Birth of a Book

I really love this blogging thing and it's so good to read the messages and look at the blogs of people who respond. It's a real displacement activity when there is something that you don't want to do - like pack up for a class. I love the teaching - just hate the packing. Now I am ready for Urchfont tomorrow and the hateful task is done. It is Urchfont open day and they have an exhibition of Val's students' work - anything anyone has made with Val, ever! I shall try to bring you some pics on Wednesday when I get home.

I am so far ahead with the Image to Stitch book that I am aiming to get it in by September, although it is not due at the publishers until December. One of the reasons is that Fiona has offered to type the last two chapters for me. It's really fast to speak into a dictaphone and she is so speedy at typing - unlike my two-fingered approach. Here is a pic of the embryonic book.

I work in a rather odd way with books. I've usually got a pretty good idea of the chapters and work really hard at the outline stage to get the structure right. Mostly I know what I'm going to write about, so the next stage is to put the text together, with pics of work already done. I write all the words for the whole book and then work through it, revisiting all the techniques. By the end I've forgotten the beginning so it's a good check to see if the writing makes sense. This playing time is the most fun and invariably new discoveries are made and the text is revised. I'm at the playing stage with this book so, when time permits, the fun continues.

Had a little time to play with the sample for the Schism piece. The outline shape of the serpent was hand-stitched and infilled with detached chain. Machining into this gave a good 'scaley' look.

It will need some texture so I shall revisit something that was part of a Workshop on the Web article a little while ago where I tried various resists on zappy felt. Model Magic and gesso were great when painted with interference colours.

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Here's a sample of the same technique, except the pieces of zapped felt are pulled apart and layered up. Will add a little contrast to a fairly flat piece. Needs other colours as it's all a bit green. Hopefully I can get on with this embroidery next week.

Home on Wedenesday so I'll be back then.