Juju Loves Polka Dots

Poppy

Some multi-task. I multi-slack.
Anon from joke site

I did it. I loaded a tutorial photo album for my poppy flower.

Check it out. I recommend visiting Heather Bailey's site for a tutorial on yo-yo's first, if you've never made one.

I'm still asking for feed back on the photo resolution issue of yesterday. Let me know how you get on loading the tutorial album. Does it take too long?

Today is my last day this term teaching after-school art club. I've got a group of girls who can't get enough sparkly powder and a group of boys who draw and make new and fantastic killing machines each week. Today I'm expecting reindeer with machine guns and fairies with stars.

Today's Inspiration: DB Pierre's article about writing Vernon God Little. I loved his description of how the character infiltrated his mind so deeply that he just had to write his dialogue for 3 months. And then he had to spend 18 months learning to write with structure to make his dialogue tell a story. Good story too.

Likes: Reindeer with weaponry

Dislikes: Bullies! They don't go away when you grow up either.

And Then...

Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.
Oscar Wilde

 

So back to the sketchbook tutorial from yesterday.
My next step is to use the incredible Zenith paper drill (look under hole cutters in Silver Crow catalog) to drill holes in all the sketchbook papers and the front and back covers. I also use the hole drill to make holes in felt beads, it's a great tool!

Then it's bang, bang, bang with my hammer to set the eyelets in the front and back cover holes. Eyelets and setting tools can be bought most places that sell scrap booking materials, including Silver Crow.

I pull ribbons through the covers and pages  with a darning needle. Be sure not to let any of the pages drop before the ribbon is tied on the outside spine. Leave enough room for the pages to turn easily.

Finally I trim the ribbons and stand the book up somewhere to gather dust.

I don't do this with all my sketchbooks. I usually keep a store bought  A4 bound blank book in my hand bag which I fill regularly. These are a good size for sticking scraps from magazines in and bigger drawings but can be tricky to draw standing up with so I also carry a smaller bound book in my bag for all those moments in museums and cues when they come in useful. It also means I always have an extra sketchbook in my bag to give to the kids, so that we can draw together.

The beauty of these little hand bound ones is that they can freeze and memorialize a certain period or event in my memory. In this case I will always remember the weather in March 2006. Not just because I have a record of it but because the process of recording it  and the notes I made each day fixes it in my memory.

I think sketchbooks can be kept for lots of different reasons and it's good to clarify the purpose of each one. I carry daily sketchbooks that I wouldn't want to show everyone, they are working out of thoughts and ideas and are a slightly private affair.
These ones that I bind are a little more showy but I  want them to  reflect the moment that they were made.  I'm not making showy art works on each page.

What I did next

How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
Steven Wright

Remember these?
Everyday in the month of March I painted a square to represent the weather (what a lot of grey!).
Well now I'm going to show you what I do with them.

I make lots of these little books and leave them collecting dust all over my house (ostensibly to inspire myself). Sometimes they are filled with kids drawings, sometimes shopping lists and other daily ephemera.
Check out Tom Judd's 365 day sketchbook. I'm not quite that dedicated although I am considering doing it for 60 days over the summer.
Here's how I make my books:

PART ONE

Tools and Materials

Mount card or other heavy cardboard

Sketchbook papers, in this case my watercolour pages but if I'm making a blank sketchbook I'll use a variety of papers including some with stuff already on them. I usually have envelops on the inside of the front and back covers for stuffing odd bits in. I like glassine envelops best.

Collage materials (below is a bucket in my studio where I stuff every scrap that comes my way. I love kids doodles and writing, edges of paintings, receipts , stamps, envelops, all daily ephemera.)

Japanese paste

Blotting paper or similiar

heavy book

Zenith hole maker

ribbon

eyelets and setter

darning needle

cutting knife and mat

 

How-to

If the pages are already prepared, as in this case, I start by cutting the front and back covers, making them 1cm taller and 1cm wider than the pages. I use scraps of mount card. I'll be covering them so I'm not bothered about the colour or condition.

