RedBarn Studios

for the past few weeks i’ve been busy cutting and stitching new coptic bound journals for the shop.  these new designs, so bright and cheery, are a limited edition that i’m calling “The Lauren Collection“.

each journal is made using a section of one my favorite hand dyed fabrics, one i call the ‘melody fab’ after one of my fav quit artists Melody Johnson.  she uses the bright, pure colours that i especially love myself.

hand dyed before

and after

i know, you’re thinking how the heck can she cut that up and look at the mess she’s got left!

nah…i dyed this piece last year so i had a long time to admire it, caress it and fall in love with the gorgeous colour over and over again.  i came across it in my fabric closet recently (yes i have that much fabric…don’t hate!) as i was looking for some inspiration and, when i spied it, I immediately knew what it had to become.

if you check my etsy store with the cut out pic above you can see the exact sections each journal was cut from.  i love, love love that! (why??? i haven’t the foggiest but am going with the happy place it puts me in)  i’ve finished four of the 7 i can get from this piece of fabric (plus another {“be the light“} that pulled me into finishing it before I completed the others).

i’m also working on some vintage-like christmas journals/albums that i’ll be adding to my shop in a couple of weeks — waiting for the paper to arrive –  these will be december daily journals that i think are such a fantastic idea!

omg….the creative juices are flowing and can’t get ideas outta my head and made fast enough.

toodles all,

G

Tags: Art, artful creations, hand dyed, journals, paper art by grace
1 Comment »

dancing in the moonlight

i had a really fun morning teaching a group how to make one of my coptic stitch  jOurnals.

they  were eager to master this stitch which can be somewhat of a finicky one to learn but, once they got the hang of it, time whizzed along.  we used fabric for the front cover and paper for the back cover and throughout for the signatures. what a fun way to spend a saturday morn.  thanks girls for making my job of teaching so easy!

i’ll be teaching this one again so stay tuned.

toodles,

G

Tags: journals, paper art, teaching by grace
1 Comment »

a little while back….

a good friend of mine, who knows i do commissioned journals, came to me and said she needed a gift for a friend.

no problem.

she wanted it ready to take with her …

no problem.

and btw…

she was leaving in 2 days!

huh?

can I still make it, she asks,

then adds innocently and sweetly “…because you love me”.

so what’s a friend to do but get crackin…

and I did…

that same night.

AND

i absolutely loved how it turned out!

her friend’s initial graces the front cover.

it’s a thickers chipboard letter

that I first distressed with a few colours of distress ink

then smothered it in bright blue then yellow stickles to get that beautiful emerald green hue.

LoVe that!

a cool tuck spot for journaling or ephemera…

i placed a few of these tuck spots throughout the journal

an insert page…

in the center you can see

that each signature is individually stitched to the spine

with coloured waxed linen thread

a fan view of the book…

showcasing the 2 handmade insert pockets

I used 3 different coloured strips of my own hand dyed fabric

plaited them,

making it long enough to wrap around the journal

a couple of times for the closure

~

tHe keLLy jouRnal

her friend love it!

thought she was magical!!

all because of me….Ha!

toodles,

G

Tags: Art, commissions, journals, Paper by grace
4 Comments »

one thing i know for sure  is i that love making journals.

i love each part of the process.

by far the best part is gathering the supplies
(probably the only shopping i really enjoy…yeh crazy me!)

but i also love cutting up the vibrant fabrics i find
(way cool zebra fab going on there).

i get a kick out of figuring out what elements to paint
or stencil on the fabric

and cutting up the various papers to include….whether vintage, those that i distress or the patterned papers i purchase

the most tedious part can be the sewing but, believe it or not,
i still enjoy that process as well!
the simple act of hand stitching is my time to meditate and reconnect

i stitch mainly two styles: the long stitch (in a couple variations)

and the coptic stitch

figuring out which closure to use is part of the fun too
it all depends on what style of journal i stitch (or the mood i’m in – hee, hee)

sometimes it might be a variation on a painted elastic pull
or cording made from bits and bobs of fabric
or one of the gorgeous ribbons i can’t resist adding to my stash

i am constantly on the lookout for inspiring quotes and try to intersperse them throughout each journal,
sometimes even on the cover (love the quote above).

been working these last couple of weeks on some new journals including the big, fat, red, juicy journal (how’s that for a name!)
and a new design i’ll be unveiling.

so yes….i love making journals

i love creating spaces for others to create, to sketch, to pour their thoughts into

what’s that one thing you most enjoy creating?

