Just a Moment

I've belatedly joined Instagram having only recently got a smartphone and been dragged into the 21st century! I'm finding it fun to use and have started doing the 100 Happy Days project which is enjoyable and (sometimes) quite a challenge. If you haven't tried it, give it a go and let me know what you think.

Lots of stuff going on chez Every Colour at the moment and I don't seem to be getting a lot of time to make arty crafty goodies, though I did do a quick video a week or two ago where I muddled my way through a journal page - complete with goofy mistakes!

I'm currently quite obsessed with making notebooks and journals again. Having just discovered the wonderful world of Midori and the 'Fauxdori' idea - basically making your own version of these utterly gorgeous leather journals - I have been doing lots of research and dipping my toe into working with leather, something which is totally new to me.

Here's my first attempt. It's sized to hold Field Notes or A6 notebooks and I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out. I also plan to make a traveller size and I'll post pictures when I do.

Gelli Journal

 

I have been gelli printing a lot this last couple of weeks and decided to go ahead and make my new art journal with a pile of the prints I'd done. I'm really looking forward to working in it too!

Check out the video below if you'd like to have a guided tour of how I created it.

Queen Of Everything

I am being neglectful of my everyday drawing and blogging, I know, but I have had some sort of bug for the last few days which has made me feel completely washed out. Anyway, last night I slept for eleven hours and today I feel much improved. Might even get a bit of work done!

I am still having a ball making these fabric covered books and I have so much quilting cotton that I could probably keep making them until I'm 90. This one features some Klimt-inspired designs which have metallic gold accents and they look very sumptuous paired with large florals and yellows. The title just seemed appropriate somehow. It's currently available in my shop.

I've also just started reading What do I do when I want to do everything? by Barbara Sher. I was attracted to it when I saw it on the library shelf as I am one of those people who wants to do everything and frequently ends up doing nothing because I just can't choose. Well, Ms Sher promises some insights and ways of dealing with this so I thought I'd give it a go. I'll let you know more when I've read further.

Geese In The Orchard

No drawings for a couple of days as I've been busy working on some new books for my shop. I'm loving making these as it gives me a chance to play with my not inconsiderable stash of gorgeous quilting fabric! In fact I'm going to make another one similar to the topmost book to keep for myself as I think it would be just the job for writing my favourite recipes in.

Seeing Red

I only realised today that I seem to be a bit obssessed with red lately, or more precisely those lovely autumnal shades of raspberry, plum and blackberry. Everything I've made over the last week or two has been red, just look!

What To Do, What To Do?

Do you ever have those patches in life when you're just dying to do something but you don't know what it is? Does that even make any sense? Well anyway, that's how I've been feeling for the past week or so. I keep starting, or thinking about starting, things and then abandoning them. Restless, can't seem to find what it is that's calling me. I hope it hurries up and gets here!

In the meantime, here's a couple of new notebooks, both with prints of my original drawings.

Nature Walk

I always love it when I can find new and creative ways to use existing pieces of work. For this journal the inspiration came from a bunch of collage tags I made last year. I enlarged one and printed it out then backed it with kraft paper and added a metal washer and string ties to make an unusual cover. I'm really pleased with how it came out and can just imagine sitting on a windswept beach jotting down ideas and observations along with a sketch or two in it!

Small, But Perfectly Formed!

Just a quick post today because we have a heatwave here and my studio is like a sauna. However I am trying to get more books made for PAD so I've been sitting at my desk with a fan positioned carefully so as not to blow all my papers around the room!

Anyway, these little babies are my latest creation and I think they're really cute, measuring just 2.25"x2.5". The set of three has copies of vintage matchbox labels on the covers and the other two have original drawings of my little houses on them. On Etsy now, I'll also be doing some for PAD (if I don't melt first!)

Where Is My Mind?

I am being a baaad art girl at the moment, not much new work being worked on, no indeed. Too many distractions, too little time (and energy, thanks to my insomnia stepping up a gear). I have got a couple of cute notebooks done - see above - inspired by the 27 Houses I showed you the other week. My favourite Murano paper for covers and hand drawn row of houses, so each one is original and different. The lime one was in an Etsy treasury which was on the entrance page of the site and it (the book) got 300 hits in the space of about an hour! Wow!

But I was talking about distractions, before I got, er, distracted. You will have heard me bleating on about the state of my studio for some time now. Well, I decided the other day that the only solution is to completely rearrange everything: workspaces, storage etc. (I just know I'm going to regret this). Anyway, Vincent very helpfully put up a row of narrow shelves to store all my miscellaneous pots of stuff and paints so that was what really got me started. With much huffing and puffing I managed to move the huge work table that we share into a better position against the wall so now there's much more space.

