November 28, 2009
· Filed under Books, Card Collection · Tagged art techniques, Books, craft techniques, creating card decks digitally, digital card decks, Doodlebeads DVD, fabric postcards, Lenormand cards, playing cards, printing your own playing cards, The Illustrative Lenormand Oracle
I have been spending Christmas money a bit early to learn some new techniques.
I bought a DVD from Interweave Press called DoodleBeads with Leslie Rogalski that is very short, and the publisher is so cheap, you have to download and print your own pages of diagrams and commentary to go with the DVD. That screams unprofessionalism to me since the DVD cost $25 USD.
I saw a video at YouTube of Leslie explaining the odd-count peyote stitch which was very clear–she’s excellent. I just wish they’d gone a bit further in doing a short, completed project for each technique, however, this is going to help me create what I need for a couple of necklaces.
I bought a copy of the Poetic Edda and the Iliad finally to use in working with a few card decks and mythology books.
I have some books coming on painting miniature furniture, and I bought two beautiful reference books on painted furniture in history.
American Painted Furniture
The Painted Furniture Sourcebook: Motifs from Medieval Times to the Present Day
I also bought several books on making fabric postcards and ATCs which I’d like to do and use up more fabric and get through the long winter.
1000 Artist Trading Cards
Positively Postcards
Embellishing with Anything
I just finished printing The Illustrative Lenormand Oracle that I designed. I wrote a page-long sheet of meanings and symbolism for it that I was pleased with as I like to read about specific symbolism and choices for artwork with decks.
I like to make my own decks and was considering doing up a new set of playing cards with quilt blocks patterns. I’m not sure about this, but I think using the block name might be interesting as well.
Than I decided to do some stiff, flat fabric postcards to go with my postcard collection. I ordered some books and I’ve found some Wonder Under and rigid felt to use. I’d like eventually to do 50 to 100 of these and use them in daily draws. I just enjoy making and using my own artwork. There are several techniques in embroidery and fabric painting that I have found too tedious in a full size, so doing them on small cards is ideal. I also suffer from tendinitis and arthritis so can’t do large artwork any more.
Lots of plans!
And to wrap it up, I like to buy an art book and a poetry or literature book for Christmas so I bought the book on Kandinsky I’ve wanted for a couple of years with full-colour reproductions of his work, and the complete works of Robert Frost and a book about Emily Dickinson called White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
November 15, 2009
· Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged abstract art, Angela Porter, Art, art inspiration, artists, French knot rugs, Kandinsky, lightbox, miniature rugs
I used the red channel in Photoshop to print a cartoon of this design for tracing. I darkened some of the lines with a black Micron pen and also added a few extra lines here and there to delineate major colour gradations.
Then I traced it with an HB pencil and my lightbox. That lightbox is the best $50 I’ve ever spent. In an ideal world I would have bought one with a huge surface area but even this little box is a huge help to me.
This is now ready to stitch. I think I’ll probably start with the smaller elements, particularly the “spears” of black/brown and the spears of colour near the middle left.
November 13, 2009
· Filed under Miniatures · Tagged abstract art, Angela Porter, Art, art inspiration, artists, DMC Floss, dollhouses, French knot rugs, Kandinsky, miniature quilt, miniature rugs, miniature sewing, Miniatures
Ah, the adventure of printing miniature quilts. This pink and green one was a graphic I made nine years ago that has sentimental value. The blue and white one is a sample of a miniature I’m making for someone else.
Here is the progress on the French knot rug I am doing in 1:12 scale for Skye Cottage, one of my dollhouses.
I liked this technique so much that I started looking for inspiration in my art books and then online for doing up another one. There isn’t much around concerning abstract art, and it takes a really good artist to pull it off. I was fortunate enough to find one, so I wrote to her explaining what I wanted to interpret her art for and she has given me permission to use her art as the basis for this project.
Her name is Angela Porter and she is from Wales. I found her page at DeviantART under the name “Artwyrd” and my jaw just dropped with delight, she does some wonderful work. She also has a web site and does textile art and jewellery as well as artwork in pencil, pen and ink, pastels, oils, and watercolour.
