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we pulp girls have certainly been slacking with the book posts lately, but i have a sneaking suspicion that we’re consciously or sub-consciously trying to prolong the whole event. i also know that we’ve all been some busy girls with HUGE things going on in our lives as of late. i have been instructed to keep the peeks of the last book i work in (this very book) kind of cryptic as we have some secret future exhibit plans where all will finally be revealed, so i’m not showing as many photos as i typically would. this is, however, round one of two posts i will be doing.
originally i had NO idea what i was going to do. this was in part due to the fact that no natural bits (branches, flower bits, dried leaves, moss) could be sent overseas to new zealand or austrailia due to very strict postal laws and of course, particularly with a title like this, it was a necessity. THANKFULLY i ended up being the last one to receive and work on this book so i’ve cheated and included heaps of nature bits in this so far.
several different fabrics (some hand-dyed by my very own natural dyes i have been making), fibers, dried flowers, moss, vintage book and handmade papers surround the edges of the page.
many watch parts, gears and vintage brass beads also adorn the page to depict “time”.
even rust gears peek out through the sandwich of nature yummies and organic wool.
imagine living in the victorian era… you are little alice searching for the rabbit hole. i imagine she would find many secret things along the way, and many little hiding places and treasures.
two tiny drawers are hidden on the side of the book (i may add tiny “drawer pulls” but have not yet decided).
more treasures from nature, and even that “late” and elusive white rabbit hides in one of the secret drawers… ’cause in my world, he can.
this is a bit wider of a peek, so you get a slightly better idea of where i went with this. the alice image is actually a door that opens, and there is about an inch-deep secret hiding place inside.
this is not the end result of the compartment, but i wanted you to see how deep it is — that is a deer knuckle bone or something odd like that, and of course a little vial. not sure exactly how i will complete this section, but it will come to be soon enough, i’m sure.
i hope i don’t get in trouble for showing this much of the page. BUT you have no idea what’s on the back, or any of the other secrets that alice and her friends hold, so that is good… for now. every single little bit of this book has been hand-stitched — no sewing machine was used for any part. AND i only bled once while creating it (so far).
i had SOOOOO much fun working on this first part of lisa’s book that i couldn’t stop. my mind kept going and going. as it now turns out, lisa’s book contribution is the first piece in a series of several alice-inspired nature/victorian/steampunk/forest/taxidermy/apothecary pieces. they are so very alicia and contain all that i love. none are 100% done, but i’ve started 6.
here are some very tiny peeks at my very first one that i started, called “finding the rabbit hole”.
i started mine on a 6″ x 12″ canvas — this is the 12″ side, with similar nature bits as in lisa’s book, twigs, dried flowers, moss, and other secrets.
here is alice’s key — all rusty with the number 41 on it. maybe i’ll actually finish these 6 pieces before i reach that age? it has no significance, of course… i just like numbers. next to it, a real white rabbit taxidermy paw.
on the top left of the piece, there is a hole with a glass ring framing it. if you peer inside, you will see a teeny tiny mouse skull and jaw. this was taken while the adhesive was still wet, so there will not actually bit any shiny bits. if there are, i shall fix that!
and of course i’ve found some of the white rabbits watch parts to include when i get a bit farther along.
it’s no secret that i’m typically a busy little bee and oftentimes forget to post blogs, read blogs, list items in my shop, etc., and these past few weeks have been no exception. it’s almost summer break though, and this means an extra 5+ hours per day to create art, visit friends and post new goodies in the shop (home schooling takes up LOTS of time, you know!).
today i completed a mini frozen charlotte textile assemblage that i started a short while back.
in great anticipation of spring, i have called her “charlotte’s flower”. last sunday, which was mother’s day, i recalled that the mother’s day before was the first day that our roses bloomed. this year? nothin’! not a rose, nor a peony, not a mum or a fox glove or a purple cone flower or even a teeny tiny asian pear blossom. we have buds, finally, but no blooms. hmmph. so, in this piece i’ve made my own (of course using the GORGEOUS recycled sari silk from miss lisa of mudhound studio).
