Making Books with Ingrid Dijkers, et al

 Kari, Julie and I made a quick trip to Mechanicsburg, PA in September, for a three day book-making fix with our book-making friend/teacher, Ingrid Dijkers, http://ingriddijkers.com/.  Jean Van Brederode, www.etsy.com/shop/CharmdImSur‎, hosted the weekend classes in her fabulous basement studio.  Jean on the left, Kari, Julie, k, and Ingrid, sitting.  Ingrid creates journals using sensible, readily available supplies, and you know that concept is close to my heart.  She also puts many months of work in the supplies she assembles for us, asking students to bring only the most basic supplies (which we all have!). 






I'm holding the Handbook, and the detail of this wonderful binding is here.  LOVE the binding for a single sheet, rigid cover book!















The Beebook uses the same binding, different personality.  We assembled both books in one day, using the Ingrid's artwork on the covers.




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  This binding is done without a needle.  Isn't it pretty?!?

















 The first day we assembled, from scratch, a ring binder for the Bug Book.  woohoo, love the idea of making my own!  But, since I have no access to the ring mechanism, I'll continue to tear-down and rebuild thrift shop binders, using Ingrid's instructions.  The Bug Book cover took all day, and it was a good lesson in practical and artistic skills.  We used her artwork, some public-domain artwork, and papers from our stash to cover the binders.  As always, everyone shared their bounty!


















The File Folder Book comes with a great story about a city-wide yard sale...you'll have to take her class to hear it!  We assembled lots of curious, unlikely combinations of papers for this class.  I practically stopped working on this book in class, because I had so many ideas of what I want to do with this beginning in my own studio, where all my supplies live.  You know how it is with a class:  the supply list is complete, but I just can't haul all the goodies from my studio with me!  I'll enjoy finishing this book, in my own time.  Again, love the concept.

Now, back in my studio, the Four Acre Table is piled high with unfinished books, and they have spilled over to the dyeing bench and the cutting table.  I need to triage this mess.

One of the local students told us of a wild and wonky fabric shop in Lemoyne, which necessitated a trip after class Friday evening.  We spent three hours in there!  It was great fun, and we all left with great bargains and Good Stuff for the stash.


Jean's gardens are beautiful and soulful.  The fish pond is full of Big Goldfish, who are trained rock climbers!

Now, I'm home again, and puttering away with both my new computer (ohboy, new OS, too), and stacks of projects that are causing me to circle the studio working on several at one time!  Yep, life is good!

Veona, the Garden Fairy

     
Meet Veona.  When I was growing up, Veona and her husband, B, and three childlren (older than my siblings and me) lived on the farm adjoining my family's farm. B had a job off the farm, Veona ran the farm, and the children were the brightest in our school.  We all worked on our own farms, and for each other.

Veona always had the cheeriest smile, even on the hottest summer days when the sweat was dripping off her face, and the corn and tobacco were parching in the rainless fields.  In the winter, she always had knitting or stitching projects to keep her busy.  All year, I would see her working in her huge vegetable garden and her prolific flowers.  The flowers were everywhere!

Veona had white hair.  I don't remember that is was ever another color.  She always wore working clothes:  boots, a ball-cap and a long-sleeved shirt.  Of course, she was a member of the Extension Homemaker's Club in the community, and was one of the oldest members.  Every year, at the holiday bazaar, she always had for sale buckets of Confederate Rose cuttings she'd rooted, flowers she potted, dolls she'd made and some other needlework.

Hurricane Floyd, in 1999, destroyed her house.  Daddy and my brother bulldozed the soggy remains.  The next spring, the entire yard was filled with petunias, the seeds from her flowers had been spread when daddy leveled the lot in preparation for a new double-wide trailer to be moved in.  (She told me she didn't have time to build a new house.)  The new house looked like it was floating on a cloud of soft pink and lavender flowers.  I think that is one of the most magical things I've ever seen!  Veona saw the prettiness, but wasn't going to let those wild flowers stay.  Said she couldn't maintain such a mess.  And, then she laughed!