This is Angela’s original art Kandinsky Inspired 3 and my circular version, that I adapted after spending some time fiddling in Photoshop. I have also shown a small mock-up of the rug in paper in the hallway of the dollhouse. I just LOVE this piece of art. I will go away for a few days and come back to and it always fascinates me. Many thanks Angela for understanding what I wanted to do and how inspiring I find your work. Not all artists are like that in my experience.
There will be stairs behind this and I’m considering painting them with some kind of Kandinsky-inspired pattern myself. I’m just waiting for my art book on Kandinsky to arrive and then I’ll consider the possibilities. I will be painting furniture for this and another house and I’d always planned to paint these stairs with artwork, but again, Angela’s work has inspired me to stretch my creativity a bit further.
The dollhouse is my second one and was one I won in a raffle from miniaturists Judy and Jim Henry here in Ontario almost 11 years ago. Jim built and painted the exterior himself, and then I was to do the decorating. I’m glad I didn’t get it finished ten years ago as my new idea is to turn it into a celebration of abstract art, because Frances, the doll who lives there, is an artist. Her little girl is only six but she’s really interested in architecture, so I’m doing houses on a petit point rug and printed quilt, and perhaps I’ll frame some architectural prints for her walls. In short, this house will reflect my own interests and passions!
Since I’m in my Fauvist period (grin), I imagine this little dollhouse will turn into something rather magical at some point, which would suit me as a tribute to Judy and Jim who were responsible for the house, and were very inspiring to me as creative people themselves.
I’m slightly distracted by ideas and projects lately, but that’s really the way I like it since I’m a creative person. Creativity brings such vibrancy and interest to life.
Update: I just got back from Michael’s and bought 27 new skeins of floss to add to what I have here for the colour blending in this piece. I made tons of notes and colour code references on my reference sheet and then bought what I needed. I feel rich with colour now!
October 27, 2009
· Filed under Computers, Miniatures, Quilting · Tagged dollhouse quilt, dollhouse sewing, Electric Quilt software, miniature quilt, miniature sewing, printing miniatures on fabric, using software to print miniatures
In an effort to kick-start myself and get some old miniature projects done I joined a couple of lists, so bit by bit I hope to finish some of this stuff. I haven’t really worked much on my dollhouses since the shop I went to closed ten years ago.
I spent months catching up on old quilting projects during the spring and summer and that worked fine, so I hope I can do the same with my four dollhouses.
I found an online tutorial for printing your own tiny prints for dollhouse dresses so I thought I’d take a pattern from my Electric Quilt 4 software (that I am currently working on in real life) and attempt to print a quilt for my main dollhouse. I changed the shading somewhat and got rid of the border as I wanted this to look like an old scrap quilt. It measures 5 x 6.875 in 1:12 scale, which translates to 60 x 82.5 inches full size, so it’s a lap quilt or topper size.
The fabric was pre-treated with Bubble Jet Set 2000, dried, ironed to freezer paper, and I also tape it down to a piece of cardstock around the perimeter, otherwise it won’t go through my HP printer. Those stupid rollers of theirs catch everything but when I tape the fabric to cardstock it will at least run through.
I’m going to back it with a pale small-scale print and it should be quite drapable. The pink and green tones should go nicely with a crocheted throw I had someone make me years ago that is cream with tiny pink and green flowers on the border.
I’ll post a picture of them together when I’m done sewing this together.
October 24, 2009
· Filed under Card Collection · Tagged rune cards, runes
I was messing around with my card collection and decided to do up a montage of the rune cards I own. I always find card comparisons interesting because of the fascinating size variations.
Click to enlarge.
October 24, 2009
· Filed under Card Collection, Computers, Creativity · Tagged Card Collection, card decks, clip art, Dead Hand Chaos Poker deck, Lenormand cards, Making a card deck in Photoshop, making your own decks, playing cards
I have been designing my own Lenormand deck for the past two weeks. I am using public domain vector clip art from various disks I have here. Several of them are composites or ones that I painted or applied gradients to in an effort to make them more natural. Tons of layers in some of these and a few of them were tweaked in Adobe Illustrator first before exporting into Photoshop.