this piece is now up for sale on my site, here.
i’ve recently taken painting back up, which is something i haven’t partaken in in quite some time (that’s all i used to do, you know — though 99% abstract). yesterday, i picked up a 6″ x 6″ canvas i had in my pile of blanks and painted this scene from a recurring childhood dream i recalled AFTER i finished painting it. the dream: i’m not the three year old i was in real life when it started, but a bit older… maybe 15 or 22 or somewhere in between. i was standing on the edge of the ocean, a storm brewing, wind blowing, waiting. in the distance, to my right, i could always see a lighthouse, though it was rarely illuminated. my dress would “wave” against my bare legs in my dreams, chilling me, and my pigtails would whip about wildly. of course i’ve added the “modern day” twist of having stripey alicia-socks and red locks instead of naked legs and white-blond hair. anyway, i was always waiting for something… “love”, though that didn’t really make sense to me at the time. i dreamed this from about 3 years of age to roughly 8 or 9 and wrote many stories about it in my youth. it’s so strange that i didn’t remember the dreams until after i had painted this, though i wasn’t really thinking when i did it. perhaps our recent family beach trip influenced me?
this painting is also available for purchase in my shop, here.
(sorry, this item has been reserved — thank you so much!!)
long story short — i’ve always been crap at portraits. anything having to do with people really, but i recently said “sure, i’ll play” to a limited pallet portrait challenge that gritty jane posted on mixedmediacollageartists.ning.com. my color choices were unbleached titanium, mars black and cadmium red. while painting this, she (the gal in the portrait) “told” me her name was “adoette”. that sounds weird, maybe, but her name just popped into my head. seeing how i wasn’t painting anyone specific or looking at a photo or anything for reference, i just went with it. i finished her up, painted a tree behind her and i was done. i think i finished her about five days ago. so… while posting this now, i wanted to look up “adoette” as i’ve never heard of any such name and lo and behold, it’s a native american name that actually means “large tree”. i thought that was a strange little coincidence indeed since there is a barren tree behind her and i’ve never actually painted a tree before.
this too is also available in my shop, here.
i’ve had so much fun painting this portrait, that i’m starting a whole new series of “imaginary friends” — portraits of those i conjure up in my mind just for the sake of painting them. time spent painting is pure bliss for me.
oddly, i JUST now realized that the second of my three childhood dreams was of being a native american lady who lost her man in battle and wished to die herself. so morbid and sad, i know, but you can’t help what you dream, can you?
soon i will be posting new dolls and doll parts on alteredbits.com, new textile bundles and vintage lace bits, and a new series called “fragments”… plus some other stuff that will hopefully be worth a quick peek.
❤
i actually finished lisa sarsfield’s book labyrinth last sunday, but since she had just posted i felt i should let her contributions to kim’s book stew a bit before i posted my contributions to her book. i think now enough time has passed that i don’t feel as if i’m stepping on toes or anything…
part one of this post is on our pulp blog: http://pulpredux.blogspot.com.
so, if you want to see see the first pages first,
pop on over there FIRST then come back here to see the rest.
the book is called labyrinth so i’m creating a maze for you to go through if you want to see all of the pics. i’m mean.
detail/side shot of the back page of the pieces i created for lucky dip lisa’s book. i like making random boxes and compartments from scratch so i created one here. had no idea what i was going to use it for initially, but i figured it out later. 😉
detail of the top of the boxy page, with a nice old “labyrinth” of pretty brass knotwork.
a little abacus of old beads, rusty wire and rusty brads (remember, my camera is evil and makes rust disappear — it’s way better in person). lisa likes things that move, ya know…
close up of the mica covered, twine tied box:
untitled and uncovered box… a wee little nest i made with 5 1940s vintage beads nestled inside and a secret scroll note to lisa.
the nest in my cute hand. the cute nest in my hand, rather. my camera actually shows the rust this time if you enlarge. ‘about time!
side view from the spine side…
side view from the page side. love the threads atop the whole thing! (that’s my pretty chocolate colored new couch it’s on, by the way).
