The Perfect Journey

This is my contribution to Trish Gutuskey's Round Robin book. The theme of this book is Travel.

"Secret Journal" Revisited

An on-line group that I belong to has a weekly T.O.D. (topic of discussion) and this week it is Hinges. I thought that sounded interesting however, I wondered how they could be incorporated into a book one way or another. I then remembered that several years ago my sister and I did a collaboration between the two of us that had a hinged cover and hinged lock closure.

I decided to dig out the book and have another look. Now that I look at it again, I realise this was a wonderful project. We had always corresponded via snail mail and both of us loved the anticipation of receiving something in the mail. We decided to start keeping our correspondence in journal format and actually have filled several journals to date. I still think this is my all time favorite one though.
The cover is constructed out of old wooden yard sticks and wooden orange crates (Oranje Boven!). The size of this journal is 8" X 11 1/2". It's 3" thick ... bursting full with all sorts of secrets. In fact many of the cryptic messages are only visible with an ultraviolet light ... it's deliciously secret indeed.

A beautiful project

This is a beautiful project that I was invited to contribute to. This touching book has been complied to be presented to Michelle Ward on the anniversary of her sisters death. See Michelle Ward's blog for details and photos. Above is shown the final bound book (photo by Michelle Ward). Below is shown my contribution.

"Party Animals"

"Party Animals" is now available. All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to Bernie Berlin's no kill pet shelter "A Place to Bark". You can purchase the book here. Starting October 15th 2009 the original pieces in this book will be auctioned off, also to benefit "A Place to Bark". Written by Jill Beninato. Read more about the project here.

Two of my pieces are included in this project and can be viewed on my blog here.

Participating Artists: Jill Beninato, Bernie Berlin, Suzi Blu, Rebecca Collins, Wendy Crumbley, Ingrid Dijkers, Manon Doyle, Sarah Fishburn, Rice Freeman-Zachery, Heather LaHaise, Melissa Langer, Maija Lepore, Anne Leuck Feldhaus, Tamandra Michaels, Kim Rae Nugent, Linda O'Neill, Nancy Schutt, Jill Shulse, Kelly Snelling, Carla Sonheim & Kathy Weller.

My Lovely Children

I just wanted to share a few photos of my lovely children. Tricia, my older daughter in the fore ground, has the grace, beauty, elegance and charm of a fairy tale princess. Really, have you ever seen a more beautiful young lady? Then, there is Kiersten behind her, eleven years younger and quite different from her sister. All I can say is that Kiersten is VERY "special" indeed.

Octopus ATCs

The small ATC group that I mentioned in my previous post, exchanges ATCs every month. This months theme is Octopuses. I usually work larger and then reduce my images to ATC size, then further embellish them. I happened to have 8 of these scalloped Octopus circles and decided to try and work with those instead. More of my ATCs can be seen on my web site here.

"This is a blank map"

There is a small local ATC group that meets once a month. I have been attending for several months now and have really been enjoying it. It's a wonderful group with very diverse styles, which keeps things interesting. We are all participating in a Round Robin with our choice of books and themes. Each book now has 5 entries, so they are starting to fill up nicely. This is my contribution this month to Kate Lebowky's book. The theme for her book is "Carry Over". I carry overed the arrow image from the previous page and also the books beginning theme with map imagery.

JournalFest Journal

This is a brand new notebook journal strictly for JournalFest that I just begun. It's reconstructed from an old vinyl loose leaf binder. I stripped all the vinyl off, made hinges of Tyvek, beefed up the cardboard and paper mached the notebook over with paper grocery bags before starting the collage work. Now it's a very sturdy journal suitable for my purposes. The overall size of the journal is 8" X 11 1/2" and is almost 2 1/2" thick.

Above is shown the inside of the front cover and below is the inside of the back cover. On the back cover I made a pocket out of the clear vinyl covering which was over the original white vinyl of the notebook. I taped it on and then sewed it with embroidery floss. The pocket contains yet another journal that was included in my participant package as shown further down.
This is just the start of this journal and I look forward to adding to it. In the mean time I will prep several pages made of Bristol board and the usual cereal/snack box cardboard I am so very fond of using.

This is just part of the incredible package of imagery I received for participating in JournalFest. The package alone has a wealth of collage fodder to use for journaling. As you can see I have already used several images on this journal. All images enlarge to show detail.

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JournalFest is October 21-25 2009 at Fort Worden in Port Townsend Washington.

