Booking time to relax and create!

 I have long admired Jenny's fabulous creations at love and peas*  she is currently debating whether her beautiful volumes are  journals or books....

I love books! The smell, feel, weight, contents, covers, pages...words,  spaces, fonts...I could go on for reams!

The other Saturday I spent a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon learning a new skill alongside two interesting  and humourous ladies. It was a  stab stitch book binding workshop led by Christina at Fibre Flurry. We had expert tuition, Christina was very patient and informative, and gave us lots of tips and hints from her wide artistic experience. We learned about the Japanese art of binding and folding (so the pages are double) alongside placing leaves in folio.
We were able to use materials from Christina's new plain or colourful paper collection and her bulging boxful of preloved paper - quite a distracting challenge to choose from such an amazing array of pages containing words, music, pictures, destinations, diagrams, lines and notes.

The tricky task requiring concentration was measuring, puncturing holes, and sewing the binding but we had two stabs (haha) at it and were able to make our mistakes in a friendly atmosphere!

We came away with two books, templates to make more of the same size, and a stacks of ideas.

The covers have two sides...

the pattern on the outside and inside..

I included lots of different pages...

Since the workshop I have been browsing charity shops for tatty books to chop into and reuse and reinvigorate! Before shopping I thought it would be easy to slice a book that was not mine..however just trying to choose one was really tricky; all the books were pristine, and by making the choice it meant that I had become attached to the book in question.
I know others have worked through these issues - thanks to Kate for voicing it on her blog and to her daughter Kirsty for the initial inspiration for my paper folding forays !

Today  I had several brilliant finds though, and feel that I can reuse these volumes of music

...just look at all these notes..and (someones) notes!!

Here's some of the beautiful items I have gathered ...

soon to be bound and given away to be used by new readers writers and drawers!!

A fantastic day out

Lost in Lace...and I literally was...

This will be one of my click the link posts...

This week Mum, Dad and I visited BMAG to experience the Lost in Lace exhibition. The museum was buzzing (numbers possibly enhanced by visitors to the 10 daVinci drawings currently on loan) with a wide range of ages. We approached the LiL hall via displays of traditional lace, from BMAGs textile collection, and information about its history, techniques, and makers. Whilst interesting and informative it could not have been more different to our exciting experience in the main exhibition!

The information leaflet invites you to

'Step into a world of lace like you've never seen before. See how the patterns, materials and cultural traditions of lace are represented through radical new approaches by UK and international artists. Featuring large scale, theatrical and visually spectacular work, this exhibition challenges perceptions of what lace can be, involving the visitor in an environment where spaces become fluid and thread creates entirely new boundaries.' ...and we did just that - we were challenged to think out of the box (and in it in a couple of installations!), it was certainly theatrical and visually spectacular!

On entering we were mesmerised by the sparkling beauty and ingenuity of Atelier Manferdini's Inverted Crystal Cathedral glimpsed through the magnificently tall yet delicate  Cosmos Series by Naomi Kobayashi. 

There was an amazing video installation by Kathleen Rogers of a piece of black lace (donated to BMAG by Lady Cadbury) magnified by an electron microscope accompanied by a soundtrack of noisy silkworms munching on mulberry leaves.

I loved walking in and out of Piper Shepard's  Lacing Space exhibit enveloping and complementing the architectural structure of part of the hall.

However we were all blown away by Liz Nilsson's The latticed eye of memory. It was amazing on so many different levels and angles! Patterns and colours came and went as you walked around, up close or far away, shadows were cast and moved...you could see all sorts of images and they would change as you moved a fraction - just as the artist describes.

Each exhibit had a desk with information about  the designers and their approach, relationship with or philosophy about lace.  I particularly liked Reiko Sudo's definition of lace. Most also included a sample of fabric so you could add the dimension of touch to your overall experience.

I could enthuse so much more about each piece - however some of you local to Brum may wish to catch it in the next week  and I'd like you to form your own interpretations...
..alternatively  the Lost in Lace website gives you some glimpses of the background to the exhibition and fabulous artists..

I have a fascination for peering through holes (!)(framing the items within and beyond) and watching the patterns shadows cast on objects ...

this exhibition was a dream come true for both of those preoccupations - even the grates in the floors were a feature!

Quoting from  the booklet again  'The works in this exhibition play with the ideas around the holes, spaces, boundaries and structures that lace creates.'

I realise that this has been a text heavy post and without much space or holes! I regret not taking my camera as photography was permitted...but I will add a few lace-y images from my own archive..

The guide talks about lace continuously evolving -
and I can convincingly say it is..... and how cool is that?!