all done! that is my contribution to lisa’s book. i will be sending it off to lisa jurist tomorrow (if i can find a large enough box!). woohoooo!
phew. i feel like i haven’t been “here” in ages. not in the blog world or home. we’ve just returned from a longer than anticipated trip… all over the place but spent the most time in southern california. it was hot but wonderful fun for the most part. and the little man got to visit disneyland for the first time which of course, as you know, is probably one of the most thrilling things in the world to a seven year old. i had fun too… despite being a huge wimp when it comes to rides. i’m even a bigger wimp when it comes to NO ART for 6 or 11 or whatever days it was. not cool at all. for that alone i’m glad to be home.
so today, reunited with paint and paper and fabric and lace, i made stuff. first sewed a new curtain on a whim. all kitchen curtains should have a pocket, ya know. why? i think i said something about this the last time i made a kitchen curtain (the one i decided was ugly this morning). because husbands can be really mean beasts who hide your ring in an obscure cup or vase on the top shelf of the cupboard that you couldn’t even reach if you wanted to when you take it off to make him a damned meatloaf and lets you whine and cry for 17+ minutes that you THINK it went down the garbage disposal. now, yeps, a pocket. a sweet little dainty one that his big grubby man hands can’t fit in to thieve my pretty wedding ring… even if HE wanted to. ha! take that, husby!
after my mini bout of sewing (the curtain took all of 15 minutes to create so of course i needed much more) a heard a little folk story that made me somewhat weepy but smiley and a feel a bit verklempt. so i had to make something in honor of said story. the story goes like this (imagine this in the voice of johnny cash, which is how i heard it):
A Mother’s Love
Once a young man lived with his mother beside a great forest. The young man was in love with a beautiful girl who lived in the forest. He told the girl in the forest that if she would marry him, he would bring her anything that she asked. Knowing that he lived with his mother, the girl said “take your dagger and cut out your mother’s heart and bring it to me and I will marry you”. This made the young man very sad, but he wanted to marry the girl so he killed his mother and cut out her heart. Running through the forest with his mother’s heart in his hands, he stumbled and fell and dropped the heart. As he was getting up, his mother’s heart cried out from the ground, “My son, did you hurt yourself when you fell?”
and this is what i started to make, which is of course not done (the heart piece will be a door that opens to reveal the story inside, me thinks):
i have a new-found love of my local library. i buy way too many books. i picked up THREE of the books from seth’s book guild posts that i’ve been wanting to check out before potentially buying (the principals of uncertainty, journal revolution and eco-books) and a bit of velvet and a dash of lace (magnolia pearl book). i love the principals of uncertainty!! i will buy it for sure. just reading the first little bit made me want to make a book for my son (i like writing stories), so of course i started in on that straight away. it’s mostly crazy childhood stories for my boy, like when my sister sucked on a slug and almost died, and mama doodles and stuff like that…
funny. i never posted this the other day when i wrote it ’cause my internet went down for days (router up in smoke). so, i finished the principals of uncertainty and i loved it. i think you should get it if you like art and doodles and witty, insightful girls who are eloquent and quirky in unison. i will go back to find out who suggested it and thank them personally (tomorrow though ’cause we’re off to the zoo today).
missin’ you all heaps! i’m off to start my three day blog catch up time the moment we return from our wild adventure. woohoo!
phew! what a summer! things are always crazier this time of year, aren’t they! travel and kids home (mine and half the neighborhood), move travel and no time to work or art it seems. at least we’ve had some adventures to spokane and coeur d’alene and long beach and corona and san diego and la and such… though not all were under the best pretenses (though that’s neither here nor there, i suppose). i haven’t had a lot of time to art or hardly any time to visit my favorite blogs, but soon summer will be over and school days will reconvene.
i’ve at least gotten to finish four more charlotte pieces for my attempted 100 piece series (now if i stopped selling these i could maybe actually have 100 someday!). i have photos of numbers 9 and 11. at least i have plenty of 1900 and 1901 sheet music to do twice that many so we shall see where i end with these.