I gather together some scraps from my collection and collage them onto the mount boards, on both sides, using the Japanese paste.

Here I have used some decorative papers, a kids doodle, and an old car tax disk.

Then I find a heavy book and some blotting paper (okay, just any old paper) and wrap the covered boards in the blotting paper and lay the heavy book on top. I let them dry over night like this so they will be nice and flat.
Next... Well, you'll have to come back and see. I'll finish this tutorial in my next post.

P.S. Did I mention that I'm crippled with muscle pain form too much belly dancing yesterday. I'm off to bathe in Redox.

Teaching at the Battery

A lot of guys think the larger a woman's breasts are, the less intelligent she is. I think it's the opposite. I think the larger a woman's breasts are, the less intelligent the men become.
Anita Wise

Don't forget to sponsor my Moonwalk for breast Cancer

I've got my Christmas teaching schedule for the Battery in Whitstable (This is a website showing the location, it doesn't have any info about courses, for that email me). I'll be leading another exciting weekend where we make stuff for the Christmas season. Look at some of the stuff we did last year.

We arrive on a Friday evening to settle in and have a slap up meal and then get busy all day Saturday and Sunday, October 14th-15th.

As you can see from the Whitstable link the accommodation is amazing. The picture above is the room we work in. The meals are amazing and the company is lots of fun.
I first went along on my own, as a student about 9 years ago, after seeing an article in a magazine. I love it and have made many friends.

Drop me a line if your interested and I'll send you more info. Julie Arkell, Janet Bolton and Chloe Cheese are also teaching this summer/autumn. Their information and dates are on the brochure.

At the moment I am only teaching the Christmas workshop. Usually Marilyn runs more classes but she is having a quite season this summer. If There is enough interest, I can also run a floor cloth painting  weekend. Let me know, if this interests you.

I have come up with the greatest idea for fund raising for the Moonwalk. All will be revealed soon.

 

Suffering in silence

It's easier to suffer in silence if you're sure someone is watching.

Jeez, I seem to always be apologizing for not posting when or what I say I will.

Tell me all you bloggers out there - How do you manage it all?

I find I'm so busy getting things done (or trying to) that I have little or no time for photographing, photoshoping, posting and researching all this blog stuff. 13 000 people "hit" me last week. Did I disappoint them? Does it matter?  This stuff weighs on me. I want to deliver what I promise but I also don't want/can't afford for it to take all my time.

What do you do? Do you keep a blog schedule? Do you find it overwhelms you sometimes?

I'm very busy right now and next week is half-term so the kids are off school (again).
For now I post you a felt, knitted, and crocheted bead necklace
on my very beautiful new mannequin.

For those of you jealous of my new mannequin I recommend looking on eBay. I got lots of comments saying that people had found some nice ones there.

Now, I must say that the lighting in the above photo bothers me. I know the shadows coming from multiple directions is not good but to set it up with better lighting would have taken even longer. Which comes back to my problem of how much time to take in making this blog.

Oh, and here is how to
knit a bead:
Cast on 4 sts loosely.
Row 1 (rs) knit into front and back of each stitch - 8sts.
Row 2 Purl, inc 1 st in each st - 16sts
Row 3, 5, 7 and 9 Knit.
Row 4 and all WS rows Purl
Row 11 *k2tog; rep from* to end - 8sts. Cut yarn, leaving an end. With yarn needle run yarn end through rem 8 sts and draw tightly to close. Fasten off. Stuff piece and sew side closed.

To this you can add polka dots, stripes and all sorts of fancy stitches. Use thicker or doubled yarn for bigger beads, and finer yarn for small beads.

P.S. I just had to add in that
1. I do not usually get 13 000 hits a week
2. I just discovered that my mannequin was designed by Maria Kalman, one of my favourite illustrators!! How lucky is that!

The pocket continues...

No matter how big or soft or warm your bed is, you still have to get out of it.
Grace Slick

What an apt quote for this February Monday morning.

Okay on with the pocket...

