Round Robin 'Journey' Altered Books group Europe

This is the first Round Robin that does not go so smoothly as we are used to! Books are even send back by the Dutch mail services in spite of the correct address (and all the other times that it did went well)!
So this is the third book I was supposed to work in - but is in fact the second book of the RR.
This book was made by Julie from the UK: In these hurrying times, take time to travel.
Just being back from Barcelona made the choice for the spreads very easy!
Printed a few of my pictures on a linen canvas kind of paper and wrote some of my impressions about Barcelona on painted paper. Some tags with detailed prints of the mosaics of Gaudi and little drawings of the shapes from the mosaic and the strange chimneys on the roof of La Pedrera. (The yellow clamp was used just temporarily so that the page would lie flatter to photograph.)
The book should be now in France for Pascale to work in!

Altering books or creating books?

Altering books is one of my favorite activities. Take an old book, take out the pages and start altering it according to my own theme or style. It is fun to do and I have notices that lately I like to work on this small scale.

But, making books which are adjusted to your own needs (size, thickness, paper etc) is very fulfilling too. Some years ago I did a bookmaking course and so now and then I like to make my own sketchbook or book to be collaged.
See these entries in my blog for some pictures from books that I have made:

These were the first books that I made:
http://exploringart.blogspot.com/2005/10/binded-books.html

This book was made with watercolour paper for the signatures, very stiff paper to fold. But I could work in it with watercolour without the paper wrinkling:
http://exploringart.blogspot.com/2005/10/signs-and-symbols.html
I designed all kind of symbols and painted these in this little book.

Of course I wanted to make some little books as well. All were made with a sewn binding and hard covers. The paper that I use for the signatures was pastepaper:
http://exploringart.blogspot.com/2005/12/three-little-books.html

Another book that I made especially for a Round Robin was also made with pastepaper as signatures:
http://exploringart.blogspot.com/2006/03/new-book-binded-for-next-round-robin.html

These are all books with sewn binding, but on YouTube I found at last a video that explains how to make a book with a coptic binding. Most instructions that I found on the internet were not always easy to understand. I think this is going to be one of my new projects!




Hope you enjoy it!

Little creative pieces

Seems that this year I still get buried into paperwork.... To prevent boredom and compensate for the paperworks and appointments, I joined the Yahoo group Mixed Media ATC Europe.
So now and then I join a swap which forces me to get creative again, away from the computer screen and start playing with paint, ink, fabric and glue.
Working on a small scale is wonderful (no need to clean up an entire workspace, just a tiny empty space is needed for these little cards :-) ). The deadline helps to finish the cards, instead of becoming UFO's.
The card here was made for the Spring Swap.

If you are living in Europe, you can join the group and start trading too. Here is the link:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mixed-Media-ATC-Europe/

The group is limited to Europeans because of postagecosts and time.

Barcelona, city of Gaudi (part 1)

Winter is definetly not my season! Spring and autumn, early summermornings are the best times of the year for me. Back in September I already foresaw the long grey and dreary winter months of Holland and decided that we needed to break this winter up with a little trip to the south of Europe. It did not matter which country it was, as long as it was south!
I found a cheap flight on the internet - 2 tickets to Girona (near Barcelona) in Spain, two ways for 76 euroos. Just what I needed!

We did some research on the web about the city and bought a city guide and decided that we first wanted to see the works of Antoni Gaudi. Well, although I have seen images of his work before - seeing them in real life was quite another experience.


Spain did live up to its expectations: warm and sunny in February! What a difference with home.
On our first day we went to Park Güel, which is famous for the long winding benches filled with mosaics. We enjoyed the palms, sun and parrots up there. But the part I liked most was the space underneath the court.
Dozens of tall columns supporting the large space (including the benches) above it. With on the outer side, the columns placed a bit out of line, which fooled the eyes and created a strange illusion.
The ceiling was covered in mosaics and so here and there were large discs attached to it with swirly motives - big splashes of colour against the white broken tiles.


The sun was shining and the warm light created a beautiful atmosphere between the columns. Then add some guitar music, the sounds of little colourful parrots to it and the idyl is just perfect. I just wandered around these columns, and lost my sense of direction because I also kept looking up, admiring the ceiling.


The houses that stand next to the gate of the park look almost like houses from a fairy tale. Nothing on it is conventional - when you walk around them you are in for a surprise every time you turn a corner or look up.
Gaudi has been fascinated by the geometry of nature form an early age, and it definitly shows in his work. Also he was one of the first designers that saw architecture as a complete art form, and extended his creativity to all the elements of his work. Not just the walls and roofs, but the windows, doors, chimneys, up to the doorknobs got his attention.

Gaudi worked from 1878 till 1926, but his work is so modern, different, organic and most of all inspiring. It seems like he was years ahead in his approach to not just buildings, but also environments like Park Güel.
And instead of building impressive buildings, he designed them to invite you to come closer and discover the strange and funny details.
So after being in the Park, I could not wait to see 'La Pedrera'...