i just did a PDF tutorial that i’ll be posting in a week or three on how to crackle and age frozen charlottes and other bisque or porcelain dolls. as a result, i had lots of new little girls to play with.
charlotte’s song #9: heart song
lots of vintage lace, naturally dyed and aged, metal bits and pieces that i’ve rusted, antique sheet music, recycled sari silk ribbon, etc…
charlotte’s song #11 (i really need to photograph 10 and 12!) this is just a simple one, but cute none the less.
detail: a rusty or metallic charlotte and pretty turquoise stones.
i have a 20 to 30 piece show with these little girls next month but the left-overs will surely be going up in my etsy shop (aiming to have 30 done just in case there is room but may only have room for 20). better get to sewing though, huh!!
i also had the time to start three books, but just barely. i gave a mini peek of book one a few days ago and will show it soon, completed. that one is for me and is entitled phantoms and shadows. i dig ghostly things, ya know? book two was supposed to be for a collaboration that kerin and i are doing (see below) but she is a silly and fickle girl and wanted to change the size so this will be a different alicia-book which is just [almost] as thrilling ’cause i’m already loving it. i’ve had so much fun working on these covers and am looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks once i get them done. i still need to come up with a title and better theme for my big huge book with kerin (okay, not HUGE, but decent sized — i think they are 9″ x 12″ and will probably be a foot or three thick, hah), especially since the cover is nearly done. we’ll be posting those in the weeks to come, huh keriny!? other than these and my art journals, that’s really all i’ve gotten to do as of late. but i shall not complain!
oh, the book… i almost forgot about these photos. this is of course not at all done, but it’s a pretty fun cover, i’d say. i am going to singe the lace a bit, for one… maybe do something to the bird skull but it’s so lovely natural “as is” that i’ll probably just leave it. you can’t tell in this photo but the skull and vials are inset about 1/2″ or so from the rest of the book…
and i’m going to do that waxy alicia-thing to the ends of the vials before i actually attach them (they currently hold porcupine quills, something green and nature-esque, and some animal teeth — yeps, i like taxidermy parts and bones!)…
hopefully i’ll get at least two of these books done before summer’s end, and a handful more charlotte pieces. i’m not sure why i like them so much but they are quite fun!
does anyone know where to get taxidermy bird wings? i really, really, REALLY need one for this book. have found nothing on ebay or anything else and know a lot of bird parts are illegal to sell (wings?) in some places. if i wasn’t so sweet i’d sick one of our cats on a crow. totally not serious!!
what are you working on this summer?
despite being mucho busy with family stuff and travel plans the past several weeks, i’ve managed to get a few new things made and posted in my shop over the past couple of days. i have TONS of new stuff to add (soon) that i find to be quite exciting. some examples are: vintage german cuckoo clock movements, vintage radio parts (variable capacitors, to be exact) that are ever so cool looking, vintage framed victorian prints, etc. i should probably leave some stuff out for an element of surprise… though those are, quite admittedly, the coolest things.
here is a peek of some of the other things i’ve already posted:
i’m sure you’d believe it when i told you that i got the brass bells , porcupine quills and vintage brass/porcelain knobs almost a year ago to add to the site. you know i’m slow!
i’ve also added several new collage sheets. these are just a few:
you can go peek if interested, but some of the new ones are vintage dancing girls, cemeteries and mausoleums, geishas and vintage men.
more exciting than images printed on paper, is my newest journal. it turned out so fabulously “alicia” that i was quite reluctant to put it in my shop — i kinda felt that i should keep it… almost. it’s not that i don’t have an over-abundance of art journals, but you know…
i also made some more of those addictive charlottes, among other stuff. i swear i can make 1000 of those before i tire of them, or at least 43. they are so sweet and fun!
