JJ ColourArt

I usually make myself digital bookmarks, but occasionally I will do a few up with paper collage. These two latest ones are nice for Spring with leaves and flowers. I recently bought some lovely Bazzill textured cardstock in various solid colours, so I used that for the base and collaged with scrapbooking and Japanese paper on top and finished with copper eyelets and some fancy yarn.

When I bought postcard books for my collection in the last few weeks, I saved the covers after I’d removed the cards, and trimmed them to use as bookmarks. I did this with some outer cardboard boxes for card decks as well. The spines and graphics on box covers make great bookmarks. I don’t have room to save the large boxes so I either adapt them for a tuckbox for the deck or make bookmarks from them. I also use greeting cards and cut them up for bookmarks–some of them are too pretty to discard.

My bookmarks are kept on a ledge in an old wooden chest that also houses my quilt books and magazines. They seem to like it there, and I can reach in for a lucky dip when I need one for a new book.

The idea is to match the colours or theme on the book cover to an appropriate bookmark. It’s an exciting life!

And later today I got the urge to make a digital one with a lovely photograph my husband took of some pansies. My mother always planted pansies in the wooden barrels we had on our porch at home, so every Spring my husband plants them for me. The quote is from a Frank O’Hara poem called Animals that I am fond of. I forgot to put Frank’s name under the quote unfortunately. This was backed with some deep orange paper and then I enfolded it in Contac paper. My husband’s going to use it for some new books he got out of the library to read.

I notice as I’m reading the first three volumes of Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower, that he mentions historian Barbara Tuchman’s book The March of Folly as the book that piqued his interest in knowing more about the Trojan War.

I have an old hardcover copy of Tuchman’s A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, which I’d like to reread some day along with hundreds of other books. The Middle Ages are fascinating since they affected our current society so much.

I read the reviews of The March of Folly and decided it would be the sort of thing I’m interested in reading, so I ordered a used hardcover on ABE for the grand price of $1 plus shipping. It should be here in two to three weeks so I’d better finish some other stuff.

I have been going through my stash of fabrics and over-dyeing purple and plum dye on some 1980s prints in the soft peaches and greens that were popular then. I’m getting some interesting results. I like to do this on the stove and mix and match dyes to get my own blends and colours so it’s quite fun.

Next up is a batch in blues, generally overdyeing on green and white, but I’ve also received some of the handbag patterns I ordered a couple of weeks ago and that’s claiming my imagination somewhat.

I’m still working on redoing my web site and reading, reading, reading as usual. I can’t get to jewellery right now as there’s fabric all over my drafting board while I sort the textiles out and reorganize.

Today I ordered some books on the history of handbags from the library and some sewing books because there is always something to learn about. How on earth do people get bored?

I received volume three of the Age of Bronze graphic novel on the Trojan War by Eric Shanower. I had to put volume one down for a time as the spoiled brat antics of Paris got to me, so now I shall reread the first book and then get to books two and three.

I also received my copy of Greenmantle by John Buchan. I loved his books with the character Richard Hannay when I was young, and I have an old illustrated edition of The Thirty-Nine Steps that I studied in Junior High School English (God bless Glen Pritchard, the most fantastic teacher I ever had in any subject or grade!), and I bought a copy of Mr. Standfast in an antique shop years ago but I was missing the middle book so I gave in and purchased a new paperback.

I’ll be rereading all three this month.

Aren’t you excited? Well gee, I’m excited, Menelaus is excited, Richard Hannay is excited, even Agamemnon is excited, where is your excitement?

Golly, missing out on great stuff like this to read, what are you doing? Get with it.

I’ve spent all week dealing with failed electricity, water problems from the well, and computer problems. It was not a great experience. Seven hours and two days later I’ve got my computer running smoothly again with a different anti-virus program and a freshly reinstalled and operational Microsoft .NET framework.

I bought some patterns and a book for making handbags as I desperately need one, and I am planning several of those plus some small quilts in an effort to use up my gorgeous piles of brand new quilting fabric, collected over 24 years.

The book is called Making Vintage Bags: 20 Original Sewing Patterns for Vintage Bags and Purses and seems to have some classic designs that you could do up in very creative ways with fabric.

