Deadlines..................

Despite doing a lot of preparation, doing sketches, buying paint, preparing canvas-- I found myself making little books this week. My self imposed project was actually to do a nude portrait for Waikato Society of Arts members' show. Entries to be in next week.

I've gone to several workshops and read lots of books about making books over the years. It is enjoyable to make a little book for your own use. Although  I am probably not alone in thinking the little books are too pretty to actually use and just wrap them up and put them away for another day.

Gwen Diehn's book real life Journals (Lark Books ISBN 13:978-1-60059-492-2) did stimulate me to think maybe I could do a journal about the content and discussion of the study group I recently started attending. I had actually put a few thoughts together on the computer already, and copied some readings we were using for the basis of the study. So.. it was only a short step to considering making a little journal. Four little books later I am well behind with my nude painting.

The book is very interesting (well I don't tend to read dull books), with lots of illustrations. Gwen Diehn has tackled a large subject in a very ordered manner. She says she is a long-time lover of journals and journaling with several bookshelves devoted to her journals.  I am not addicted to journaling but am in love with books so was more than happy to browse through her book and find the parts that interested me most-- directions for making the books and for making covers for the books. 

I do think the book making directions are not completely user friendly. But several readings, careful attention to the diagrams and a few trials later I felt comfortable with the technique for making what she calls 'Flat-style Australian reversed piano hinge'. The beauty of this technique is that your book opens flat, there is no sewing involved, and you can add , take out, or replace pages easily. 

If you were bored at a meeting and had some extra paper with you you could make a small version of this book in your lap. You wouldn't even need scissors if you tore the paper carefully. 

On the left the front cover of my study journal and right above the inside of the potential journal.

Back to Work

I am right handed, but I can draw with my left hand. I find it takes more concentration to manage the charcoal or pencil. But I practise regularly to increase my skill. It hasn't made it any easier to write with my left hand!

It was so good when our life drawing group restarted after the summer holiday. We have had as many male as female models. I don't care as long as there is a body to draw. Most of these drawings are from short (15 to 20 minute) poses.

The ZOO, the ZOO, I'm going to the ZOO, ZOO, ZOO

I could add more to the ZOO photo display (possibly the names!)  but basically it is finished.My TLC tutor has seen it. Now what do I do with it?
Hamilton Zoo contains a lot of interesting animals. I took the photos over a year. My camera is only a small one (Panasonic Lumix  DMC-TZ1) and in the time I focus on an animal and press the button the subject has had lots of time to move and does. So I was pleasantly surprised to find I had as many good photos as I did. More than enough to make this display.
I will keep on going to the zoo. I renewed my pass for this year. When we were there a few weeks ago the keeper told us that one of the big female white rhinos was just about ready to give birth. She certainly was acting up, running around chasing the other rhinos away from her.  There was a newspaper notice the next week that the new baby was born so I hope to have a new subject for my camera next visit, baby rhino.

I used four covers from old books for this project. Glued together and covered with material and paper.

Here is part of the cover on the right and photo covered interior and exterior "pages".

The animals and birds are displayed in groups. On the left are chimpanzees, lemurs , spider monkeys etc. On the right are exotic birds including my favourite -- masked love birds.

Native New Zealand birds are grouped together. Some of them live together in the large aviary. Others are in breeding cages. Some like the kea are in a separate cage to protect both the visiting humans and the other birds. Kea are very inquisitive big parrots and have long sharp beaks.

I added small extra 'books' to the display. This one features African hunting dogs.

The small book has pages with different pictures of the dogs. Then the book can be opened out and a larger picture of one of the dogs is in the inside (see below).

My Very Gaudy Treasure Box -- Finished!

The brass pieces were fixed to the black card with small brads and glue. Some of the 'jewels' were glued onto the brads while others were glued onto the brass. The black card was glued onto the cardboard body of the box.

I fixed a shelf into the box and glued onto it a piece of foam core board. I had cut into the core board to make places for the antique nails to rest. Then I covered the core board with some nice green felt. Originally I was going to use velvet but I had the felt on hand and it looked quite nice.

I used some of the brass to make three loops, two on the body and one on the lid. The brass covered piece of small diameter dowel makes a good fastener.  I was pretty much making up the construction as I went along. Another time I might look for a different way of fastening the box, something that might be less clumsy looking.

My pace of working is so slow -- like a snail!

I have the framework for my zoo photos just about finished. 
I think I need to roll  on some colour for a background on some of the boards on the inside, maybe on parts of the outside as well.


The material on the outside is part of a caftan that I rarely wore. Pretty colour. I decided to use it because I thought the pattern would be a good background for the animals' photos.


On the inside I've glued paper in black, white and grey.

I find myself using several different glues on these projects including strong PVA and Bindex. 

The little treasure chest is also progressing. I am using little brads to fix pieces of thin brass to the black card I am using on the outside of the box. Once its all glued together I will glue fake jewels onto the heads of the brads. Should be quite gaudy when its finished.

Not sure what glue to use for the 'jewels' I will have to experiment.

Back to Work
Although I really like to do craft work I have never been very proficient --probably because I am uncoordinated and kack-handed. Fine work has always been completely beyond me.
 But if I concentrate I can manage some things. Right now I am trying to finish a project I started last year to make a treasure chest shaped box to house some very old hand made nails, and I'm also working on a combination 3D and Photography project to display some of my zoo pictures.

These two old nails where found when excavating beside our cellar when we lived in Oshawa Ontario in the 1960's.The box has some of the brass sheet attached and the next step is to finish gluing and decorating the brass around the lid and body of the box.

Below is the frame I have made by gluing a number of book covers together. I have started painting it with black gesso. Next I am going to iron some iron-on binding onto a piece of cloth that I have in my stash. I will use the cloth, blue with a black pattern, on one side of the the frame and use paper and paint on the other side to be the backgrounds for mounting the photos.

This sort of project will be very familiar to scrapbooking people and those who make artist books, but it is new and challenging for me. I will report on progress from time to time.

DEEP IN THE EARTH OUR ANCESTORS PAINTED!

I don't know what was better-- the movie The Cave of Forgotten Dreams -- or my exploration of the Chauvet Cave on the internet.
The cave, first explored in 1994, is in the Ardèche valley region of France.
There is some dispute over the age of the drawings. Carbon dating isn't as accurate as we might be lead to believe. They might range from 32,000 BC to much more recent. Does it matter?
More than 400 painted or engraved animalsare found in the extensive cave.And these are well illustrated in the links below. 
On one of the sites I found a youtube link which gave a beautiful tour of the most impressive of the Chauvet cave art. On another is an interactive map of the cave which allows you to see features of the limestone structure of the cave as well as the art work, remains of cave bears, and human footprints.

www.donsmaps.com/chauvetcave.html
http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/september-2011/article/revisiting-the-chauvet-cave 
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/chauvet/en/
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/data/2001/08/01/html/ft_20010801.6.html
www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/

This is a cave bear skull that has been placed on a rock in the distant past.

  The animals these Palaeolithic people painted included bison, aurachs, mammoths, lions and leopards, horses, bears, rhinoceros with long wicked horns. 


most of these pictures are courtesy Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license