This 14", wooden armature doll turned into Veona.  I think Veona, if she were living, would be wearing brightly colored clothes, pink gloves and she would surely have a bag for flowers and seeds.  I rarely saw her when she didn't have a tool of some kind in her hand, or was on the tractor, so the pitchfork seemed appropriate.  Her stocking hat is made from t-shirt bits, the clothes from bits from my scrap bag, the pitchfork from a wooden skewer and a bit of wire.

Veona was an original tree-hugger, hippie farmer, born in a different century.  My brother and SIL bought the farm when she died several years ago, and live there now.  Perfect.  I can still visit Veona's flowers anytime. 

Hunchback of Island Creek

I will find a better name!  This is the Working Title.  What?  I always have names for projects underway, temporary names that change once the project is complete.   I suppose that means this one is not complete.  Doesn't feel like he's complete, so I'll have to look at him for a few days to know what I need to do.

HIC is 24" tall, with a wooden armature.  I bought the pattern for his clothes and shoes, the armature and the unpainted face more than15 years ago at the Williamsburg Quilt Festival, when the Festival was still held in multiple buildings all over town.    The pattern's creator suggested his coat be made from an old quilt, his shoes from fake fur, and all sorts of other suggestions I ignored.  In my world, a pattern is just for the concept and maybe a few details that I don't want to work out, like size and sleeves.














I made the hands with two-part sculpting clay that air dries, and then wired them to the end of the arm wires.  They are a bit skinny.  Next time, I'll flesh them out a little.  heheheee, I made a funny!   Flesh out his hands.  His hair and beard are wool; the boots are leather, and his coat is cotton velvet.  His lace cuffs are an old piece of eyelet, just the correct amount, which I found in the Stash.











Terri K taught me to make these little birds from a square of cotton, and it seemed like this bird wanted to be part of the story here.















I love his boots!  Finishing them with hand-sewing was not easy, but pliers pulled the needle through.  I like the red boot laces.



















His bag is made from a piece of burlap, trimmed with leather, and a leather strap.  I have yet to fill the bag, still thinking about the possibilities.











Whatever will I do with him?!?  No matter.  It's not the destination, it's the journey.  And this was a fun trip.

Wild, late summer mushrooms

 Sept 1, 2013

The summer of 2013 will be remembered as one of the wettest in a decade.  It was a terrible summer to decide to travel instead of planting a vegetable garden!  All that rain would have been a terrific boost to my sandy garden soil.  It was a Good Decision to go to The Maritimes, and I am still eating local veggies, thanks to the farmer's market.  Yep, I get it all.  Again.

Look what I found this morning in the leaf/wood chip mulch.  I googled images of NC wild mushrooms, didn't find anything similar, but after checking out the website for a  couple of images, I believe these are puffballs.  I propped them up with wooden skewers, and they are soft  as a marshmellow.  Yuck.  About 8" tall.  Curious!













A closer view of the top of the "shroom"...
























I worked in the gardens this morning.  Stuart helped me position this turtle, a gift from him. He found her at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  A generous homeowner at the beach donated everything Habitat could haul out of the house:  cabinets, furniture, appliances, plumbing, hardware, yard art.  Stuart, who loves the construction part, usually helps with the deconstruction jobs, too.   He painted her before he gave her to me.  She is living where I can see her from my studio windows.








Another Habitat ReStore find, from the same beach decon job.  This one will eventually be surrounded with hellebores seedlings I'm transplanting from the Mother Bed.  The deer don't like them!  I can see this from the south studio windows, and in the winter from the kitchen sink window.  Only in the winter from the kitchen, because that view is filled right now with the hugest Confederate Rose, mutablis.  The early October blooms on this one open white, and by the afternoon on a warm day, turn screaming pink.  The change takes several days if the weather is cool.




A birthday gift from Kari and Julie! last year...this vase is on the porch, and I put some dried hydrangea blooms it it, to give her hair.  The freaky part:  the Sistahs had a face drawing session one night last spring, and the face I drew was remarkably like this vase.  Before I saw the vase!  Think I'll cut some more hydrangea blooms, this is a good time to collect them.

Not much to show from a nice, wet summer, is it?  Really, the hydrangeas were mostly awesome, particularly the caged Limelight and the uncaged oakleaf hydrangeas. And, the rain kept the recently transplanted Lenten Roses watered. I'm sure the deer will find the oakleaf group next spring!