I like decks with borders so I put a lovely border on it and filled it with a gradient to give it some zip. The nice thing about creating a deck for yourself is that you don’t have to worry about other people’s taste, and you can create as you wish.
Here is a sample of four cards:
I finished designing them and then spent many hours tweaking the scale and colour here and there. I am doing them in Photoshop and printing them from there on premium matte photo paper, but I was a bit disappointed in the print quality because of a generic ink cartridge I am using, so I’ve halted until I can get hold of a better ink cartridge.
Today was rainy and cold and my husband had to go to work early so I was feeling a bit aimless and browsing online for some playing card decks. I have wanted the Bicycle Ghost Deck for some time but I couldn’t find it anywhere with decent shipping costs, so I ended up buying another odd deck called the Dead Hand Chaos Poker Deck. I like the border they’ve used on the pips. The face cards are a bit gruesome but fun at the same time, and I am keen to start using these for daily draws once they arrive in the mail.
I found some interesting free paper printables that looked like they might go with this deck. I was thinking I could do up a small diorama to use as a background when I draw these on my daily card blog. The one with the hearse looked like it might be suitable.
So I am generally messing around with paper and cards this week. I’ve been trying out a few different things on my card blog, and I have a fuller explanation of the Lenormand deck I am designing there. Put the term “Lenormand” in the Search box and they will come up.
September 24, 2009
· Filed under Books, Creativity · Tagged Books, Creativity, Curiosity, learning, Richard Feynman, Rumi Tarot
During a lull in reading material I picked up and re-read the book Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character by physicist, teacher, and Nobel winner Richard P. Feynman. Feynman was known for his enthusiasm and high spirits and endless curiosity. Unlike most academics and scientists, he liked to speak plainly, without all the gobbledygook. If he got interested in a subject, he took it up with passion, not because he wanted to swan around and say he could do things, but because he enjoyed learning and found other people fascinating.
I long for such people in my life as I am endlessly curious too and find most people say to me when I enthuse about subjects or books: “I haven’t got time.” Imagine not having time to be curious and learn new things or be delighted by a quirky subject? Feynman really was a curious character, and as the saying goes “character matters!”
I’m about to read the other book about Feynman I bought called Tuva or Bust: Richard Feynman’s Last Journey by his friend Ralph Leighton, and I expect to enjoy once more Mr. Feynman’s lucid ability to laugh and pare things down to vital essentials. Even though he died in 1988 his spirit lives on.
So, I got to fooling around with my camera and decided Richard Feynman would like the Rumi Tarot, because he would be curious about the artwork and then go on and learn about Persian manuscripts and Sufism. Just because it was interesting. Just because it was there to know about, and he didn’t know about it yet.
I love people like this because I’m like that: curious, independent thinkers who want to learn, simply because they don’t know about something yet.
I pulled the 5 of Coins from the Rumi Tarot for pondering this.
“In poverty is the light of the Lord of Glory”
Which I take to mean that you don’t need to be rich to enjoy the riches of heaven. Strip away the ego and acquisitive demands and leave them for the simplicity and purity of spiritual essence.
This card is often about impoverished beggars walking unheeded by the closed doors of a church, banished and lost. In Richard Feynman’s world, no one is lost or poor because their curiosity is like a cache of gold. Restrictions are only in your mind and clarity surrounds you.
Plus you can collect stamps from weird countries.
September 23, 2009
· Filed under Card Collection · Tagged antiques, art cards, art decks, artists, Card Collection, card decks, decorative arts, Neil Lovell, Tyldwick Tarot
I have put in my name for a pre-order of the Tyldwick Tarot. It appealed to me because I love wall niches, architecture, furniture design, decorative objects, and old houses, but I also thought it would make a great story deck and pal for my Antique Engravings Playing Cards.
The artist is Neil Lovell and he is hopefully publishing these himself. He says he needs a minimum pre-order of 600 decks before he can do a print run of 2000. I wish him luck in getting that many pre-orders as it’s unusual for self-published decks to sell that well.
There’s always a first time for someone with vision to break the mold. Help him out by scooting over to pre-order this unusual and refreshing deck. If this deck ever hits a press it will be very interesting to work with. I soooo like it when people do different things for card decks.
