The hall was buzzing on Saturday with excitement about the dayschool and the Travelling Books. The second month of ‘travelling’ has now been completed and what a delight they were.
Several members had finished their rag bowls from the February day school and some of the postcards for the 60th Anniversary piece have been returned.
After the notices Anne Brooke was introduced and the very full class began. Having already met us at Christmas, Anne was able to go straight into the programme for the day. She explained she had used the term ‘sketch books’ and felt that was scary for a lot of people as that means you have to draw! Now she calls them workbooks; not as scary.
Her workbooks do not cost a lot of money, around £5-00 each, and are made of different papers; some lined, some plain, some with cream rather than white paper. Her workbooks also have to be transportable, so she can take them wherever she goes. She has a purse of equipment that she can pick up and on her travels. It included dyes, manuscript pens, graphite pencils, stamps and two coloured ink pads, washi tape, a glue stick, watercolour pencils and water tank brushes (one with bleach in) to name just a few.
Good advice for all of us if we want to get into creating journals.
Her workbooks do not cost a lot of money, around £5-00 each, and are made of different papers; some lined, some plain, some with cream rather than white paper. Her workbooks also have to be transportable, so she can take them wherever she goes. She has a purse of equipment that she can pick up and on her travels. It included dyes, manuscript pens, graphite pencils, stamps and two coloured ink pads, washi tape, a glue stick, watercolour pencils and water tank brushes (one with bleach in) to name just a few.
Good advice for all of us if we want to get into creating journals.
Her first workbooks included sticking things in and writing lists and now she doodles (a much nicer word than sketch), draws and paints.
Her advice included her motto of “Imperfect is Perfect”, which gives encouragement to all worried about a clean page, along with ‘Do not worry what others do’.
Her advice included her motto of “Imperfect is Perfect”, which gives encouragement to all worried about a clean page, along with ‘Do not worry what others do’.
| | The day was divided into two halves- Play and prepare in the morning, then refining ideas in the afternoon. We started with a large sheet of cartridge paper and news print and we had to try a variety of techniques to make backgrounds: |
| Using water dyes · Using them dry we pulled out the colour with a brush over an area. · Using them wet and covered with scrunched up cling film and left to dry to give a marbling effect. · We sprayed fabric dye. · Bleach could be used to remove some colour. |
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The equipment was cleaned by rolling or stamping on the newsprint, which started to give us another background piece.
We could use collage as well and a variety of old books and catalogues had pieces torn out of them and glued to the paper. These could then be printed over.
We could use collage as well and a variety of old books and catalogues had pieces torn out of them and glued to the paper. These could then be printed over.
Lunchtime allowed a gap to find out what the ladies in the back room were doing. Have a look at the photographs below.
The afternoon allowed us time to develop our ideas either, on the pieces we had made in the morning or in our own workbooks.
The piece of cartridge paper was folded into eight (by halving, halving and halving again). Then we cut up the middle line for ¾ of its length and refolded into a book.
The piece of cartridge paper was folded into eight (by halving, halving and halving again). Then we cut up the middle line for ¾ of its length and refolded into a book.
Anne demonstrated several new techniques including writing on the wonky lines made by the rollers, working around some of the shapes with a pen (doodling), ripping paper to make half pages and outlining the edge, using envelopes, labels and photographs, cutting out windows with punches or using ripped business letter windows as a template, ripping the edges of three papers and dragging paint across. Any leftover papers can be used on other pages.
In fact the possibilities are endless. Anne finished by demonstrating using tracing paper over a ‘precious’ design to write on and transferring pictures using old fashioned carbon paper.
In fact the possibilities are endless. Anne finished by demonstrating using tracing paper over a ‘precious’ design to write on and transferring pictures using old fashioned carbon paper.
The finished results were stunning-all so very different- and several members had already started on their own workbooks.
It was a fabulous day, enjoyed by everyone who took part. It appeared everyone was going to carry on with their ideas and develop their own workbooks and what a way to enhance the Travelling Books. Thanks to Anne once more for inspiring and encouraging us to have a go. Anne returns in 2016 and I am sure the places for that dayschool will be filled very quickly.
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