I finally finished the small bag of fleece I bought in Ireland. It is from a Manx Loghon sheep which is a rare breed with four horns. The bag described it as “fine russet wool, some kemps, short staple”. This is the natural color when the darker and lighter bits were hand carded. I spun it fairly tight allowing the lumps and bumps to remain and love the energy that resulted.
Several years ago, on my birthday, we went to Cape May, NJ and visited a wetlands park there. Beautiful, warm spring day, Sunny with a breeze that russeled the tall grasses. We walked through the grasses and emerged to a swan floating in a small body of water.
This small accordion card was a reaction to a perfect day.
(click image for larger view)
The center page is cut out with the two sided swan attached to a thread. The decorative corners of the pages are a nod to Victorian Cape May.
Speaking of wetlands, choreographer, Jeanne Ruddy, created the dance, Oceans 1:Wetlands, out of her concern for the fate of the NJ Wetlands.
We did publicity photos for the season performance. It was Dec and the dancers were barefoot—boots and coats near by!
Jeanne’s company, Jeanne Ruddy Dance is based in Philadelphia. Their web site is ruddydance.org.
Went to VA to visit my Mom this weekend. Jonna and Diane were there and we had a wonderful time at Curt and Mary’s.
When we left we stopped at the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge which has wonderful wetlands which go right into the ocean. We hiked and photographed a bit, saw turtles, osprey and snakes.
As ever in that part of VA the quiet of the tall grasses and the beauty of the marshes is contrasted by the roar of the planes from the many military bases. My Dad was an air force test pilot and my Mom feels right at home. What others might find loud and jarring she finds quite wonderful and almost reverent.
The new header image is from Back Bay
This is a very fun book I learned to make in a Book Arts Class in 1994 at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. I’m sorry I don’t know the instructors name as she was quite wonderful.
The book can be viewed in two ways. If you open the book in a normal fashion, each page consists of 3 separate cards but each page turns as expected. This can be seen in the third image. If, instead, the covers are pulled apart, the cards flip to create a single image, in this case a color wheel. The fourth image is a close up of the image, (the covers would extend to the left and right).
This is a variation on an accordion book as the cards are attached to an accordion structure, with the top and bottom cards going in one direction and those in the middle going the other. I was teaching Color Theory at the time so that became the topic of my book.
Since I’ve been blogging about handmade books, esp. accordion books, I thought I’d show one I made several years ago for my Mom. Titled “The Distaff Side”, it lists known women in my mother’s family and the number of children they had. A distaff is a tool for spinning fiber and since this was historically women’s work, the female side of the family is called the distaff side. (click on image for larger view.)
This structure is based on an accordion book with separate back and front covers, allowing it to be read front to back and then continued back to front on the other side. The first side features my mom, her mom, two grandmothers and a great grandmother. Each image opens out to reveal additional information about each women. The back side lists known women alternating with block prints of a distaff.
