Bluehaven Studio

The Nature of My Heart

    My first post on this blog was about this year's Believe in Yourself Retreat led by Creative Spirits,Susan Edmondson and Kristi Steiner.  This year's retreat project was entitled the Nature of My Heart.

    I had attended the first Believe in Yourself Retreat last year, but I did not have the skills at that time to complete that project.   After more hours of work than I've ever put into any one creative project, I was very excited to finish The Nature of My Heart last week.  If you want to see more detail of any of the pictures below, just click on them.

    In addition to the eight fabric and mixed media pages, we were each given a cigar box to embellish as a "home" for our project.

    I  made a small wld grapevine wreath and decorated it with leaf ribbon I had painted and a small bird and nest.  I antiqued some bird  paper and  decopaged it on the inside of the box. 

   We were

each given  a small painted tin for the cover.  The used fabric, a painted wooden heart and small bird charm on top of the tin. Inside I placed  another small bird nest with bird and eggs on a background of paper I painted, distressed and stamped.

        Each page of the project was based on journal writing exercises that helped us explore aspects of our creativity.

  These are the inside pages.

These are the back pages and cover.

      The first inside page
is a painted canvas heart altar which opens to reveal a transparency to fabric picture of ourself as a young child, encouraging us to recall the freedom of creativity in childhood. 

    The inside, page 2, is decorated with old lace I dyed and vintage buttons and

a small "book within a book."    Each pocket of the book holds a surprise, including a third "book within a book within  a book." 

    We painted brown paper bag paper and also painted Wonder Under fusible and then ironed them together to get the colors on the outside of the book.  I also used stamping.  That was glued to a chosen textweight paper and then folding techniques were used to make the book.

    The third inside page has a beaded fabric flower and leaves, more vintage buttons, and a stamped and sewn mica pocket with vintage trim flap.   Inside is a small scroll of journaling about the seeds of my creativity.   

    The final inside page is my creativity muse with beaded hair and earrings and a machine and hand-stitched skirt. 

    The page next to the cover on the back side of my book is a paper and fabric flower on antique lace embellished with fibers and antique button to represent the flowering of my creativity. I stitched  small golden embroidery flowers on the background fabric.

    The next page is a pocket page decorated with more painted leaf ribbon and large antique gold button and large dragonfly.    Inside each   sewn pocket   trimmed with vintage crocheted lace is a small tag. On the back of each one is something my inner critic might say to discourage creativity, but on the front side is something positive to counter the inner critic.

    The final page is a tree with strong roots and beautiful glass bead leaves ,exploring both the roots and flowering of my creativity. In the tree is another bird nest this one made of yarn with a mother of pearl bird

and eggs.   There is a small  "believe" charm hanging from the tree.  I also added a small brass turtle near the base of the tree to remind me to slow down.   The background was done with Caron D'ache crayons and fabric medium and then sewn with free motion stitching.  It was my first project on which I have done free-motion stitching.  I hope I'll get better at that technique, but I was pleased to be able to accomplish it.

    Thanks again to Kristi and Susan for their wonderful teaching and inspiration.  And, thank you for taking time to look at The Nature of My Heart project.

 

Basic Bookbinding Workshop with Savannah

    Last Saturday, Bob and I took a Basic Bookbinding Workshop at Random Arts.  The instructor  provided all the tools and materials.  It was undoubtedly the best organized workshop I have EVER taken and that is saying a lot. The instructor had everything prepared for us to be able to complete four different books in one day.    

    We made two traditionally bound books (the two at the bottom of the picture above) with book board, book cloth and special papers before lunch. The first was a book to hold an index-sized pack of sticky notes.   

    The second was designed to hold a mini-legal pad. 

    Both were designed so that the inside pages can re replaced as many times as necessary.

    On a beautiful fall day in Saluda, Bob and I enjoyed time after a delicious lunch at the Saluda Grade Cafe to walk around a little with our new friend, Elizabeth, who stayed with us overnight to also attend the workshop.

    After lunch we made two more books. The third book we made  was a travel folder  with pages for writing notes and pockets to hold whatevere you wish. This one was made from a folding process. 

    The fourth book was done with a Japanese stab binding. I may or may not add to the cover of this book.

    The instructor also provided extensive notes and taught us in such a way that it will not be difficult to produce any of the books again.  Of course, I'll have to do all the preparation myself and that will take more time, but I enjoyed the workshop so much that 'm planning to make some books as gifts for Christmas.

Old and New Yard Art--Recyling My Blues

    Blue is my favorite color and I have been collecting cobalt blue bottles for many years.  A number of years ago, I bought an interesting rhododendron trellis from a local artist.  It wasn't original to me, but I  placed it at the corner of the pond nearest the house and hung some of many of my blue bottles on it and called it Recycling my Blues.  Over the years, the trellis has fallen apart, but Bob keeps getting it put back together for me.       

    I learned at the beginning not to put my antique medicine bottles on the bottle tree because if I forget to empty the water after rainfall or snow in the winter, the bottles freeze and crack. 

    I had planned for several years to add a blue bottle post at the other end of the pond. Earlier this spring, I started that project. I have had the bottles to finish it for a while, but completing it required    some help from  Bob plus hammer and long nails that it took Bob a while to find. I talked him into helping me work on it late yesterday afternoon.  It isn't quite like I want it, but I will wait until next spring to rearrange it.