Stephen is making......

A Travel Journal

2010-02-23T19:20:00.002Z

This is a Travel Journal that I have just completed for my painting teacher, Shelley, who leaves for a short holiday in Spain on Thursday, and who has become interested in journaling after seeing the simple journal I kept during a recent visit to my parents in South Africa. First the front:

Then the back:

The project was relatively simple to construct, the cover being made from a scrap piece of flannel dipped in dilute PVA glue, then cut to size once it had dried. This was textured with layers of tissue paper, handmade paper and bandage gauze, dried again and then machine embroidered with thick cotton perlé. At this point I gessoed the whole thing to add stiffness and give me a white surface to decorate, which was done mostly with washes of acrylic paint, a simple stencil border and four squares cut from mount board and sewn down to the front. The central band is a scrap strip of tapestry canvas with a ribbon couched down by machine. The cover squares were further embellished with punched paper suns glued down with acrylic medium and a very small amount of beading. A small amount of pastel colour and a press stud to close completed the cover.

You can just see that I lined the cover in dark green satin to hide all the ends of threads, etc and to allow for the creation of a pencil pocket inside the front cover. There are only 4 folded sheets of paper inside, but these allow for a title page, a double-page spread for each day of the trip and a page for notes at the back. The binding was a simple pamphlet stitch job with cotton perlé again. The pages measure 19 x 26 cm, so the whole thing fits into a plastic page-protector for packing.

Of course, I really want to see what it looks like when it comes BACK, so keep reading and I'll let you know!

My Favourite Blog

2010-02-20T18:57:00.000Z

If you haven't discovered "Dispatch From LA", you have a treat in store! Mary-Ann Moss, who is a primary teacher (or Monkey Whisperer, as she calls it) has for several years been writing a superbly idiosyncratic take on life in California, the wonderful art journals she makes, and her unusual choice of foreign holidays. Her three cats and her collection of family and friends make guest appearances

Over the last year she has also offered online art courses for those who want to know how to do her style of stencilling with spray paint, make up small stenciled books or bind up an entire journal from all the odds and ends you have lying around at home. Her instructions are clear as day and her video tutorials manage to be both informative and frequently hilarious. Check out her sidebar too for a fascinating list of other blogs.

http://www.dispatchfromla.typepad.com/

The photo on this post is of the Chelsea Flower Show display by the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden a year or two ago - Kirstenbosch is possibly my favourite place on this planet, housing a magnificent collection of the Western Cape flora, and I make a point of visiting whenever I am in Cape Town. Enjoy - I'll be posting other photos on later posts.

REVIVAL ! RENEWAL ! SPRING !

2010-02-18T12:43:00.001Z

Well, shouting "Spring" is a being a bit optimistic, as London is still stuck in "cold and grey" mode, but this blog is being revived as Creativity is the best antidote I know to depressing weather.

During 2010 I hope to offer a new craft project every month, available from my website as an inexpensive download. I came to this idea after realising how many craft books offer one or two really good projects and a lot of dross , so why not offer projects individually, so that people can choose which ones they want to buy?

The projects I have in mind include some unusual decorated boxes, attractive small books, decorative figures, clothing items and some unusual ways to renovate tired furniture and household items. None of them will demand the skills of a trained artist and NONE if them will cost you a fortune in materials - most of us creative people have ridiculous amounts of "stash" lying around anyway! On that subject, have you heard of the SABLE concept? An American friend introduced me to this a few years ago - it stands for "Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy" - and when I sent her a photo of my fabric stash, she promptly made me Crown Prince of SABLE. Thank you, ma'am.

And how about YOU? Do you have a stash of some sort of supply that is taking over your life and needs using in a new and exciting way? Or is there a particular sort of project you would like to see featured? Please let me know!

Ups and downs

2009-04-09T18:17:00.000+01:00

The two-month lapse in posts has partly been due to illness, and partly to busy-ness - mostly of the good kind. Several more paintings completed, quite a few more started and much gardening, as Spring has finally arrived. Daffodil pictures to prove it! And the window box is "all my own work" - with a nod to Suttons for the plants and our Creator for the splendid growth!

I've also signed up for Mary-Ann Moss' "Stencilry" course, starting tomorrow, so you may well see some interesting results on here. Her AMAZING blog is http://dispatchfromla.typepad.com and is one of my all-time favourites on the Web. She is still taking sign-ups for her course too, at the very good rate of $40, so why not join the fun?

