Art & Love part 2

Watercolor study of reds.  I wrote "I love you" all around in the shape of a heart.

When last you saw the parts for the woven valentine I made this year there were cut strips of papers I have inked and painted, a love letter, some "I love you" messages and a big pastel heart.

The background is mainly light and the foreground mainly dark.  

The heart of "I love you" on the dark red paper overlaps with the red pastel heart on the long background strips, but after weaving a few inches I can see that it doesn't read as a heart.  The contrast of the light and dark highlights the weaving but the heart is too delicate.  It needs repetition, something to show the eye where to look for the angles of the heart design.

There are plenty of touches of orange in the paper, so I chose to paste a yellow watercolor heart cut from my paper stash onto the background.  I then repeated the pastel drawing of a heart on that.  That should do it.

The weaving pattern is called a 2/2 twill.

Strip by strip I cut and then wove my messages and images and colors together.  

I like the way the yellow heart is not traditional, but makes the whole thing bright and cheery.  Like a little sun.

I considered writing on the heart too, but I decided against it because this is busy enough.  

There has to be a few places where your eye can rest, not just work, work, work to read and understand.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Not just to my loves but to my readers and Valentine's Blog Party friends too!

New Pagan Art Journal

I am so delighted to participate in the 52 Weeks of Pagan Art Journaling Project that I decided I didn't want to just start cramming my entries into my regular daily journal.  So, in typical overachiever style I made a journal just for the project.

I cut 15 pages to size for the outside of each signature so the spine would be uniform looking.  I pressed each fold crisp with the bone folder visible on the top of the stack.  The distracting pile of sketchpads was there to supply paper and later to provide pressing weight on top of the bull dog clips. 

I stitched signatures made of all different kinds of paper together, just to begin with some variety already built in to my new journal.  I've been kicking this idea around for a while but I admit I usually make books in a big hurry for a gift or specific need.  For this book I had time to go slowly and play with papers, and I did.

I used a few watercolor monochrome pages I painted and stored to use when I needed some texture and color but not a specific picture.  Last year I bought a book of card stock with general monochrome print backgrounds from a bin of discount scrapbook paper and have hardly found a use for it so that got cut up too.  Along with ivory colored sketch paper, these made the bulk of the 10" x 14" sheets which folded to 10" x 7" pages.  After that, I added some envelopes, partial sheets of plain watercolor paper and a few pages of odd sized brown craft papers.  There are 15 signatures of 3 pages each, one or two have 4 pages.  That should be plenty for 52 entries even with a few duds I cut out and remake!

I folded the signatures together and added a smaller page or envelope to most of them.

After folding the signatures and adding the odd sized pages I pressed them well again with a bone folder.  Then I taped the three linen tapes for the spine to my work surface and stacked them in the order I wanted them to appear in the book.


I made a card with marks where the holes should go near the ends and beside the tapes.

You can see the card with the hole markings here, and the punched holes beside it.
I added arrows to make the marks more visible for the picture.

Then I took each signature off the pile and punched holes in the fold through all the page layers.  I used a magazine opened to the middle to make a place to lay the fold and punch into it.

Row of holes ready to stitch and linen tapes attached to
 the surface below the work.  Beeswax and linen thread on top ready to go.

 I stacked them back up in order and then moved the whole pile to the side.

My assistant was no help whatsoever.
 As soon as she realized that my awl had an antler handle
she forgot all about hole punching until she was caught.

After all of the holes are punched and you have the pages in the order you like them you stitch along the length of each signature and tie it to the one below.


As you stitch around the cloth tape at the spine you form a flexible back edge that will open well for writing or drawing.








Leaving the tail on the outside you bring the needle through the first hole to the inside, then in and out along the row of holes.


Tie the starting tail to the thread as it exits the hole on that end the next row.  After that, loop a stitch around the row below on the outside each time you reach the end of a row.  The pictures below show the linked end stitches one above the other.

Sew the waxed thread through the pre-punched holes in each fold.  

Pull the thread to the outside and be sure to go around the outside of each tape.  Keep everything nice and snug.

In, out around each tape. 

 It takes time to keep layering and sewing the folded signatures on one at a time, but it makes for such a neat stack.

I used tapes on the spine instead of a heavy doubled thread because I want to leave the spine exposed as a pretty design element of the journal.

Here you can see the stitches going around the tape for each new folded signature added.  You can also see the stack of linked stitches on the end holes. Each end hole stitch is attached by looping it through the stitch below it. 

I used bulldog clips to further press the whole stack
 for a few hours and tugged the tape snug .  

To hold the tapes down on the outsides of the text block I have just made, I used PVA glue to add a piece of thin linen fabric to each side.  This is actually a folded strip of handkerchief linen, because I want a neater folded edge to show near the exposed spine.