He’s got a puppet theatre on The Magician card. Pamela Colman Smith used to do paper figures for theatres, much like this. Come on, didn’t we all watch the movie Being John Malcovich? Wouldn’t you like a puppet theatre in a tarot deck?
Sure you would.
Look at this, don’t they go well together?
I just realized why I like this deck so much. It reminds me of two excellent books published by the Victoria and Albert Museum that I have in my collection at home. There are actually three books in the series but I haven’t been able to find the last one as it’s out of print now. The Georgian one in particular reminds me of some of the furniture and architectural elements in the Tyldwick deck.
August 21, 2009
· Filed under Books · Tagged A Rage to Live, A.S. Byatt, After the Flood, Bataan Death March, Books, Elizabeth Norman, Isabel Burton, Margaret Atwood, Michael Norman, reading, Sir Richard Francis Burton, Tears in the Darkness, The Children's Book, World War II history
I just got a call from the library that a book I had recommended they order is in. It’s called Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath by Michael and Elizabeth Norman. My library has a couple of books on the Pacific theatre during World War II and this book gets such great reviews that I thought they should buy it. I haven’t worked in a library for over four years but I continually do collection development anyway! This book has very detailed information on the lives of ordinary soldiers rather than their commanders, including the Japanese who carried out the horrendous torture and brutality. It’s easy to stereotype the Japanese culture that produced such things, but more interesting to read of the human side in this dreadful episode, which the authors have apparently done here.
I also noticed that A.S. Byatt’s novel The Children’s Book is longlisted for the Booker prize so I got that out of the library. I am on page 245 and find it’s a real page-turner so far. I love Byatt’s short stories and have several collections. Years ago some guy I used to talk to sent me a copy of her book Possession which I really liked, but I never took to her series of novels about the character Frederica and her friends.
The Children’s Book is a lyrical look at the golden period of late Victorian and early Edwardian England with lots of references to the Fabian Society (which I am familiar with from recently reading a biography of G.B. Shaw.) Art Nouveau abounds for those of us mad for the artwork and crafts of the period, and Byatt manages her usual dreamy sexual tension and oddly erotic bits and pieces. At some point she covers World War I and its aftermath which is a period I’ve been interested in since I was a teenager. At 600-plus pages, I thought this was going to be a convoluted slog but she’s really captured something with this book. She won the Booker for Possession back in 1990, and so far this is panning out for me as another winner. It should definitely make the short list.
Although it’s not coming out until September, I have already put a hold on a library copy of Margaret Atwood’s new book After the Flood which is a pre and post-apocalyptic look at a pandemic. Very topical and I’ve always liked Atwood’s ability to follow characters and society and post-apocalyptic science fiction has forever been a favourite genre of mine. This looks very promising, and that’s saying a lot since I stopped reading Margaret Atwood books after Alias Grace back in 1996.
I am on the last 200 pages of the biography of Sir Richard Burton that I have been reading for several months called A Rage To Live by Mary S. Lovell. I found the book quite a page-turner after I got past the unpleasantness of his dealings with Speke. I have taken to calling our hero “Richard The B.” I like that the biographer tries to give us a more accurate picture of Burton’s wife Isabel and their relationship and interaction with others. The British Foreign Office in Victorian times was pretty frightful as one can see in some of Rudyard Kipling’s writing, and poor old Burton is often dealing with the inept authority and employees of the F.O. in this book. He was a very bright and capable person who was sidelined by gossip, jealousy, and his own intellect and lack of tact. But for that, he would have changed the world in the Middle East, and our current problems there, I am convinced.
August 5, 2009
· Filed under Bookbinding · Tagged bookbinding, pinao hinge book
This is a model I made of a piano hinge book with a varied collection of stationery letterhead and scrapbooking paper with a beautiful cardstock in purple for the covers. I dyed silk twist thread for the wrapping on the skewers and added a few beads. I’ve seen these made with huge hunks of beads on a dozen or more threads and fuzzy wool and such for decoration but, I prefer to see the book and paper without too much distracting decoration.
The collage on the front uses a playing card from my collection, scanned in and then printed and folded, along with some papers from the signatures of the book. I am now making a slightly bigger one in a blue and yellow colourway and nautical theme with some maps from an atlas.