A life-changing website

2009-02-20T00:14:00.000Z

No, I'm not going to suggest you convert to anything, or send money, but I DO suggest you look at http://bookmooch.com/ which is the brainchild of John Buckman and which has been going for about two and a half years now.

Basically, it's all about swapping the unwanted books you have sitting on your shelf for those which someone else no longer needs, and it has been very thoughtfully devised to be as simple as possible. You get points for sending books, you spend them when you ask for books from other people, and you get fractional points just for listing books - which means you can start mooching as soon as you have listed ten books you no longer need.

Who benefits financially? Mostly the Post Office, as you pay to send out books, and your kind fellow-moochers pay to send you books. John has kindly assumed the running costs up to now, but has recently asked for donations as costs have risen considerably, due to the scale of the project. One gives if one can.

I have found new homes for some very odd and esoteric books and received some very lovely ones in return. There are now over 100 000 members and over 600 000 books available, about two-thirds in the USA and the rest worldwide, so there's a fairly good chance of finding something you'd like to read!

Have fun book-mooching!

Ticking over

2009-02-11T20:24:00.000Z

A much quieter week this time, but I still had a painting class on Tuesday, using the luscious new paints I had bought on Saturday - blessings on Cass Arts for making such great materials available at affordable prices! Started by painting a 3-D invention of my own devising (photo to follow) and then went on to fiddle with some of the other pieces which were standing around. The availability of more subtle tones enabled me to get the two larger works from last week to a state where I was happy to bring them home, and I also started another canvas with gorgeous sunset-and-green tones - but that will need to be completed next week. Still have no idea where I'm headed with all this, but I'm certainly enjoying myself!

Snow week!

2009-02-05T16:30:00.001Z

London underwent an amazing transformation on Sunday night and the early hours of Monday morning, as snow fell steadily for almost 16 hours, and continued gently throughout most of Monday. Alexandra Park, very close to my home, was thickly carpeted, and by 11am was full of delighted children who had the day off school. All the boots, gloves, scarves and hats had come out from the depths of cupboards, as had the toboggans and even skis! Anyone walking across the park like myself had to keep a good eye out for those coming down the hillside at high speed, and with absolutely no brakes - they did all seem to have very good lungs though.

My painting lesson was again in the conservatory, with a splendid view of the snow-carpeted garden and steadily falling flakes. Worked on two larger canvases this week, both of which received additions to the surface - one had curved shapes cut from thin polystyrene, the other sheets of rice paper, later partly torn away and a few pieces of cloth, as some of our painting rags had such lovely colours that it was fun to incorporate them. I went back on Tuesday to continue them, and even remembered to take some photos this time - now to see if I can get them up on blogger!

Me in a painting class?

2009-01-27T23:59:00.000Z

My friend Shelly, whose luscious paintings I have long admired, very kindly offered to teach me some painting basics, as I had expressed a desire to move beyond being an astute buyer of art supplies (which were gathering dust). So on Monday morning I had a lovely walk through the park to her home, and we set up a table in her conservatory, settled the dog comfortably and got out the paints.

Shelley warned me that her methods were unconventional, as the usual way of learning painting had never worked for her. I assured her it had never worked for me either, so I was happy to try anything she suggested. Starting with a damp and unprimed canvas, she encouraged me to spread lovely feather-edged washes of colour over small areas, allowing them to meet and bleed together. We set that canvas aside to dry, and started another, using the paint in a different way this time. And so the day went on - we each did FOUR canvases, admittedly none larger than A4 size, but all very different from each other and all quite satisfying in their own way.

I was amazed - I was having fun AND I mostly liked the results! Every other class I had tried and book I had read had tried to start with a pencil sketch - and if you are not comfortable drawing, that leaves you crippled before you even get the paints out. This session was totally different and far more productive - AND I am invited back next Monday too - watch this space!

Welcome one and all!

2009-01-19T22:05:00.000Z

This blog is the result of a kind offer from Chris to teach me how to set up a blog, and a New Year resolution to do it, and post at least once a week. That sounds really dull, but I hope the blog itself will be friendly and lively.

CREATIVITY is a vital force in my life, both the various things I make on my own (which will feature on the blog) and in the projects on which I collaborate with some wonderful friends and colleagues. I really feel it is part of how we reflect back our Creator's nature and give thanks for all the beauty around us. Please feel free to share your own creative work and ideas - I love to hear what other people are doing.