Tale-ing Fragments #11: Expedition log, second entry

Hi everyone,
I'm back with the second entry of the botanical expedition journal, this time I'm sharing a double page spread with a bird theme. Like with the first page, I filmed the process of making these two and you can find the video on my YouTube channel or right here:

I'm still playing with the formats of these videos, trying to figure out the best way to make them interesting and informative for you. This time I focused more on the layering of the pages, skipping some of the basics (like inking of the pages, which was covered in last week's video), and tried to make it short and to the point. The narration is more about the ideas behind the details and less about explaining each action I make, so more about how I decided what to do than about what I'm doing.

So, for example, with the right page I talk more about the logic of layering and what each element adds to the composition and story.

This page continues a lot of the themes that were set in the page I shared last week, like the specimen bags, so I explain what continues last week's page and what's new. I also talk about layering and using different generation stamping to get more interest and character for your project. In this case it's all about getting that faded worn look.

 I do try to have a technique focus in each video, and in this one it's stitch book binding, which I used to make the ‘Nests and Eggs of Familiar Birds’ booklet in the left page.

Some of you might recognize the cover as an ephemera piece from Tim Holtz's Idea-ology line. It fit with the bird theme of these pages and I thought it would be cool to make a small booklet out of it, as if it was a guide book that the journal owner used in his work. I only added a few pages that I found online, just to give the feel of it, but I really love the result.

So far the pages I made are still about setting the scene, so all the information we have is about our guy's work: collecting natural specimens, maybe sending them to a lab or research institution of some sort. Next week we’ll start seeing more hints about him and build his story.

As I mentioned, this form of sharing my work is very new to me and I'm still experimenting with the style of the videos and other elements, sort of an expedition of my own :) 

I'd really love to hear what you think and what you'd like to see, should I cover more pages in each video? Do you like the shorter version or prefer to see the whole process from beginning to end? If you have any questions I'd be happy to hear them too!

I hope you're enjoying this so far and that you'll join me again next week,

Take care and have a wonderful weekend!

xx

Naama

Tale-ing Fragments #5: I Persist

Hi everyone, 

I’m back with a new Tale-ing Fragment but this time - it’s a book! Small one, but still, a handmade, handbound little book. As always, the story is incomplete, the text and images only fragments of a larger tale so that every time you return to look through the pages a different story can emerge.

This tale is a ghost story, told by a ghost. 

I love ghost stories. Not because they’re scary, but because they are fragments of the past that linger in the presence. At least that’s how I see them :) 

If you think of the word ‘haunting' it’s not just related to ghostly manifestations, it’s also used for beauty, a thought that lingers, an image that keeps popping in your head. That’s what I had in mind when making this. 

Our ghostly storyteller has been around for a while, her consciousness flickers. It comes through words, images, textures… I used a book format because it gave me more space, but also because different pages can have a completely different feel to them, uncover a different aspects of the story and of our heroine. And because it’s a book and I love making books – best reason, right?

And because it’s a book, I’m doing a first here and uploading not only photos but also a video (!!) of the work. It’s mostly just me reading you a story while flipping through the pages, but I hope you enjoy it ^^

As you can see in the video, I combined a lot of materials and images in this work. The images are all vintage photos and ephemera I got either in Tim Holtz Idea-ology sets or online (check out thegraphicsfairy.com for AMAZING selections of vintage imagery. They have gorgeous themed kits, but also a lot of great free images). I didn’t upload photos of all the pages, just a selection and  details I thought would be interesting.
 

The front cover was made from a couple of Tim Holtz' Worn Wallpapers, they have such great texture... I bound the pages with a ribbon and added some vintage lace and a key (also by Tim Holtz) that a rusted thoroughly with Finnabair paints. 

The first page (pages?) uses transparency vellum and lace to create layers. I used a lot of transparencies throughout because I thought it fit with the the ghostly theme, and specifically with the cloudy mind of this ghost. She shifts between remembrance and forgetfulness and time doesn't really flow for her anymore. The main image you see here is two vintage photos I superimposed and printed on vellum, then layered it on background images (a house, handwriting) that peek through. I like that she remains unidentified, because who's to say it's the story of one ghost? Maybe more of them hide between the pages.

In these pages I used vellum to create layers of photos that hang\were hung on the walls in the house. Because our ghost doesn't sense time like we do, the photos sometime cover each other, as new people come to live in the house and place their photos where other photos were displayed before. These are all vintage photos, but I tinged some of them a bit more to give the feel of something that was loved and looked at often.

These are from a moment in the story our ghost thinks about the dreams she had. I say think, because she doesn't describe them, saying only that she must have had some. The first layout has another transparency vellum and a little envelope with photos inside that I thought could reflect dreams: actress portraits, a house, a wedding... The background is a beautiful foiled paper by Tonic, dreams need some sparkle, right? In the second layout I gilded a damask pattern on one page to echo the gold foil. There are several details in these pages that echo each other and other pages in the book, it was really fun to make :)

This is another layering play with a beautiful image of a girl that was printed on vellum. I love how she continues to follow you with her stare as you flip the page and if it's a bit creepy, well, this is the beginning of the creepy part of the story...

The last image of the book is the one that opened it, but this time I printed it on photo paper to give it more solidity, it's a strong moment for our ghost, with some self recognition, so it felt right. 

In case you were wondering: the background papers are a combination of cardstock I inked and lots of patterned papers from Tim Holtz idea-ology, Tonic Studios Craft Perfect and papers by the Victoria and Albert museum. I used a lot of materials and techniques throughout so I won't go into it (this post is pretty long as is...), but please feel free to ask anything.

Aaaand that's it! 

Hope you found it interesting, I'd love to hear what you think :)