This handmade journal is meant to be my winter nature journal and at first had a simple plan to make it easy and fast, in order to have it ready for the winter solstice.
Well, thing is that new ideas came up while I was cutting and sewing the signatures and I couldn't help myself but complicating it a bit more ( Ha! Like if I could do differently!).
I thought a fabric cover would be nice, but which fabric? Hmm... a blue one, with a rustic feeeling.. Ok.. I don't have any like that in blue... let's choose one and paint.
And so I did, cut a piece of natural cotton, middle weight, found a brush and some leftover blue silk paint from my stash and a blue fabric was done. Using this paint is part of a goal I set myself this year, on putting to good use the old supplies that are forgotten in some hidden place at the studio.
Cool! It's a beautiful blue, this one.. (although, it's not a good photo to show it, but anyway.. you've got the idea :)
Hmm..now.. it's calling for something else.. maybe a printed pattern? Yes.. definitely a printed pattern.
Which one?
Searched through my handcarved stamps.. none that suits me...maybe the ready made ones? Nopes.. nothing like what I imagined.
Ok, let's make one, then.
I took a precious little german book on wildflowers, a small treasure that I won from T's grandma, got some inspiration, sketched a few little flowers, chose one.
That's it. Let's carve it.
After some tests, I was pretty much satisfied with the stamp.
So, time to print! The color choice was easy, I had it clear in my mind already, as I really like the effect of white on blue.
And there it is! Done.
I had a lot of fun doing all this and I'll probably repeat the process other times, to have some different and personalized fabrics prepared. I do like some of the beautiful designer's commercial printed fabrics, and I have quite a few, I have to say, but when I am creating from scratch I think the results I get translate much better what I had in mind and what I am able to create. (not to mention how fun it is to try out our skills on different techniques :P )
Now, what's next? Ah, ok.. making the cover :)