 The spine with the glued linen strips was shielded with parchment paper to keep it from sticking to everything and pressed between the boards with the bulldog clips again.


Here is the whole stitched book.  You can see how many of the pages are full size but there are heavy watercolor paper strips and all kinds of other things in there.  I hope that running into the different papers is a good challenge to inspire me to try different techniques and approaches all year.

Sometimes staring at another blank page just sends me into a creative straight-jacket!

This looks pretty inspiring to me now.

The spine is really flexible and pretty.  You can see the tapes glued down under the strips of fabric front and back.

Covers are glued to folded endpapers inside the front and back page.

The covers I have were reclaimed from another journal with really cheap, absorbent and yucky recycled paper.  Everything I did on that paper just smeared and wrinkled and made me feel helpless.  I was so glad when I realized the problem was mostly the pulpy paper!!

These covers are 10"x 7" with holes from a spiral binding.  I haven't decided yet what to do about the holes.  They could have beads stitched into them or ribbons laced through them, but that will make it hard to shelve this journal later.  I don't have to decide about the cover today.  Eventually it will be covered with a brown striped silk book cover paper I have.

You can find great instructions step by step for making bound and stitched books at T. J. Bookarts.

If you are doing the 52 Weeks of Pagan Art Journaling this year, please leave your link for me to go see it!

Imbolc Par-tay follow-up

Gorgeous creativity poem to Brigid for over my loom from Kestril.

Beautiful yellow English primrose from Cat for the altar.

The ice bowl filled with holly twigs and leaves came out fantastic!  I have these little vintage silver stars originally intended for holding candles on Christmas trees.  I put one in the bottom of the ice bowl and placed the lovely green 8 hour candle on top of it. I love those darn emergency candles!

The reason I needed the star is because when I un molded the bowl/candle holder in the morning after it was outside all night to freeze it wasn't COMPLETELY frozen... It must have been just 32 for only part of the night.  The top 3 inches or so are frozen clear as glass- the inside and outside layers of the bowl are frozen in big crystals.  That indicates really slow freezing.  The water that remained in between the two shell bowl bottoms splooshed out into the sink.  Yay for me for unmolding this in the sink and not on the table!!

Big slow-formed crystals of water with gaps holding the star and candle.  So shiny.

The day began with good smells and presents!   We set ourselves up with Mimosas made with OJ and Prosecco and admired the altar and the day.  We spent plenty of the day catching up with family news and love life news too.  Kestril brought a wonderful mix-CD of songs about milk, creativity, growth... it was just great and everyone got one!

Our meal was a yummy 3 cheese quiche and these beautiful chicken pot pie muffins.  I made a bowl of sweet and sour cucumbers with dill and lavender using goldenrod vinegar I made in the summer.  I certainly need to get the recipe for those pot pie muffins!

Then we got raffia all over the place.

Traditional wheat crosses

 With instructions we shared a good time trying to weave wheat crosses for everyone.  The raffia went everywhere, but it cut easily with scissors so I was glad that was our choice.


Combinations of weaving, braiding and tying resulted in a bunch of awesome icons to hang over our doors at home.

 


No one was in any hurry to leave, and before we knew it the time was late.  What a good day!















The candle kept burning until I blew it out before dinner.

B: Book of Shadows

My tool carrier full of drawing supplies can move with me to wherever I am working on my BOS.

I remember how curious I was about contemporary books of shadows. I could get an idea of the ancient, illuminated super fancy ones of the past, but what about today's? Surely everyone is not supposed to have that level of skill and time for this? Will an incantation written on a bar napkin or a legal pad work?

Good news, of course they will. Especially if your working involves a bartender or a lawyer.

But since I wondered, I bet some of you wonder. Today's Pagan Blog Project contribution is a little tour of what goes into making my own BOS.

I only use Red for my Book of Shadows      photo: Treehugger .com

The Book itself
is a red Moleskine hard cover 5" x 8.5" Artists Journal  I have been keeping black hardcover Moleskine journals full of ideas and sketches for years. I love that they have that nifty little elastic band attached to keep them closed and a pocket in the back. They also have that fancy pantsy ribbon to mark your page. I am a sucker for those.

Top, black everyday journal, bottom, BOS

Paper
I addition to the archival paper in the journal I have glued paper from old BOS books into my present BOS. I never kept one as nicely as this before, it was more like just running lab notes.  I don't think I'm going to move things forward anymore, just begin a second red journal when this one fills.  I'm not super fussy about what I attach to this book, index card stock, notebook paper, feathers and pressed flowers as well as copier paper all are in there.