House of Hope

Another digital collage from my own photography and 3D renders in the series Faith and Religion. I enjoy making these works, but still find it hard to get 'the message' across.
The third collage is already in the making, but needs still a lot of work. Hope to upload it this month though!

For this new year, I hope to focus on photography and my digital work. With pain in my heart I cleaned up my little artroom and took most of my textile supplies to the attic.
Even my subscription on Quilting Arts has not been renewed (don't know how long I can keep up with that decision- would be able to buy them again just for the inspiration that comes from the wonderful artwork)!
I am going to sign up for a model drawing course next week and considering a course in studio photography as well. That will keep me busy for a while!

Altered Book for Journey RR

We just started a new Altered Book Round Robin on ABEurope. This time the theme is 'journey' . It is a fun theme and one can work it out in so many different ways. I had loads of ideas and settled for a book about a young girl who is dreaming up her journeys to countries and cities around the world to go to see and explore art and architecture.

This is the first time that I sent out a book with the covers not completely finished - but on the other hand, I finished 4 spreads in the book! And I really had to stop myself for doing more, or I would have been much too late.
The book is sent to France, will travel to Germany, England and Norway and then hopefully arrive safely in the Netherlands again!

Short holiday in Scotland

My husband persuaded me to go to Scotland with him for a Meet with members of the Ephotozine.com website. This group of people all love landscape photography and most of them are so good at it!
Since the landscapes of my last visit in Skye were not that great, I thought that I would not fit in there very well. But I am glad that I did go. A friendly bunch of people, with all the same interest, fun atmosphere and a great location. It has been a fun (but tiring) weekend and I have really enjoyed the countryside there.

The last time I have ever seen a deer in the wild, in Holland was when I was about 10 years old. During our stay in Rowardennan, I saw 6 deers within these few days! One of them was a stag, a very proud one, and I was even able to take some pictures of him!

This was one of the photographs that I felt that was so typical of Glencoe. Rough mountains, moody weather and lots of drama.
Still processing the pictures that I shot in RAW format. And soon I will have to get my ALtered Book ready for the next Round Robin of ABEurope.....!

What to do with this book?

This book stood in a window of a secondhand bookshop in Den Bosch. I could not resist buying it.
This is the kind of book that was probably the pride and joy of the girl who received it. On the front, the coloured plate is glued into the bookboard. In the book several coloured plates are glued in the book.
We are so used to full coloured books and magazines, but years ago, this must have been a luxury!


The stories in the book seem so innocent, filled with morals and good endings - so far from what our daughters get to read in their magazines!
It is a pity that there is no date found, nowhere in the book. No referral to copyright. Guess no one was worrying about that, back then.

I bought it to alter, but on the other hand, I do like the covers so much - eventhough they are not that perfect. The pages are old, not that brittle, but for altering I need to remove some pages and glue some together.
This is the first time that I found it hard to get my hands at it and alter it. Can't even find a theme. Some suggestions???

House of Sacrifice

Setting my first babysteps in 3D.... This photocollage started with the rendering of a 3D model in the software program Poser. I then added various photographs to create the mood of my theme I am working on: Religion and Faith.
A few months ago I felt that I needed something else to put into my digital collages. Since then I have ideas to import rendered 3D objects into my digital collages because sometimes it is so frustrating to have not the right photographs to express my ideas.
A few years ago I had been dabbling with an old 3D program called Amapi that came free with Computer Arts magazine. These last months I have been reading manuals, books and experimenting with software like Vue Esprit, Amapi Pro 7.5, Poser 7 and just recently Carrara 6 Pro.
There is loads to learn, which I love - but on the other hand I still want to work with my hands, paint, paper, textiles and glue as well!
Too much hobbies - too little time. Nothing new under the sun, right?

Favorite item on worktable

We had a question for the members of the ABEurope group (Yahoo group for Altered Books in Europe): what is your favorite item on your worktable?

Well, this is my favorite: a wirebasket with several jam jars filled with water!
My workroom is somewhat away from the nearest watertap. In the beginning I was running around with jars filled with water, to empty them or to change the water. I tried also larger jars as well. But as soon as the water is dirty, then even a large jar won't help!

I found this wirebasket in a store and thought that it would be perfect to hold several jars and filled with water. In the openings I can even tuck in some brushes that need more than a simple rinse in the waterjar.

One jar is dedicated to the glue brush. This is always the same jar in the same place. Now I don't have to think so much when I am using expensive watercolour brushes - which I definetly don't like to rinse in water mixed with glue!

Another bonus is that the cat can't throw the water jars over. I always had to clean up after working, afraid that Coco, who of course prefers my table above the comfortable chair in the same room, would throw a jar over my work.
Also, the jars are small enough so that she can't drink from them - she seems to like 'dirty' water more than a fresh bowl... Cats...

Discharging fabric

Not much time to start working at real projects, so I took some time off and discharged some fabric. Very easy to do, does not take much time and I had all the supplies at home.
I did this on a warm, windy day. So the fabric took only 20 minutes to dry before I could repeat the process.
I used household bleach to discharge, had a bowl of water with vinegar to stop the bleaching process. And a bowl with water to rinse the fabrics.
To keep things easy, without fear of bleaching my workroom, I worked outside in te garden. The only problem I faced there was how to keep everything out of reach of Joy, my daughters Golden Retriever (who is white, actually, instead of gold), a very active, energetic dog full with creative ideas about investigating the world around her.
So I put the bowls on top of the large trashcans we have here in Holland.