next tasks: finish and post stuff for the pulp redux collaboration, finish a piece for a challenge my friend lish came up with, finish my new first couple of pieces in a new series i’m doing… oh yeah, and get my act together with the zine and post the info here so everyone knows where my head is. in the meantime, here is the teeny-tiniest peek at my new stuff:
that doesn’t really give any ideas, now does it? more soon. 🙂
my sweet friend karyn, whom i’ve known for more years that i’d like to admit (i mean because it makes us sound almost old!), gave me the most magnificent gift last week: an album of photos from the 1890s to 1920s, with a few things as “new” as the 40s. omg — i have been turning these pages over and over, falling in love with each and every one. karyn is a dear, sweet friend and an amazing illustrator. we were pregnant together, her son being born just five weeks before mine, and one day we were sitting together having tea and scones and our boys kept kicking each other while still in utero. was pretty funny and sweet. you can check our her blog here or her illustration website here.
her parents had found this album and additional photos at an estate sale or antique store, she wasn’t sure which, and after having it sit in her home for a long time she decided that i, in her opinion, could put them to better use than her. that is of course debatable, but i am ever so grateful! i am starting a big new series of collages and assemblages called “people i’ve never met and places i’ve never been”… or something. it’s just so inspirational to have these zillion gorgeous vintage photos and cabinet cards! one of the coolest things about it, as if it COULD get cooler than having the photos in the first place, is that there are lots of individuals in the book with the surname “finn”. as most of you know, my wee man’s name is finn. so it was particularly meant to be, karyn said. and, one of the houses looks almost exactly like ours, which too is an ironic little tidbit. remove a window, and add a couple of steps and it’s practically our house.
other than that, i’ve been a busy little bee. my son’s school has an art fair coming up, called create. all parents, friends and family who are artists or crafters will be selling their wares there, on cinco de mayo. i’m helping out by making the flyers and things — you know me, the volunteer girl. i’ll also have a table there so i’ve been making so much stuff. check list so far: three new journals, a heap of art prints, two assemblages, four collages, three paintings, six frozen charlotte hanging thingies like the ones in a previous post, a handful of fabric collages, art cards of my son’s magnificent bird art (below), bunches of girly headbands, lots o’ wrist cuffs, and about 6 other pieces i’m not exactly sure how i would categorize but they are pretty and hang on a wall. oh, and fabric collage art cards.
speaking of the magnificent finn, he has asked me that i post this… next week is run for the arts at his school. 100% of the money raised goes to funding art programs at their school. last year they raised enough to rent a kiln and make a heap-load of fantastic clay garden art pieces and also enough to make HUGE mosaic mural for the school entrance, thanks to being able to afford these wonderful visiting artists. it’s so fantastic to see all of the inspiring art these 1st through 8th graders created. anyway, i am volunteering that day (surprise, surprise) AND i’m on a mission to help my son get a run for the arts t-shirt. you have to have 15 sponsors to get a shirt. i’m not sure why it’s so important to him, but it is — which makes it important to me. so far we have 7 sponsors (i count as three of those having used each of my businesses as a sponsor) so i need 8 more. people can sponsor per lap, or a flat dollar amount (minimum one dollar). so, if anyone is interested in or willing to sponsor my little bug for a buck, i would be ever so grateful, and so would he. he covets his last year’s run for the arts shirt and i want to help him qualify for it again this year. if interested, email me your mailing address or at least city, state, zip and phone number (it’s a requirement to qualify) and either paypal the buck or i’ll just cover it for you — it’s the amount of names that matter. either can be sent to: hi at altered bits dot com. thank you so very much. please don’t feel obligated though — it’s just a silly shirt. of course that puts him closer to winning the first prize of a t-shirt, a pencil pouch, a ruler, a backpack full of art supplies and tickets to the children’s theater. i should start 8 more businesses just to get him closer. 🙂
to get over my hump of funk, i created a few happy things this weekend. i was thinking about the hundreds of frozen charlottes i’ve sold in my shop over the past year or so and the fact that i’ve only created TWO things with those lovely little lassies (and nothing from the charlie lads, yet!). so i remedied that — because they make me smile and i needed a bit o’ cheer. of course i had to give them hearts — anatomical art is an alicia thing, ya know.
first, i made a wonky little wishes and dreams tin. wonky because it doesn’t hang entirely straight. personally, i think that just adds to the charm, but that is probably not the general consensus. there are two little scrolls in a pocket, one to write wishes on, the other for dreams. charlottes are magical girls you know and can make things come true if you share them with her.