Assembling the pocket
1.  Make a pocket template on a piece of card. My pocket is 14cm wide x 16cm deep with rounded edges at the bottom. Make another template for the pocket lining that is 1cm taller than the pocket. Draw around your pocket template with chalk on your pocket fabric and draw around your pocket lining template on to your lining fabric. I them trim away excess fabric, leaving a rough seam allowance of 2cm. I follow the marked line when I am sewing so that seam allowance is not critical.

2.  Pin your pocket lining and pocket, right sides together and sew the top edge.

3. Turn the pocket so that the wrong sides of the pocket and lining are facing each other. The lining , being 1cm longer, should peak out the top and create a contrasting piping.
Stitch all the way around the pocket edge, following the marked guideline. Press.

4. Make a card template for the pocket backing. This should be about 9cm taller than the pocket front and slightly taper in so that it is 12cm wide across the top edge instead of 14cm.
Find a bit of fabric that looks nice behind your pocket front and mark the template on it. In the photo below, you can see another bit of appliqued fabric that has been embroidered and quilted onto muslin (the muslin is sticking out the back).
Pin and stitch the pocket front, with its lining to the pocket backing along the template lines.

5. Mark and cut a pocket back lining from the backing template.
With the right side of the lining fabric face down on the right side of the pocket and its backing, stitch all around the marked line.

6.Trim the seam allowance around the pocket (leaving the top edge for now) and clip the corners, as shown. This is where it gets tidy and begins to look like something.
7. Turn the pocket ride side out, so that your back lining is at the back, then your backing and then your pocket with its lining on the top. All the seams are concealed.
8. Now cut a strip of fabric for the waistband sash. This pocket buttons around my hips. For a longer tying one, cut a longer strip.
My waistband is 7cm wide (this includes seam allowance of 1cm)x 100cm long. Obviously the length depends on where you want it to sit and how wide your hips or waist are. Start by making it longer than you think you need, you can always cut a bit off before you finish it.
24cm in from one end, stitch the pocket to one edge of the waistband, right side together.

9.Press the seam allowance (1cm) for both long edges to the wrong side.
10.Whip stitch the long edges of the band together along seam edge. Turn in the ends and continue whip stitching. Press. Try on and decide on button placement for your size. Make a button hole in one end and sew on button on other end. Press and make it look really nice.
Voila you are done.
On Wednesday I will show you some variations including using ethnic bags/embroidery and knitted bits. See you then. Missing you already.

A pinch and a punch

A pinch and a punch for the first of the month and no punch backs.
Ancient English saying

Finally! Here is the promised pocket tutorial. I'm going to do this in two parts.
Today is the embroidered fabric for the pocket and Friday I will show the making of the pocket.
This is the lovely pocket I'll be making, displayed around my slender, photoshoped waist (well I had to have some help, since the stripes are so obviously working against me).

1. I began by constructing a pieced, appliqued, embroidered and quilted fabric that I cut my pocket and backing from. Obviously you can skip all this and just make a pocket from plain or printed fabric but let's have some fun here.
I started out with some silk duponi which had gold threads on the warp and red on the weft. This stuff looks great when frayed and slashed. I mixed this with some old pieced quilt squares. I seamed them together allowing the frayed edge of the silk to fold to the right side.

2. Next I added another piece of silk, with the seams on the wrong side.

3. I've added a few stips of torn silk in different colours, stitching them to the backing fabric with a straight stitch and encouraging them to fray.

Then I have pinned a piece of checked cotton with a traced flower, on to the backing fabric.

4. The flower was machine embroidered to the backing fabric with a straight stitch and then the excess fabric was cut away.

5. I machine stiched the centre circle and cut away fabric.

6. Using a piece of white card with the pocket shape cut out of it, I framed different areas of the appliqued fabric to see which I liked.

7. When I selected an area I liked I traced the pocket pattern on to the fabric and cut it out of the fabric allowing plenty of seam allowance (which will shrink in the embroidery/quilting phase). I also cut out the same size of a muslin fabric to quilt the pocket to.

8. Finally I machine and hand stitched these fabrics together, adding sequins and beads.

This last picture gives you a better idea of what the fabric looks like.

See you Friday.