Patty Van Dorin

a few more

A big thank you to everyone who has sent emails and left comments on the Little Chunky Rose book.

and here are a few more pages







All of the pages in this book are sewn with my trusty old Singer 99K. I love this machine so much that last fall, I decided it deserved some hand painted roses.

more of the Chunky Little Rose Book

There were plans to show how I made this book with step by step photos.

But I became so involved with making the book, I forgot to take pictures along the way.

And then things happened like sewing in a couple of signatures upside down and having to take the entire book apart.

I have been saving the small scrap of leather used on the binding of the book. It is a thick rustic piece of leather.

What I hadn't anticipated was how hard it would be to push a needle through the leather even with the pre-drilled holes. And then again the sewing of signatures ordeal.  I ended up sewing the nine signatures on a thin piece of leather and then sewing just three of them to the thick leather.

back of book
I used an older thrift store picture for the front and back covers, the kind of picture that is printed on chipboard. The chipboard was then roughly cut down to size.

Closed with leather ties

open - I love an exploding book or journal that is packed with stuff

and below are a couple of my favorite pages

one of the few "before" pictures
I love this old mail order sample of a fabric swatch

and how I used it in this book

a couple more pages

and this page has a thin piece of tree bark found on a walk with Ralph the Dog
The soft creamy tones of the bark is so gorgeous and was perfect for this book of junk and found stuff.

More photos to follow.
Thanks to everyone who wrote requesting this book to be an on-line class.  Most of the techniques I used are ones that have already taught in classes. Also, there was quite a bit of unsafe usage of power tools and sharp blades, not to mention the cussing that ensued to get this book finished.

 

Little Chunky Rose

A chunky little book that measures 4" by 4" and 2 1/2" thick.
This book was a fun project and I pulled a late night finishing this one.
There will be more pictures coming and I made a new category if you would like to follow posts on this little book.

looking for a bigger fish bowl

journal page - looking for a bigger fish bowl
metaphorically speaking that is, not looking for an actual fish bowl

spring flowers are brightening my day, even the tiny little daffodils
teeny tiny ones

this year, I am in love with the pale pink aubrieta and I must plant more of them this fall

the contrast between the flowers and the rock is probably what I like best

 

buzz

Little Bee wrap bracelet or choker necklace
more pictures and details on etsy

Over the next week, I will be working and cleaning up this blog with a few changes being made.

Pardon my dust.

Dr. Tinsley

Welcome Dr. Tinsley, you are a fine addition to the garden.

Camellia japonica - Dr. Tinsley

a dark rose

The Dark Rose - urban gypsy bracelet
available on etsy

Made from a found piece of steel, I love the ancient look of this bracelet. A neo-Victorian bracelet with a touch of urban decay.

Mildred and her 18 Cats

this is what I made this week

Vieux Carré Cuff bracelet

Steampunk Baby

The Ship's Chandler

This is what my table looks like today.  I received another box of goodies from Sharon. Fragments to inspire the imagination.

My studio is in need of art work.

So I am putting this assemblage together with stuff that I have had for a long time.

A very old picture frame.

An old ledger cover that has years of stuff embedded on the cover.

This ledger along with several others were once in a fire. Burnt around the edges, soaked with water, let to dry, forgotten, decades later set to the curb and then rescued while I was out on a walk with Ralph the Dog.

In my mind, I can picture a 20's era secretary dashing into a blazing building to save her company's books, running out of the building over and over again with armfuls of heavy ledgers that are still smoldering. Her arms burning from the heat of the fire. Relieved to have saved all the documents, she is then immediately devastated to find that her heroic efforts were in vane. Told by her boss that she was a fool to risk her life to save the companies book. Unknown to her at the time, her boss had sold the company and the ledgers were of no value.

With singed hair and smoke blackened face, Mildred hobbles home on melted shoes to feed her 18 cats.

Anyway, that is the story that plays in my head when I look at these abandoned ledgers. Was her effort wasted, I think not as one of the ledger covers is the foundation of this assemblage.

Where was I before I distracted myself with the heroic secretary story...also in this assemblage is
a round woven metal belt buckle
a rusty round metal thing
a flange from a radiator pipe
a fragment of some fancy metal ornamental
I think I will call this assemblage "Mildred and her 18 Cats", it has nothing to do with the finished piece but it's the story that comes to mind whenever I look at it.

The story of Mildred saving the ledgers is totally made up. I have no clue as to the history of the ledgers other than they were in a fire at some time.

an ordered chaos

I have received quite a few emails about the state of mess when it comes to studios. Even though most of us dream of beautifully organized and decorated work areas that magically maintain a perfect state of order, I don't think a working studio can be that way. It is against the laws of nature or physics or something scientific like that.

Don't get me wrong, it will drive me insane when I can't find a certain object or paper. Fabric and paper avalanches can ruin my entire day, so a certain amount of order has to be maintained.

Plastic bins, bags and carts don't work for me either. I have been there and tried that to all sorts of unending success. Plastic storage devices for some reason hamper my desire to even enter my work room. I don't mind seeing it in other people's studios but for me, it just doesn't work.

My preference is for a state of ordered chaos. A bin for leather scraps that can be closed so I don't have to see it until a piece is needed.

(insert gasp)
There was a time when I kept all my beads in little bags, sorted by type, color and such, not any more. I am a digger. I like to dig among the beads, paper and fabric. Interesting combinations accidentally happen that would never occur with too much sorting and storing of stuff.

Happy little accidental pairing of random bits.
So okay, there are those tiny little plastic containers but that is for really tiny super small beads.
Remember, it's an ordered chaos.

But what about the big jar of white buttons in the top photo? 
That is my concession to a visual order that I dream of but can't work in.

 

where I sit and drink large mugs of tea in the afternoon

Do journal pages look more interesting if they are photographed on table where they were made?

Don't you love trying to look at everything in the background that forms the studio that people work in? 
I know that I love seeing messy caotic studios where there are layers and piles of stuff all over just waiting in turn to become something.

These pages are from "The Supreme Journal", see the category side bar link for more from this journal. A cut and paste kind of journal that was made from a mix of paper with enlarged photos sewn here and there.

Pockets were made with all kinds of stuff thrown in, then everything was bound together with no regard to order.
It's a big messy journal just like the studio I work in with only a small space carved out to work in.

All kinds of paper gathered from daily life.
A place to put stuff like bizarre letters from family members that may become humorous over time.  Unlikely, but they are gathered among the pages just in case.

Speeding tickets from foreign countries, menus, reciepts and junk mail, everything finds a place in this journal.
Flotsam and jetsam is my favorite type of journal, everything that washes up in daily life.
A wreck of a journal.

Bits and pieces are clipped to pages, some make it onto the pages, some become lost in the mess only to resurface to become part of some other journal.

Anything and everything is fodder when I make a journal, like half a record. I have no idea where the other half is or why I happened to have half a record but it seemed to belong in this journal.

and I bought a new chair

seriously....white leather
Any guesses how long it will stay white. BUT, it was on sale and comfortable. I have convinced myself that it is okay if I get paint or markers on it.  When the white leather gets to a point of no return I will glue paper and paint on it making into a working chair journal. 

A chair journal, now that is fun. 
I predict it isn't long until some paint intentionally gets spilled to speed this process along.

At some point, there will be spray paint and stencils involved.

and something added to my etsy shop because I love making things other than journals even though my blog readers want to see journal pages.

As a self supporting artist, crafter, journal maker I have to make stuff to sell, so bear with me.


Sewing Motor Controller bracelet
(clever how I came up with the name for this one, some things just name themselves)
click here for more pictures and details