Tags: journals, paper art by grace
3 Comments »

two weeks ago i joined my art group Fiberart Options for a fantastic day at Daniel Stow Botanical Garden for their annual AutumnFaire.   five of us set up shop to sell some of the work we’d create.

as you know,  i love working with paper and fabric like my Breaths Journal, opposite (SOLD…sorry) and had the idea to update one of my journals, the Lil Purse, to see how they would fare.

a couple of cousins of mine, Francine and Vernell, are avid scrapbookers (guess the creative gene runs in this family of ours) and after reading their blogs i guess i caught the scrapbook bug.

now, i am really not that interested in doing large scrap pages (tried that and left it by the wayside oh so long ago) but i do love the idea of combining my love of bookbinding, my desire to create journals and this new thing i’ve just discovered….mini albums (ooooh!).

Butterfly Kiss Journal

for the last few months, to satisfy this insane craving, i’ve been scouring the web and Youtube for more about these little gems and came across the very ordinary lunch bag.

and what the heck is she gonna do with that you ask????

with a little bit of hocus pocus craftiness, they become wonderful and functional pockets.

each LUNCH bag yields one big pocket that can house lots of pictures or pieces of memorabilia and the bottom of the bag becomes another pocket in itself.

i stitched 2 bags in each Lil Purse and each bag pocket contains 2 journaling tags for a total of 4.  Each tag have a space on the front to place a picture and a perfect journaling spot on the back to write about the event they want to memorize.

so my Lil Purse, originally created for young ladies (and for boys w/o the handles) to begin journaling their daily thoughts and big ideas, got updated with the humble and ordinary brown paper bag.  think of it as the old time secret diary, the kind we all kept as young kids.

i know you had one.  mine was red (of course!) and i think my mother still has it lying around somewhere with pages and pages of swooning for that fella i fell for way back when (ain’t no way i’m gonna give out that name… Ha!).

anyway….what i didn’t realize until i started selling some of them at AutumnFaire is that women, grandmothers in particular, were falling love with them as a perfect gift to themselves to write about their grandchildren.

remember those grandma brag photo albums that were all the rage.   well the Lil Purse is an updated version of that!

so, for the 6 weeks prior to the faire, i was been feverishly working on all sorts of journals for the sale and in the end made 7 of these Lil Purses.   i am please to say i only have 2 left and will be adding them to my etsy shop this week.

i think the Lil Purse is here to stay…they are way too cute not to keep them in my line-up.  i’m busy cutting & stitching up some more and have even been toying with the idea of writing up a pattern for them. Any feedback, tips you care to share?

p.s. I know that re-debut is not a word but….i wanna use it (she says whining)….so there!

Tags: FAO, journals, Paper by grace
1 Comment »

dancing in the moonlight journal

This weekend I’ll be at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden at their annual AutumnFaire. More than 25 local North Carolina artists and craftspersons will be setting up to showcase and sell their artwork.

AutumnFaire is a celebration of nature, plants and gardens with items including, among other things, basketry, soaps, pottery, jams & jellies. A few of us in my group, Fiberart Options, decided to rent a booth this year. We would love for you to come by to say hi and  check out our booth and our own nature inspired art. I’ve been busy the last few weeks making some new journals to add to the booth.

Lil Purse – journals for girls

By the way, there’ll be carriage rides, autumn displays and the beautiful gardens at Stowe to explore. It takes place this Saturday and Sunday, October 2nd & 3rd from 9am to 3pm.

Toodles,

Tags: FAO, journals, paper art by grace
3 Comments »

a couple of weeks ago i teased you with a sneak peak at a journal i made for a friend.

nancy cook had the brilliant idea of bartering our creativity!   she would give me a pile of neutral hand dyed fabrics for my nancy crow class but, in lieu of a monetary payment, i would pay in kind.

nancy is a fiber artist who creates beautiful pieces that showcases nature through painted and stitched botanical illustrations.   from this knowledge i created a journal specially for her.

for the cover i used a piece of my hand dyed fabric that overflows with different greens, golds and bluish greens to convey her passion for nature.   i then machine quilted swirling leaves all over to represent the sometimes  lyrical botanical illustrations in her work, and painted them with a burnished gold Lumiere.

i needed to keep any embellishments simple so, after much deliberation, i decided to use an almost transparent, shimmery organza ribbon to edge the journal both front and back.