Pens and ink
Writers and Artisits can be really emotional about pens. I have only put on the table the ones I am using frequently on my BOS, but as you can see, I have a whole zinc tool carrier full of glass cups and each of THOSE is full of pens, pencils brushes and other journaling supplies.It sits on my beautiful oval walnut desk (the first desk I ever picked out for myself!) and does its "let's not get too serious here" job.  Fine lines, permanent ink and beautiful lettering are my needs in a pen. I use Pigma Microns and Staedtler fineliners have been my faves ever since I found them a l o n g time ago. I have a Hunt quill and Speedball calligraphy pen for dipping into ink too. Last, I have Noodlers fountian pens- the black one is extra flexible for sketching and the orange one is stiff for writing. I also love Noodlers ink, they make great products and the packaging is full of rambling thoughts of the owner. check out the reasonably priced pens and ink at Goulet Pens.

Beloved watercolor pencils turn my sketches into paintings!

Coloring
Oh! What can you say about coloring? I love it, and I always do it after the drawing part. I have found that even when I use a paintbrush I seem to always draw, so now I stick to sketching my ideas into my BOS, lettering things carefully and then going back in and adding color to the pages on another day.  The Noodler's inks that I use are called "bulletproof" and are made for security on documents. Not only do they not run, they can't (according to the package) be removed by bleach, oven cleaner or any other method check forgers know about.

I love using watercolor pencils by Prismacolor and also Derwent pencils. It's like a paint with water picture, you just draw, wet your brush with plain water and brush over the parts you want to smooth or blend. Magical! Sometimes I will use my regular journal to make notes about something that I will later do up nicely in my BOS. Sometimes I just dive right in. It's not supposed to be perfect, it's supposed to be personal.

Next week: more Book of Shadows...
Catagories and how I keep track,
other inclusions and ways to attach them.
hinge, hanger, tuck, pocket, glue

A is for Amulet charm bundle

Many years ago I wondered what a REAL Book of Shadows looked like. Mine looks like this. 

Amulets are one of my favorite things to make, and a really nice way to bear in mind an intention you are working to make real. They are like little tangible thoughts, and may be accompanied by gestures, words or sigils. A charm can just BE a word or sigil, it you desire. If it is a word, you can time it so it is said at the perfect moment, when the sun just sets or when you drop a bulb into a hole. 

The charms I make address a specific intent, like protection, love or attraction.  The right time of the moon is always taken into consideration, waning, waxing or Full. I don't make charms on the New moon, it is time for other things. I think of a charm as an offering for the Goddess I ask to help, a focus to frequently remind me of the intention I held while making it and to act as a passive reminder.  In my studies of local Pennsylvania and other rural folk magic and medicine there is frequent use of verbal and bundle charms. The amulet I am sharing today is a bundle charm.

Hand sewing is something I love, it is meditative and takes time. So, I gather my hand sewing supplies and some linen fabric too make the outside of the amulet, the bag. 

Using a rectangle about 2" by 4" folded it in half I stitch around the outside edge on two sides. One side is open, so the square is turned inside out, edges pressed with the bone folder (in the picture I have one carved like a feather) and stitched again with linen thread all the way around 3 sides. Fold the raw edges of the forth side in and stitch it partway shut.  These two seams are tight enough to hold herbs or salt inside the bag.

Now is the time to get the rest of the amulet supplies you will need. You know what you need to do your magic work, I can only show you a bit of what you might find here.

I gather my sewing supplies and stitch two sides of my folded linen rectangle using plain thread. Also pictured, red silk thread, needle case with spare horn buttons attached, carved bone folder, blue checked linen I didn't need today, thimble.

 Folk magic uses red thread and salt frequently, so before I begin the filling I make a final round of stitches using red silk thread. My desire is knotted into the red thread, in this case I made 5 knots, you can see them in the last picture. I stopped the red stitches short of the opening too. Salt, rosemary, quartz, a tiny felt heart and my words to Brigid and Aphrodidte went inside.

Linen fabric, sewing tools, little gemstones (I buy them on strings) salt, anointing oil, your hair, or your written intent could go into the amulet. I also included herbs and a small candle made of beeswax and an old earring from my hubby.

Note to the goddesses I am addressing on linen.
String of gems to choose from. Anointing oil and salt.

On different page of my BOS I recorded the details of a special
amulet a fellow asked me to make for his uniform coat.

 Include what ever things support your intentions and work to your purpose.

Of course the salt goes everywhere! Mugwort, rosemary, garnet and red wool heart went in next along with the candle.

When filled and stitched, my amulet was dedicated  and anointed before I put out the candle I used to focus.

See the place of 5 little knots in the red thread?

The soldier's protection and wholeness amulet was sewn within the coat itself, but you can feel it through the pocket.

Carry yours in your pocket or around your neck, or place it in a room or in the garden.