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 :)

Re-emergence and Journaling

Hello again, it has been a while (ages, more like it…). I hadn’t planned for such a long break, but well – life happened, you know how it is… But here I am, stretching my creative mind\fingers again and hoping to share some of my ideas with you.

I usually don’t share things from my shop, but lately my mixed media experiments made their way there and I thought some of you might be interested in the process, so here we are!

Today I’m sharing my latest launch: journals.

They are basically altered notebooks and I just LOVE making them! There are endless possibilities and each one comes out completely different.

There’s Night Shimmer, that has a lot of texture and dimension and a dreamy quality thanks to the metallic gleam and sleepy moon.

The cat lover in me (oh, about 120%...) melts before this curious kitty, and I do love the colourful background, makes me think of the Cheshire Cat, even if it looks completely different from the familiar imagery.

The Golden Mandala journal has lovely texture and metallic sheen. Though it may not seem so, all the elements on the cover are paper, it’s amazing what die cutting and paint can do.

Vintage Rust is… well, rusty. I love the texture on this one, and the colours, there are so many layers I’m not sure I remember them all... It was so much fun making the little closure belt, it went through a LOT to get that used look... LOL

And finally – Faery Dance. I’m not a glitter girl, but a magic journal needs some glimmer, it’s the rules. The background texture was created with a mixture of glitter paste and paints, and I have to admit I really love the result. It subdues the glitter a bit, giving it a dreamy quality, but there’s still enough shine coming through and it catches the light beautifully, changing colour in different angles. I tried to catch it on camera a million times, but no luck… The leafy frame is a die cut and I like the fact that the shape can be understood as an opening in the greenery or a magical mirror showing the little fairies enjoying the night.

I used a whole selection of products: Distress Oxide inks, Finnabair waxes and molds, Nuvo pastes, dies from Tonic, Tim Holtz and Birch Press Design, some stamps from Visible Image and Hero Arts, among others. The list is quite long, but I’d be happy to give more details if you’d like.

One of my favorite things about making these journals is thinking how people would fill them: notes from lectures? Bullet journal? Art journal? Poems? Dreams? Recipes? Memories? 

I do love a pretty notebook. It gives a special air to whatever you write inside, even if some of it are shopping lists... ;)

Till next time 

xx