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New Concertina sketchbooks

I love concertina sketchbooks. Some years ago I made several like this:

and this spring I have filled one of them with paint and snippets of photos taken in my old garden, as a memory:

the back is printed using stencils and gelliplates

Yesterday I decided it was time to make some new ones. I started by cutting long strips of Fabriano 160g paper:

folding them:

and make some nice covers:

The blue and the golden one are covered with some nice handmade japanese paper I bought in London a few years ago. The two in front I’ve made for me and my sister to use in our holidays. They have a nice thin gift vrapping paper as cover.

I did cut and fold 6 books, but have only covered 4 so far. Now I just have to fill them with summer memories and maybe ideas for new work…

Published

Back again

It has been more than a year since my last entry, and much has happened since then. Most of the year I have been working hard to finish my accredited course in Machine Embroidery, level 3. My final piece were this Muff, the design inspired by the Oseberg Viking ship

.The back is decorated with a row of old knives

and it is lined with fur to keep my hands warm.

After a long winter, it looks like spring is finally here. These crocuses are popping up through the icy ground

even though the rest of the garden is still covered in snow.

One of the things I have been working on lately are these Dragonflies. I digitized some drawings, my machine embroidered them and finally I painted them to make them stand out from the background.

I will try to be a bit more active here on my site, I am also working on some changes. I hope you like what you see.

Published

Update from my studio

  

Last year I made this row of trees inspired by the pattern on an old Egyptian bowl. And the last couple of days I’ve been playing with them and try to fit them in my new wallhanging.

First I made a quick sketch to get my ideas on paper. Next I scanned the original drawing and fed it to my 6D Design Creator, and one of the options I was presented with was this stylised version. I liked it so much that I had to let my embroidery machine do a bit of work:

I have also started on another version, using freehand embroidery on water solluble plastic, and I guess time will show what comes out of this.

Published

Studio update

Just a short update on my studio. It is now finished, the outdoor needs a bit more painting before winter is here. I’m just waiting for the right weather.

studio-update-3

These windows on the side wall gives me good working light and no sun. They are facing north.

studio-update-1

And inside I have just finished painting the last coat on the floor so I can’t go in and take more photos. But it is just an empty room.

studio-update-2

This weekend I will start moving in all my boxes. And I need to get some shelves and other furniture as well. But finally I can move in.

 

 

Published

My new Studio

It’s been a long time since my last entry. There is still much work to be done with my new page, it is a work in slow progtress since much is new to me.

Well back from Festival of Quilts with many ideas to work on, but unfortunately, too little sewing. I have worked hard to finish Module 5 of C&G Level 3 Certificate in Machine Embroidery, with the result of my Portfolio presented in 3D. I made a zigzag book, with 10 of my designs:

3d-book-25

The back of the zigzag is decorated with a repeat pattern

3d-book-23

and some of the pages have pop up elements

3d-book-07

3d-book-13

I have also been playing a bit in my sketchbooks, acryllic ink rolled on with a vine cork

vinkork1

and best of all, finally my studio is being built in my garden

studio-1

I have been waiting for this all summer and finally the building has started. I just hope I can move in before Christmas.

studio-2

And next year, i can start to fix the garden. That is all for now, hopefully my entries will come more frequently in the future.

Published

Creative again at last

It’s nearly 6 months since my last entry, and most of this time I have been clearing my old house, packing everything in boxes, moved to Tonsberg, and unpacked everything again.
So yesterday, I needed to do something creative again. I took an old sheet, wrapped it around some old tools i have inherited from my father, poured over about 3 litres of tea of various kinds, wrapped it in plastic and left it in the garden overnight.

 

The result when I opened it today was gourgeous:
 
Such beautiful marks.
 

Just now the piece is in the washing machine, hopefully the marks will survive. I don’t know if I want to keep it as a wholecloth or cut it in smaller pieces. Time will show.

Published

New Year with lots of opportunities!

I’m sorry it has been so longe since my last entry, but I’ve been busy working on my Modules for my Certificate in Machine Embroidery with SST, and clearing my house. This spring I’m going to move to the other part of Norway, and of course then I have to clear the house first. Do you know how much we accumulate over years? I have been living in this house for 30 years, a house with much storage-room. Now I am moving to a little house with a little garden closer to my grandchildren, and hopefully away from the rainy Bergen. 276 days with rain in 2015 will not be missed!
So, my days have been more than full with school-work, getting rid of things I do not need and packing.
But in the last two weeks we have had real winter, cold ( -8 degrees C), dry and lots of snow.
Beautiful pink and pale blue days.
I just love how the snow sits on the grass and branches.

 

And suddenly, I realised I had to use this snow to do some snow-dying. Winter in Bergen is usually grey, wet and windy. And today it looks like we are going back to normal, + 6 degrees C, windy, and the snow is no longer beautiful but getting a dirty grey look.
Well, just in time, yesterday I did some snow dying, snow, dye powder and fabrics.

As usual, I did not measure anything, everything just at random:

Today I have used some time washing and ironing it, and look at these beautiful colours, especially the one to the left

I also put in some lace, these are not 100% cotton, but they do have a subtle beauty I think.

 

That is all I have for now, I hope it will not take this long befor next time. And thanks for reading.

Rust dying and eco-pinting
Published

Rust dying and eco-pinting

Since I came back from Birmingham and FOQ,  I have done some rust dying and eco-printing. When I visited my daughter in September, I did rust dying with some gears from an old mangle she has.

Wrapped in cotton fabric, a cup of tea added, and left for a few days, and the result is beautiful

And this piece was just wrapped around the bundle:

 

Next, getting inspiration in the Wet-studio at FOQ, I just had to try eco-printing.  The bundles from my first attempt

And the result, these first are strips of cotton

 and some Dupon silk I had:

this one looks like a dead forrest

and some lovely purple marks, but not many leaf prints.

Second time it got better.  I put in some chestnut shells and got a beautiful tint of green and lovely marks

Now I just have to figure out how to use them…

Textile Zig-Zag-book
Published

Textile Zig-Zag-book

I have made one of my paper zig-zag-books in textile.

 I scanned the pages of my paper books, played with some of the pages in Photoshop, and printed on TAP paper the ones I wanted to use in my textile version. I then used Bondaweb to glue them to the backing of a piece of Gesso-painted cotton. This gave me the hold I needed for a zig-zag-book. To secure them further, because some of the pages went over the foldings, I stitched them with white tread. The quote I’ve used is from a poem by Jon Fosse. No deeper meaning, I just needed something to write.

Two more books – in paper this time
Published

Two more books – in paper this time

I have just made two Leporello-books in paper. The collages are made from the many writing-exercises for part two of Juliette Exkel’s Textile Books Workshop.

 
The front is yellow and black, it was a bit tricky to get a decent photo
 
 
and the other side is red and black

 Book number 2 alternates between black and blue

and red and black. All on white paper.
Now I just have to make them into one made of fabric.