Back from Norway

I have just returned from a weeks' stay in Norway with my husband. We had a wonderful time relaxing in the beautiful scenery and surviving the city life of Oslo.
The weather was glorious and the effect of the sun shining on the deep virgin snow in the fields was magical. Even the astronmical costs of food and alcohol could not dampen the visit.

Spring has certainly come to the Vendee with cowslips, primroses and peach blossoms all in abundance. I spent part of the afternoon watching a pair of Green Woodpeckers carry out a courtship dance in the garden - retirement is wonderful.

I have now finished my altered book based on the poem Warning by Jenny Joseph and I have really enjoyed playing with the different techniques and effects to interpret the poem in stitch for me. I will post some photos of the finished book with this post.

Thank you Heather and Robin for your lovely comments,it is so rewarding to have positive comments made about your work. Thanks also to Maggie Grey for reading my blog and commenting on it on the Catalogue Killers forum. I am certainly enjoying the blogging and the opportunity to record my work as I am working on it.

I will try again.....

I am trying again to put up the log that should have gone up on Wednesday instead of the blank space. I had typed in all my log and when I went to display it, it dissapeared - oh well that is technology I suppose.

Yesterday I decided to continue with my 2nd altered book. After completing the cover and spraying it with spray dyes and Axminster inks in various shades of blue and red it had a distinctive purple effect. This gave me the inspiration I needed to develop it and I decided to depict the poem Warning by Jenny Joseph ...When I am an old woman I shall wear purple..... This poem has always been a favourite with me.

I decided to split the poem into a number of sections and give each section a page. I embroidered the words onto dyed lutradur which I then distressed with the heat gun.
I completed the first page yesterday.

A dull miserable day which did not encourage one to go out of doors, so there was no excuses to be made for working on textiles. I worked on my second altered book as part of the Maggie Grey classes, concentrating on the cover. I had already glued crumpled tissue paper to the cover of the book and allowed it to dry. I continued to use spray dyes and stains to cover the tissue paper and then allowed them to dry.

I also photographed the mini book I had made for Alex and Kelly's engagement which I have included with this post.

A slow start this morning as we had to go to order the cheminee pieces for the new fire in what is to become the lounge. I had to pick myself off the floor as we received the quote for the order, our first house in 1969 did not cost very much more!!!! What with the miserable weather, drizzly rain and the shock of the cost for the cheminee I was glad to come back home and commence work on my small book for Alex and Kelly.

I worked on the inside pages using hand made paper inserts inside gold coloured paper. I used quotations from the passage from the Corinthians, Love is kind, etc.. and pieced together the shrink plastic covers with the pages using split jump rings.
I made a box cover to fit the book, covered it with tissue paper and spray painted it. Finally I made some shrink plastic hearts which I put on the box cover and on some of the inside pages.

By the time I had finished the natural light had gone and so I was unable to photograph the book and box, but hopefully I will tomorrow, and post it on the blog.

No time for any work again today as went on a mercy mission for Jo and Gareth, two of our daughter's friends who have an appartment in La Faute. They had received an e-mail to say the roof of their appartment had been damaged in the recent 'tempette', so we went to assess the damage for them. Fortunately all the damage was over the appartment next door, and the tiles that had been dislodged were positioned at the edge of the roof so they should have had no leaks as a result of the damage.

As the day was wall to wall sunshine and we walked down to the beach to see the sea whilst we were there. A welcome break, by the time we returned home there was not much time to start work on the little book I am supposed to be making. Never mind there is always tomorrow.

A definite change in the weather from the Spring like days we have been experiencing without any rain. Heavy rain and strong winds started the day but the blue sky prevailed at the end. The garden certainly will have benefitted from the water. Not a lot of work produced today as I was scheduled for a short back and sides with a colour make over on the grey peeping through. We made an unscheduled stop via the supermarket to purchase plants for the garden, this week's special offer, and then on returning home I was required to be 'gofer' for my husband as he continued with the renovation work. Never mind there is always tomorrow!!!!

After visiting a local DIY store during the morning in order to purchase essential items for the restoration work going on at home I returned to continue with my work. I have been making some small books from shrink plastic and hand made paper with a matching box to keep it in. This again was inspiration from the Maggie Grey Free Classes related to her book Textile Translations. I have made a number of different books which I have given to friends and relatives for presents. I have posted a photo of some of the books. I am currently working on one to celebrate a friend's son becoming engaged I will personalise the information inside to include aspects about them.

First day of the rest of my life

Well, thanks to Gloria, I have actually set up a blog of my own instead of spending hours reading other peoples.

I hope through my blog I am able to keep a diary of events and record my creative work. I have been following the free classes run by Maggie Grey in conjunction with her book Textile Translations and have thoroughly enjoyed the work and being part of the forum that have contributed to the classes.

One of the first projects I worked on was a wigwam book using Pelmet Vilene and Gesso. I have posted a photograph underneath of one of the books I made, the others were given as Christmas presents.