I can never find a decent handbag–I’ve been carrying around a Granny purse for years–one with cream vinyl and a tapestry fabric insert. Frumpy!!! I’ve got to get hip and sew some bags with some style at least. It’s pretty embarrassing, I’m almost afraid to show you.

Almost.

I have been quilting for 24 years and as the years have rolled along, arthritis and tendinitis have curtailed my beautiful appliqué and quilting skills. I have been doing machine quilting and have done so very successfully, but now basting quilt tops has become a nightmare of pain, and even quilting a lap quilt seems daunting to me.

However, it’s Spring, and I’m thinking of colour and pattern and over my right shoulder is an enormous Rubbermaid trunk of fabric and another 18-inch high pile on top of the lengthy table. I also have a stack of velveteen for sewing tarot bags that isn’t getting used.

I’m not fond of following patterns in jewellery making or sewing, but I have bought one book just to get me going called More Reversible Quilts: 11 New Projects by Sharon Pederson. I am an anomaly in the quilting world, I LOVE sewing on bindings and hand sewing them down. So the little sashing strips that are used to finish off these blocks and rows and sew the quilt together are definitely my style and something I would enjoy.

I am quite excited, I have so many glorious patterns and styles of fabric stacked up here and would like to use it up, without having unquilted tops abounding in storage.

So that’s the plan for the summer: get the sewing machine cleaned and oiled and buy a proper chair, and sit on my sun porch and enjoy colour and life and quilting.

After putting in a request for an interlibrary loan on the history of Classics Illustrated comics, I decided I wanted to buy these two books to go with the Elemental Hexagons deck I ordered.

1) Nature’s Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements by John Emsley
2) Creations of Fire: Chemistry’s Lively History from Alchemy to the Atomic Age by Cathy Cobb

I love books about the history of Science, particularly if they have comprehensive entries in dictionary form as the first one does.

To round out the order I ordered A Year in Japan by Chronicle Books–the nice card deck I’ve been looking forward to that Amazon.ca finally has in stock.

I bought the mini kit of The Answer Deck last week, and as I was going through the cards, one card looked familiar to me. I have a similar card in the beautiful Tea Leaf Fortune Cards, so I took a scan of them together. One of the things I find with my collection is that a card from one deck will trigger a memory of another which is fun.

I also ordered an unusual oracle deck today called the Elemental Hexagons. It uses elements from the periodic table in an unusual way, and I still have my periodic table from school, which is out of date but since she used the elements that were first discovered, my table has them.

When I get this deck I’d like to find images related to the uses and discovery of each element as I enjoy the history of science, and then I might do some of my own art or writing to explore the deck and use it. It’s so nice to see something different in decks and someone making an effort to create a fresh system instead of copying what has come before on cards.

I took a snap of that with some of my new botanical postcards. The periodic table is very excited to be out if its storage box. It apparently is interested in scientific illustrations of foxgloves.

I’ve had the ‘flu all week but I am trying to get a wonderful sounding book that may be out-of-print:

The Japanese Way of Tea: From Its Origin in China to Sen Rikyu

I am interested in tea and drink lots of jasmine and green tea as well as a chai blend, and I recently read a book on the history of the tea trade, but this sounded like something with a cultural and philosophical bent to it. So, I’m trying to hunt up a copy.

Other than that I’m sleeping and reading a lot. Not an exciting week.

I had to change a book order. I saw this really, really good book and wanted to order it:
Rhyme’s Reason: A Guide to English Verse. I had been playing around with a poetic form called a pantoum, and although I am pleased with the one book I have on poetic forms, I thought this one looked very expansive and lyrical so felt it might be worthy of purchasing.

Then someone told me about a deck called the Answer Deck that has the kind of black and white artwork I like, and it was only $11, and then I thought I could use some paisley designs for something so I bought a clip art book Paisleys And Other Textile Designs From India, and then I heard a song on the radio called Birdland and got the name of the group, Weather Report, so I ordered an audio CD called The Best Of Weather Report. I’ve liked that song forever.

In order to pay for this I had to cancel two things off my other order, although I am still getting the Pulitzer winner about Louisa May Alcott, and have put the card deck A Year in Japan on my wish list, so I’ll get it eventually.

And that’s what happened. Whew.