I used some quilt fabric, an apart from the blue fabric, all discharged very well, except one blue piece - it would not bleach. That was probably real good quality quilting fabric!
I used clothes pegs and paperclips to hold the fabric, when I folded it. The paperclips formed these nice little patterns.

I learned that when I left the bleach too long outside of the bottle, it seemed to slow down the bleaching process. So I just poured a little bit in a shallow tray, dabbing with the fabric in it, or sometimes using an old brush (since the bristles are eaten away by the bleach) to makes some brush marks.
Then as the colour was fading away, the fabric was put in the bath with vinegar for a while. Then I rinsed it with water and hang up to dry in the wind.
There is not so much control over the whole process - but I guess that is the beauty of it. You just go along and accept the results.

This was so much fun to do - I will go through all my fabrics and see which ones I don't like anymore - they will be discharged too!

Here a close up from the patterns created by the paperclips.

Stealing time to create

The last weeks are filled with working in my daughter's house: stripping, plastering, sanding, prepping and painting. It seems to take ages, well it is taking ages to get the house done.
It was previously rented to an Afghan family and where they painted the walls blue (or yellow, or red or purple), they also took parts of the ceiling, doorposts, windowframes, central heating etc. with it.
So really most of our time is spent removing paint... And that takes more time than actually painting a room (after stripping the old wallpaper, filling the gaps, sanding and prepping).

Luckily I found some time and inspiration to work on this piece that was hidden in a pile of painted and collaged papers.
I added some Tyvek, ironed some cotton with Wonder Under to it and did some hand stitching.
It is not finished yet - I want to cut out a stamp and stamp over the work as well.
Since I come back home exhausted most of the time, I only get to work at it an hour or so now and then.
Boy, hope that the house get finished soon (but that can take another 3 weeks) and that I can use this summer to create in the garden.... Hmmm, what a wonderful thought!

Page for Textile book 'Symbols and Signs'

For the True Colours Round Robin (textile book) on ABEurope group, I started with the theme 'Symbols and Signs' in the colours reds and purples.
The theme of symbols seems to pop up regurlarly in my life.
Two years ago, when we were on holiday in France and went to Honfleur, I bought a beautiful book of the artist Luciano Di Concetto. His work consists of calligraphy and his own designed symbols. This has already inspired me to make a little book with my own symbols in it.
You can find a photograph in this blog in the archive under the entry 'Signs and Symbols' in october 2005.
And then there is my fascination for the ancient Egyptian art, especially the murals, filled with little drawings depicting words. This began when I was 15 years old and did a project about the Egyptian kings for school.
Just recently I read 'Rosetta' , written by Barbara Ewing (a wonderful writer, I have now read all her books) in which the main character is fascinated by the Egyptian hieroglyphs as well.

I hope to use my own symbols in this textile book, but will use symbols from all around the world as well.
This first page is a very simple symbol: a X. The X symbol is filled with fibers, trapped between two layers of organza. The stitching around the symbol helps to make it more visible.
I intend to make loose pages in different techniques and then bind them together.

Textile Pages for True Colours Round Robin

These facric pages went to the UK for the first round of the True Colours Round Robin. This was the first time that I experimented with a thinner transfer of a photo copy.
The shells have been coloured with water colour crayons for some extra colour.


At the other side of the textile pages (to be folded) I tried water soluble Solvy for the first time. This was sewed to the page and some beads were added as well. This was a more abstract interpretation of the theme 'Colours of the sea'.

For the second round I made this square page. Layers of organza with fibers trapped in between the layers. Some sewing with the machine and some experimentation with the soldering iron - something I really need to practise...

Holiday on Skye in Scotland

We just returned from a holiday on the isle of Skye in Scotland. My husband photographs landscapes and I was hoping to give it a try myself.
Scotland is famous (and especially Skye) for its bad weather. A bit silly maybe, but we hoped for some moody skies and lots of clouds. Instead we got a week with loads of sunshine!
So the landscape images are not so dramatic as we hoped for - but we enjoyed the good weather and being out there.

All these pictures were taken from the beach of Elgol, a very rocky beach with different rock patterns and sorts, blue cool clean water and a breathtaking view on the Cuillin Hills on the other side of the Loch.
We stayed in Elgol, it is not really a village, just a place that has houses scattered over the hills, in a self catering chalet, attached to the house of the owners. From every window we had amazing views over the water, the hills and the little harbour.
See: http://www.gael.net/pierhouse/
The only downside was the single road track from Broadford to Elgol - it is a single road track that you have to take very seriously! There are loads of passing places, but you don't want to have to manouvre into one when there is only a few centimeters between the car and a abyss...
I managed to fill almost 4Gb cards with images during this trip. Scotland is a beautiful country and hopefully we will return in November for a meet with EPZ photographers near Loch Lomond.