The plan is to have a separate small table for cutting - paper, fabric for quilts and so on - and a desk where I can have my sewing machine set up permanently, which will leave the big table for painting, collage and book binding. Of course there is a TON of stuff to sort through and find proper storage space for before that stage is reached, but it will be so much more accessible and pleasurable to use once I'm done - well that's what I keep telling myself anyway. Wish me luck!

Newcastle, Colds, Handmade Soap And Other Random Ramblings

So I have a stinker of a cold at the moment and can't seem to settle to anything that requires concentration or energy. I may not even make it to the end of this post. I was busy though, making a whole bunch of new books for the Artworks galleries in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, some of which you can see above. These and others are all for sale in their shop, so if you're in the North-East and want to check out some of my goodies, now you can!

And on with the non-sequiturs. I feel at this point it would be remiss of me not to extol the benefits of handmade soap and, more specifically, shampoo bars. If you ever have trouble with commercial shampoo leaving a build up in your hair then you really need to try shampoo bars. I am on a mildly evangelical mission to alert everyone to the potential benefits of these since I bought one a month or so ago. (Have a look at Etsy and you'll find loads of fabulous bath and beauty stuff!)

They don't need a plastic bottle, so less wasteful packaging, and most importantly they get your hair clean without leaving a load of gunk behind. While you're at it get yourself some gorgeous handmade soap as well. It won't dry out your skin nearly as much as the stuff you buy over the counter and you'll feel utterly pampered every time you so much as wash your hands. And no, the soapmakers of Etsy aren't paying me for this endorsement. It's just a lurve thing.

Papery Goodness

I don't think I've shared this with you before but when I was a very small child I used to eat paper. Printed paper was the tastiest as I recall, and I remember being told off on numerous occasions when my mother would find me behind the sofa nibbling on pieces of newsprint and even, now and again, strips torn from my storybooks.

Thankfully I outgrew this habit but I still love paper, printed or otherwise. These days I prefer to paint on it or make books and tags from it. It still provides the same sense of satisfaction as having a mouth full of wood pulp although I think it's probably better for me.

This fine stag in my shop here

Confessions Of A Messy Artist

I am it's true. I daren't show you pictures of my studio at the moment as it's enough to make any reasonable person run screaming in the opposite direction. So I am going to clear out, reorganise and make it nice again. Simple huh?

Well I am a believer, as you know, in positive affirmations so the first step is declaring that I'm doing it. I am also visualising a beautifully organised workspace (this has always been problematic as I have virtually no suitable storage) with a harmonious, creative vibe to it. It will take a while but the longest journey and all that.

So in the meantime here's a bunch of cute notebooks which I just listed on Etsy. Now where did I put that skip....

Cuddly Book

Another day, another side effect. The blood pressure meds I'm on are making me feel unbelievably tired, so much so that it's taken me several days to cook up this little cutie. I wanted to combine my love of patchwork and quilting with handmade books and here's the result.

It's a little notebook with it's own removable cover, so when it gets full you can just put a fresh one in. It's also nice to stroke.
For sale in my Etsy shop

Samarkand

Another of the imagined places journals. Samarkand, which still exists today, lay on the silk road between China and Europe and I can think of nothing more exotic than that. This is another hand painted cover with an eastern design modelled into it, hand stitched text block of course. A nice, chunky book. More pictures in the listing in my Etsy shop.

Palmetto and Aegean

Some words just seem to possess a kind of magic. They have the ability to transport me to a fantastical landscape which I'm sure doesn't exist anywhere but in my head, a place both mysterious and exotic, filled with light and scents and sounds unfamiliar to me.

Because I thought it would be fun, I decided to make a bunch of new books inspired by these imagined places. The names are real enough though and here's the first two, currently for sale on Etsy. Both have hand painted covers and are stitched with waxed cotton thread. Palmetto is filled with sketching paper and Aegean with watercolour rag mix. Just the thing for filling with dreams.

Stitchin'

I thought I'd show you the project which has been consuming my time lately! For years I've wanted to make my own books but never got round to learning how. Well now I have and as I love notebooks and journals that's what I've started with.

There's something about a brand new blank book which invokes all sorts of possibilities and I'm enjoying making these so much. They seem to me to be just crying out to be filled with sketches, poetry, dreams, or even shopping lists!