I will be teaching "Over the Edge" and "An Octopus's Garden"

(It appears that the class "An Octopus's Garden" is full)

Another "Fat Book" page

This is so much more appropriate than my last attempt at a Fat Book page for the collaboration. The quote is Latin, translated it reads "Times are changing and we are changing within them". I wanted something with a bit more punch when it comes to color, but this will work. The size is 4" X 6". The left hand side was to be left somewhat open to allow for binding.

"Fat Book" page

So far this is my contribution to a "Fat Book" exchange commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Yahoo Altered Books group. Even though there was not a set theme to this project, I am not pleased with the overall tone of this page. This is just what happened ... it went it's own direction (as most all my work seems to do). Perhaps it's because I have found the 4" X 6" format far too small to work with ... again. This is also true with ATCs I have done in the past. Even though these are to be originals I might make another page in a larger format, reduce the size and submit it as a digital work. While I love the finished size of ATCs and Fat Book pages, I find working in this size so very prohibitive. I have never heard anyone else complain about working with the smaller sizes .... Am I the only one that feels this way?

Mermaid and Doll photos

Just having a bit of fun with mermaid and doll photos. I thought they looked rather interesting all put together. Photo enlarges to show detail.

ATC book

This is my ATC (Artist Trading Card) book that I keep my ATCs in for trading. I have had the book for years, but have just finally finished the covers and the inside of the covers. Sometimes I just have to keep looking at something for a very long time to be able to figure out how to finish it. I am pleased with the end results, but I think I am more

pleased that it is finally completed. While this book has been functional it still bothered me that it wasn't completed. I truly dislike unfinished projects. This is a card board notebook (with a black canvas spine) that I bought off a clearance rack at Target several years ago for 60 cents each. I bought 3 at the time not knowing what to do with them, but now I wish I had bought them all. I just love working with the cardboard journals ... soooo many possibilities!

Playing with dolls continued...

Geez! How could I forget?!? The earrings are my favorite part of making any doll and I forgot to include of photo of that! Each of these figures has long pointy ears and most all of them have 2 piercings in one of their ears. This one has a brass bell and a flying bug of some sort dangling from the smallest pearls I have ever seen.

Back to playing with dolls

Sometimes plans can get REALLY delayed. I started these a few months ago. In fact if you scroll down all the way to April 12th you can see where I first started constructing the paper mache cones for these figures. Between not having the proper doll parts and other projects that came up needing priority over these, they were put on hold. I plan (or at least I hope) to make at least 4 more of these wall mounted pieces before going off onto yet another project. From tip to tip (including antennas) they are each 29" tall and will be available at our shop at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. Both these photos enlarge to show more detail.

The Garden Gate

On our daily walks we pass this most intriguing garden gate. Today I had my camera with me and took a photo. You can only guess as to the beauty beyond the gate. We haven't gone through it, but can see glimpses of what's beyond. Absolutely magical .... just wanted to share that.

Altered book collaborative

I am involved with a group that exchanges books every month. Each person has chosen their own theme. This book belongs to Leann Meixner and her theme is Newspapers. I used the personal ads from a Dutch newspaper for my background and wrote a quote (unknown author)on the left hand side of the spread. On the right I used a photo transfer of a newspaper boy. The dangles on the right are some old tiny typeset letters that I soldered rings to and tied to the page with embroidery floss. The pages were made as tip-ins and sewn in. I wanted to use heavier paper than what was in the book.

"On Crystal Wings" Steam Punk inspired

I have made a little time to work on a few Steam Punk inspired necklaces before getting VERY serious about make stock for the quickly approaching Renaissance Festival. The necklace shown above is available on my ETSY site. SOLD

Voyage Vessels - published!

The new issue (Summer 2009) of Belle Armoire Jewelry has come out and I am honored to have a few photos of my Vessels in it. They are beautifully photographed.

Bird Rescue

While walking this morning my friend Odais and I found this little baby bird on the side walk. At first we thought it was dead as there was no movement at all. We looked for the nest but couldn't find one anywhere, so I decided to bring it home. I wrapped it in an old wash cloth and put it in a box with a bottle full of hot water. Within an hour it was moving around, chirping and begging for food.

I called the Huron Valley Bird Rescue and ask if I could just put it in one of the bird houses in my back yard that has recently hatched baby birds. They said that was the best thing to do. So, I drug the ladder out and shoved the baby bird in the house where it quickly disappeared into a mass of chirping babies. I certainly hope it is a sparrow or it's bound to grow up with severe identity issues and will surely require years of birdy therapy.

Buttons and Bows

This is a new addition to my "Over the Edge" notebook journal incorporating some old plastic buttons and vintage rayon ribbon. I used the plastic buttons as I have so many and I continue to hoard my old shell and glass buttons. Now that the spread is done I rather wished I had used the good stuff instead.