” from.

Although I haven’t finished pages nor bound it/they (it might be one very fat book with several signatures or several small books with 1 or 2 signatures), I brought some examples for show-and-tell at the beginning of yesterday’s book sewing class. When I showed our instructor, Linda Draper, various cover possibilities (fabric, canvas, leather, etc.), I got some good feedback. All could work for sewing and she also suggested putting a backing on the fabric, such as fusible webbing, that would make the cover and spine stiffer and easier to sew through.

When I asked Linda how she used the books she made, I was surprised to hear her say she did not use them to journal or do art in; some she gave to friends. That had never occurred to me--making a blank book just to make it. Since I've loved books since I was a child, I have expanded my definition from an object to read to an object of art. I love creating travel books or daily painting books or theme books using commercially-made hardbound sketchbooks or spiral watercolor books. I love altering the covers, using different techniques on the papers, trying some different things with different tools. Collecting several types and sizes of blank books, I’m exploring what I like and don’t like, what mediums work or don’t work on various papers. Although I like the idea of Altered Books, I have found the paper very frustrating to work in (acrylics don’t work very well in them) and have yet to complete a single one I’ve started!

Creating more of my own books, I enjoy learning and exploring the form. Here is a simple accordion book I made my sister almost two years ago called “In Praise of Trees.” It has two Davey board covers. The folded pages are one long section of a watercolor sheet; you can see the deckled edge on the top.

I’m tempted to take another bookmaking class this summer. Linda showed us examples from a basic bookbinding one taught by another instructor—a travel book that looks very much like a large Moleskine with elastic band and pocket (although with a lovely green cover and endpapers!), another with a paper cover with stubs and envelopes, and a photo album that allows for expansion when photos are added. One of the latter two had a wonderful paper cover with a strip of other paper cut and woven through it with signature sewings showing.

Since I love to keep a journal for writing and for art and for everything in between, I began my fake journal this week, jumping in with others inspired by Roz Stendahl's International Fake Journal Month. For now, I’m holding off revealing details or art in the journal, to keep the creative fuels burning. I will say that I’m really surprised at the medium I chose and how this fake persona is being revealed to me each time I open the special little journal. So much fun!

International Fake Journal Month

Want to get out of your artistic rut? Tired of your old journal? Roz Stendahl http://rozwoundup.typepad.com/roz_wound_up/ is shaking things up by encouraging everyone to keep a fake journal in April. She's even created a special blog to track progress for those wishing to share. http://officialinternationalfakejournalblog.blogspot.com/

Wanna play?