Thoughtful Saturday

"Never cease wondering

for wonder defines the path of discovery"

Norman Hollendy

Thoughtful Tuesday

"Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, 

but ripening like a tree, which doesn't force its sap, 

and stands confidently in the storms of spring, 

not afraid that afterward summer may not come. 

It does come. But it comes only to those who are patient, 

who are there as if eternity lay before them, 

so unconcernedly silent and vast.

 I learn it every day of my life, learn it with pain I am grateful for: 

patience is everything!"

-Rainer Maria Rilke from Letters to a Young Poet

Thoughtful Sunday

"Being artful is pouring your soul into it.

When we’re giving our best, we’re artistic.

When we’re intentionally making something 

more beautiful, more understandable, 

more accessible, we’re artistic.

When we reach below the surface

and bring something thoughtful forward, 

we’re being artistic. 

It’s happening all the time. "

  - Danielle LaPorte, The Fire Starter Sessions

(handmade notebooks using fabric paper and a Japanese stab stitch binding)

Thoughtful Sunday

“Sometimes,' said Pooh, 'the smallest things 

take up the most room in your heart.”

― A.A. Milne

Little Jars of Inspiration

I made these little jars for my daughters at Christmas. I tried various techniques to dye the glass blue (with very varying effects I have to say!) including glass paint, then filled them with inspirational quotes by Mary Anne Radmacher (one of my favourite authors) and decorated with a spring of ferm, cinnamon stick and raffia.

Thoughtful Friday 175

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.” 

~May Oliver

My associate!

I'm doing a piece of work which requires intense concentration at the moment so I am working at the bottom of the garden in 'solitary confinement' in 'the studio'!  But I have a furry associate

who likes to get 'up close and personal' and comfy when he's found just the right pile of paper (exactly what I am looking at usually!) to sit on.  He is a cutie nevertheless. 

Thoughtful Sunday

Be brave enough to live life creatively. 

The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. 

You have to leave the city of your comfort 

and go into the wilderness of your intuition. 

You can't get there by bus, only by hard work and risk 

and by not quite knowing what you're doing. 

What you'll discover will be wonderful. 

What you'll discover will be yourself.

Alan Alda

Making Books

I have been having fun learning how to make books and tuning into Diana Trout's Longstitch online course.  Above you can see one of the books I made using some fabric paper which I made too and then below is a close up.  I made the fabric paper using calico cotton, diluted PVA then a napkin, more PVA and then a vintage dress pattern and a final layer of PVA.  It's addictive, that's for sure, this making fabric paper!!

I am also addicted to using gold metallic thread at the moment so I added some wonderful fabric autumn leaves and sewed over them in the gold thread.

Here is the gorgeous long stitch binding - I used hemp yarn which I waxed myself using beeswax

Here's the back side above.

And here is the woven long stitch bound book, again made with fabric paper, this time torn in strips and  woven together.  The other side is below.

I'm just loving this technique.  Fabric paper can be made with anything, napkins, old wrapping paper, sweetie papers etc.  I have some drying in the dining room at the moment which is made with old maps.  This is destined for a journal for my son-in-law who is a geography teacher!

Thoughtful Friday 174

"Art enables us to 

find ourselves and

lose ourselves

at the same time"

Thomas Merton

Thoughtful Friday 173

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; 

ask yourself what makes you come alive. 

And then go and do that. 

Because what the world needs

 is people who have come alive."



Howard Thurman