detail of her face, heart and one of the scrolls:
side view:
available for purchase in my shop
next i created a small fabric collage: charlotte’s song (i just made that up on the fly). somehow, while creating her i got “charlotte sometimes” by the cure stuck in my head and here it remains. how do we remember such things so vividly after 20 odd years?
because of this, i had to add the vintage sheet music to the top:
the bottom (recycled silk ribbon and crocheted bits created by moi), with a tarnished little embellishment:
her crackle cracks me up (no pun intended). the eye cracks remind me of childhood star-eyed cartoons for some reason. it just happened that way and was by no means intentional. because the piece as a whole is so light, i made her heart a bit more dark.
i wish i had a better photo of her as a whole. i’ll have to snap some new ones tomorrow.
available for purchase in my shop
lastly (though i actually started her second), on a 5″ x 5″ canvas, i created this piece. it is, as of yet, untitled as she hasn’t told me what she wishes to be called. maybe just “charlotte sometimes”. but that is neither here nor there.
the sides of the canvas are covered with painted vintage lace and have taxidermy tacks holding the recycled sari silk ribbon down. i learned how to use the drill press today. woohoooo!
at the top of the canvas, it says “monument to the memory of the” (the what? the charlotte? the thought? her head is in the way so that is where that ends — you decide to the memory of what) and in the mid-left, it reads “a harmonising companion – a genial friend.” i didn’t actually pick any of the verbiage out. i have more of a propensity to grab and glue. just so happens that it worked out, at least in my opinion. i think the sentiment is sweet enough indeed.
this charlotte, as a whole:
from the bottom hangs a pretty and rusted piece i received as a gift during the art exchange last year. i had it on my new journal that was somehow left outside and fell into the garden bed. i couldn’t find it for days and when i did, the journal was ruined and the “tassel” was gorgeously aged. i’ve had it sitting on my desk ever since and while assembling this piece, it got stuck to one of the papers i was using in the collage. to me, that indicated that it needed to be a part of the piece.
available for purchase in my shop
all three of these are available in my shop. i’m trying to recoup a bit from last month’s income thieving incident, but i will not complain about that again. work has been ultra slow since i put three projects off to work on that stupid eco-travel site, so i’ve had lots of time to get organized around here and create. a clear studio makes for a clearer mind and THAT is worth a lot!
peeks at some of my other week’s creative starts:
tomorrow i’m getting my bum in gear and finishing a bunch of ATCs and ACEOs i’m doing for a swap with the ever so talented miss gaby. i should have done those this weekend but i was sidetracked with charlottes and family time.
happy week, friends! i’m off to catch up on YOUR blogs — that is always a highlight for me and the past several weeks have been too crazy for me to do all that i wished. what a blessing it is to have time to start catching up more.
i have just completed my additions to kim palmer‘s book fragments, vestiges and remains for the pulp redux collaboration and oh my, has it been such an honor to work in her GORGEOUS book. you can check out her blog posts to see all of the pages and details, but here is the cover if by some weird freak of nature you’ve missed it:
not a huge amount has changed in the book, but i’ve finished up all of the outstanding bits and pieces, adding a bit more detail and texture and small elements here and there.
one of the additions was a beeswax and acrylic frame around the copper tape i had edged the glass door with on the first page.
maybe you can see it a little better here:
the door opens up to reveal a photo of della, a young lady who was captured in the victorian era of portland, oregon (where i’m from) and taken down into the portland underground/shanghai tunnels and held captive before being sold into prostitution. behind her photo are journal pages from her sister who wrote in attempts to find sollace in her despair. you can read more about it in my initial post on these pages here.
i just LOVE how kim’s glass bottles with scrolls flow with my page ever so perfectly. it looks so intentional.
here is the whole page, actually in the book this time:
i had a super huge scare along the way in that i opened, dropped and thus spilled some red alcohol ink on my second page. it’s nowhere near THIS crimson in person (thank you, flash!) and i rather like it. i was quite pleased. the area is about the size of a US quarter and rather looks like blood. quite befitting AND i’m sooooo very glad it didn’t land on the white page or the book (they were on the other side of the room, in a box — accident prone girls like me must work this way).
