ms. shoes

Playing catch-up while away from home. First up, a book that is slowly taking shape.

It combines a format (flag book), a material (watercolor washes) and a bit of doggerel that wriggled into my head (and sketchbook) a couple of years ago.

The format is the flag book binding. I made a goofy test version using a tacky postcard from Iowa. As you can see here.

If you want a much better look at the construction I suggest looking over the Bonefolder issue . A large collection of examples can be found in the gallery of work submitted to the 2006 bind-o-rama.

The material is Arches 300# watercolor paper with washes of several greens and blues and a bit of something dark. I’ve done two large double sided sheets so there should be plenty to work with.

The doggerel goes like this:

Fishy-fishy in the sea.

Fishy-fishy bring it to me.

Damned if I know what it means.

At the moment I’m imagining 8 folds in the accordion and five flags per “page.” With the flags being irregularly shaped - perhaps as waves or perhaps as fish. Or maybe wave shapes with fish images that cross waves - or - or…

And that’s how it goes - three ideas thrown together on a working tray and just hanging out together until something starts to happen.

edited 25.june.2008 to correct image links

The rooms of the House of Mythical Creatures are all connected up. I finished just as it was getting too dark to work.

Detailed pictures in a day or two.

edited 25.june.2008 to correct image links

Collaged paper can get rather thick and lumpy. Getting the panels stuck down to the mat board took some doing.

So the House of Mythical Creatures panels are now mounted on mat board and the backers are made and mounted. It’s all sitting in the press getting flat. Tomorrow I’ll finish up the hinges and title blocks.

I’m almost done with this piece of work. I’m happy with most of it. That’s as good as it gets. I’m ready for something new.

edited 25.june.2008 to correct image links

Much progress has been made on the House of Mythical Creatures. None of which is visible in the photo. I’m thinking that I need to build some sort of press for holding the panels flat while they dry.

Also I noticed after how many weeks? (5, I think) that there is a typo in one of the main pieces of text. Oy.

edited 25.june.2008 to correct image links

Still working on the flowers gothic arch. It now has birds on it. I have a picture of my great grandmother that I think will go in the center.

I have a new gothic arch started. The background is torn papers coated with a wash of gel medium to get it all stuck down. I put a bird down and then decided that a couple of the background papers where just too bright so I smeared gesso over it all. Then the bird disappeared. I liked him well enough to cut out a second copy and pasted it down. They over lap a bit but you can’t see it in this photo. The balloons are from a painting (used on the cover of the SAM bulletin.) I’m not sure what the key tags are going to be.

I got the backgrounds for the house book pasted down. I suspect that once the pieces are finished no-one will see them.

I’m also knitting a mohair scarf - a mid-not-very-red purple in a simple eyelet pattern. It’s to go with my grey coat. I try to knit in the evening but I’m getting so short sighted that I need a lot of light to see the stitches and sometimes I’d rather not have the bright reading light on while we’re watching television.

edited 25.june.2008 to correct image links

The quote is Marianne Moore. I don’t know why it seemed necessary to put words about toads on top of the opening page of an old edition of Pride and Prejudices. But it was.

I’m trying to be better about keeping notes as I go along. (Click the thumbnails forf ull size images.)

2 Gothic Arches pieces that are on my table at the moment.

Poetry-Toads. The background is made up of pattern tissue and a facsimile of the first page of an old edition of Pride and Prejudice. I colored the peacock with watercolor pencils and then soaked it in magic juice. ( a mix of leftover tea leaves and coffee grounds in lukewarm water.) A little thinned out gesso and it’s ready to go. The quote is from Marianne Moore re the definition of a poem cut out and glued to some Japanese wrapping paper. The lady is colored and wetted and not glued down yet. It needs a final surface treatment of some sort to pull it together and mellow the edges.

I don’t know where this one is going. The background is a paper towel that started life a a brush wiper and then got painted on it’s own merit. (Water colors - greens and browns and a funky amber that I love and will probably never be able to recreate.)

The flowers are from the front of a seed packet that is on some wallpaper I have a scrap of. There’s a cutout of an engraving of a little bird (Carolina wren?) that I think belongs on here.

I’m on my third time through In This House. I’m going to do mine as an accordion book with each page about nine inches tall. I’ve got some rice paper backings drying on boards, cadmium red this time. I mean to use it as backgrounds for the houses.

Slacking on the income earning front and doing art instead.

Two completed pieces:

Hand recursive.

I finished this one a couple of weeks ago. It was my first try in this shape.

Finger Hat

A 4X4 on heavy watercolor paper. Images from needlework magazines, buttons from heaven only knows where and a bit of type from my vast collection of fonts.