uPDate: i originally used the ribbon as a tie closure but removed it because i felt the ribbon was too thin and would not hold up over time.    instead i covered a button with some of the same hand dyed fabric and added an elastic loop that i painted with Lumiere paints to match.

the journal is chock full of 144 pages that includes 24lb text weight paper, watercolour paper, recycled brown paper and even some graph paper all contained in 4 fat signatures.   each signature is sewn individually to the cover using pearl cotton thread i hand dyed to match the cover.

i constructed an envelope, attached at the back of the journal, as a convenient place to keep slips of notes and other ephemera she might collect.

when i got it finished i wanted her to see the complete finished journal first and, now that it’s been presented to her (with a lovely squeal of pleasure from her i might add), i can show it off to you.

i’ve been working hard on creating more journals that i’ll be putting up on my now empty etsy shop (sad sad state of affairs i know) but will posting about them here first. Check my website to see all the journals I’ve made and find one just for you.

Toodles,

Tags: commissions, hand dyed, journals, paper art by grace
2 Comments »

here’s a sneak peek at a new journal i just finished.

some background
a friend helped me out recently and i wanted to pay her for her kindness.    she told me that in lieu of a monetary payment she wanted instead payment in kind, deciding that she’d like me to make her one of my journals.

i loved this idea! a little bartering of art and each person goes away smiling.

so after i got back from the Nancy Crow workshop a couple weeks ago i started creating, keeping my friend in mind.

she has no idea what it looks like and i get to surprise her with it soon.   now you know why the sneak peek.   i’ll reveal a pic of the completed journal after i present it to her.

Tags: journals, mixed media, paper art by grace
3 Comments »

slowly but surely my need to create is returning and about darn time i say!  as i sat a my table this morning i glimpsed out of the corner of my eye a drawing that had been on my wall seems like ages.  it always mocked me every time i looked at it…“hey Grace…what ya waiting for girly girl…miz arteest….seems really you cannot finish me…nananananana“.

i heard the relentless taunting and, for the most part, chose to ignore it every time.  just couldn’t put my finger on what the sketch needed and why it wasn’t working.  but today i tamed the mish-mosh beast.

any thoughts?

what i think is that i was trying to include too many different designs in the one piece…ugg!…..simplify girl,  so i took it down…put it back on my light box to redraw the base, reworked the design and came away with 2 new drawings. nice! and of course they are circles…you can always find them in my work.

next step is to recolour both new drawings in PSE8 altho patience will not be with me as i try this.  i’m on a Mac now and have  a much older version of CorelDraw that i got for my old PC,  but didn’t want to purchase another copy of the software…funds are tight.

I asked around on one of the lists i belong to and someone suggested these incredibly inexpensive vector based programs, Intaglio and EasyDraw, both made for Macs. mmmh….(if anyone has used either of these, let me now how you like it).  sometimes a girl just wants to colour the point and click way.

before I got my mOjo back today (oh yeh) i forced myself to go into the studio, not to do anything mind you…just spend 10 or so minutes reacquainting myself with being there.  before long, i couldn’t help myself (she says with a giggle)…..i created….i started another grunge journal.  here’s the first one I made.

inside cover….stitched from front then painted in and grunged..the best part

love this new-for-me way of attaching the spine.  as always—-filled with lots of wonderful paper to write/draw on, some really cool bits and, of course inspirational thoughts & ideas throughout to get the muse juices flowing.

i’m calling her lillibird…..my first painted photgraph

i still have some more stuff” to add and will sew in the signatures and put the finishing touches on it tonight.  as soon it’s completed i will be making a video clip showcasing both journals so you can get an up close view my step into the grunge…dun…dun…dun!

Tags: fiber art, journals, mixed media by grace
1 Comment »

First, thanks to all who have left such wonderful comments about my new blog set up. I really appreciate all of you coming over to hang out with me. I think my friend Melinda described it best, it truly was a “barn warming”.

The winner of the big Give-a-Way is Kate C. She will be getting her choice of a 1/2 yd of hand dyed fabric AND one of my new notebook designs.

Alison, Liz, Mary Jo and Janice also hit the jackpot by being the next four people to comment.  Your hand dyed fat quarters await you (send snail mail addy’s please).

Thanks to all of you for making my little corner of the blog world a wonderful place to share.

Tags: community, hand dyeing, journals by grace
No Comments »