after i finished the black page, i was pretty bummed that it felt top-heavy. there was a bit more space on the bottom and not enough space on the top. i accounted for everything except the photos that were going to be in the top pocket. i fixed this by stitching and embroidering some linen — black and black — and putting it along the top. i cut the bottom to fit the book and perfecto!
when we very first started this collaboration, before i had finished my pages (well, i’m still not finished but before we sent out) and prior to even having kim’s book, i had the idea of buying five of something, i wasn’t sure what, so that i could put one in each of the books. i went to lots of antique and thrift stores, scoured etsy and ebay but since i didn’t know what i was looking for i couldn’t find it. i decided to just stop looking and POOF, it appeared. mr. seth apter mentioned in his blog that he had posted the first pieces in a series of art elements he would be selling in his etsy shop. check that out here: http://thealteredpage.blogspot.com/2010/02/proceedings.html i saw them and i KNEW i had to get five and use one in each book. not only are these elements extremely cool, they are from seth who we all adore. it felt doubly befitting to use them.
my camera’s flash is messing with me again… and you! the x is actually distressed, but you cannot tell here so well. i thought it was a perfect completion for the page, both visually and symbolically.
here is the whole, completed second page. there is a stray element in the photo — that green patina piece. not sure how that got in there or if i like it. lisa, let me know if it’s on the page when you receive the book. if it’s ugly, could you please yank it off?? this is so mysterious.
see though — the red isn’t that hot and crazy as the previous photo.
my two-page spread, all attached in the book and ready to go:
i just love the side views of this book! kim’s going to have her work cut out for her if he’s going to want to re-bind it all. i do think she will want to as once it’s completed i think it will resemble a star burst more than a book. 🙂 it’s gorgeous none the less!
towards the beginning of the book, kim has a sweet page with five chains for each of us to add a charm. hers is the friendship coin and key, mine is the heart. i searched and searched for a human heart as that is so very “alicia” but was unable to find one. i still intend to. the red is velvet from my favorite childhood doll’s dress that i carefully tied on.
i forgot to take photos of each of the books within the book: the diary pages behind the photo of della on the “white” page and the history of the portland underground under the trap door on the “black” page. maybe i can con one of the girls into taking some for me. assembling those were part of the most time consuming aspects of the book, but so much fun! the pages are aged with instant coffee and made to look very old. they look pretty darn cool if i do say so myself. under the trap door page, there is a pocket within the book with an aerial map of the portland area from that era. how did i forgot to photograph all of that??
i now have deb’s book and have already started in on it: though the eye glass. so check back soon as i’ll have images to post… now that i’m pretty much not on my death bed any longer.
you know i can never stray from anatomical illustrations of human hearts or pictures of skulls for too long, right?
so i’ve been playing today (yes, i should be working)…
(if only i were as good at photography as i am at crackle)
i’ve listed him and the heart aceo i posted last week or so on ebay after a bit of [sweet and gentle] arm twisting from my amazing and sweet friend debs. go read her blog and check out her weeks’ offerings too — they kick arse!
truth be told, i got a wee bit o’ birthday money yesterday and now officially have enough for my trike i posted at the beginning of the year:
i think this little red girl is going to be mine! but now i’m saving up for handlebar streamers, a bell and even more importantly, the shiny chrome fenders! as such i’ll be posting things here and there on ebay and etsy in the hopes that some sell. it will be my sole “new” purchase of the year but i think it’s okay because a) i will rarely use my car now and b) i will be saving our planet. but still, i vacillate. should i wait until 2111 to get her? i vowed not to buy new for the year and i’ve done SO well. so i ponder….
wishing everyone a happy and creative weekend! i’m either going to make a pot o’ afternoon coffee and catch up on blogs and comments, or take a wee nap before the bug gets home from school. yesterday was soooo much fun but kicked my bum… and i’m now so sleepy. my boys spoiled me ever so much and took me to sooo many fantastically fun places!
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