recycled/reusable journal wrap ~ nellie wortman's workshop

i stumbled upon nellie wortman's etsy and saw a kit she marked to purchase only if we're joining the online workshop.

a few clicks after, she brought me to the artful gathering.  the things i find when i'm not looking; it's exactly what i'm looking for.

without further ado, i registered.  i wasn't quite up to soldering yet, so i signed up both of nellie's classes. since my armory of vintage fabrics is inadequate and i'm not all set to cut up tattered clothes, so i checked out the kits as well.

i was in the middle of  assembling a christmas album when i received the kit.  guess what...goodbye papers and hello fabrics; and new tool to draw with...sewing machine.  of course i will eventually buy one of those savvy jenome, once i decided which one i need.  for this project, i managed to use a beat up portable machine.

not a bad free motion sewing upon layers of layered fabric and some hand stitching for someone who's clueless about sewing. 

the train on the spine was what first caught my eyes on this project.

added a pen pocket on the sleeve and a few finishing touch to the inside.

although it's not quite visible but the stitching went through the back, so a focal point is added just enough for the curious to peek.details like this made a piece remarkable.  after all, it's a handmade work.

i embellished the pocket using ali edwards stamps and embellish your art wendy vecchi.

another wendy vecchi's—the bird, and tim holtz's stamp on the back sleeve.  originally it had a strap of denim behind the saying, but it didn't look quite done and worked.

the full look on this book jacket is just adorable, isn't it?

having never sat on a sewing machine for more than 5 minutes, i was quite surprised at how fast i did this project.  other than a couple of pin pricks and a few  minutes to read the machine's visual manual, i managed to finish everything in one sitting. i was too excited, i didn't think of practicing on another scrap of fabric first.

suddenly, i lost interest in my new cakewalk stash.  a collection i've been waiting for and was ready craft into a tier cake album.

looks like a busy crafty weeks ahead.  a two days tropical travelogue workshop this weekend and a possible two days catch up for a couple sisters who couldn't make it due to the loss of their grandmother.  since i'm going to singapore next week, i signed for sharon's antique store class.  by the time i'm back, nellie's not your ordinary photo album is starting.  on top of that i have a couple of projects from michael's workshop that i have yet to build once my supplies shipment arrived.  it's going to be my first year since i got my beagle max that i could make an ied holiday trip.  i have michael's alchemist construction starting right in the middle of that trip.  now that i think of it, i might skip that trip for a super crafty and trafficless week.

silent generation ~ sharon's class

call it a wild guess; it was a hunch during 7 gypsies preview that i "knew" then and there, whatever it is, sharon would come up with a dashing antiquaries postale class.  she did of course, and as if it's meant to be, i was making my way to singapore during the debut.  we even got some gifts for christening the new classroom at papermarket plaza singapura.

sharon's work has a witty signature touch that i completely adore. look at the dog from a vintage ads.  who would have thought to put it there and saw it worked like none other.

her detailing has substance...systematically delectable.

so much so that i didn't see the need nor the desire to add any more touch to the project except for just adding a few finishes.

i didn't know prior to the class that the inside is even worked out and it's a "wow" for me.

without ado i decided that this gorgeous metal case would house the story of my mother and her siblings growing up.  considered the silent generation, despite the current definition;  i would say that those days, things were so good at home that all the other problems in the world seemed so far away and they didn't care.  by jove, they lived life to the fullest in a jolly time on the good earth.

for my mother's birthday a couple of years ago, her best friend recorded more than 50 years of their friendship.  it has a huge section of their growing up highlights from the day they met  complete with interviews from friends and family on the street; photos, music, words.  a treasure!  i'm trying to emulate that here, so i will take my time with the journaling.  the story started when my grandparents moved to indonesia during the great depression until the days when some moved back west.

the left panel inside panel housed 2 accordion envelope albums.  hither and thither i added more insertions so i can add writings spaces and photos.  one i particularly love was the older siblings posing on an antique car hood with their friends; and some family members watching my aunt and uncle swaggered the boogie woogie. 

i wish i was born in 1940's so i would experience life in the fabulous 50's, grooving the 60's and 70's, the awesome 80's (even that i—like most of my kind—looked like a dork then), even the 90's—don't care much after that.  in that case, i would just missed the renaissance and the roaring 20's as my favorite eras.  i will save my endless conviction aside and let some of you indulge in your own memories and stories; or we could talk about it over lunch some time.

pam...param...pam pam param pam pam...look who's snooping the fabulous 50's too.

actually the hollow top compartment was just perfect to house stack of vintage pictures which of course i wouldn't cut or paste anywhere.  not just yet.

coming from such a huge family paternally and maternally, i'm not yet and perhaps would never reach the stage where i would feel comfortable crafting original vintage photos; i redeveloped old photos instead of using the original.   years ago i scrapped my childhood album and abandoned it halfway.  recently i looked into continuing but found it lacking cohesion.  i would have to do some thinking and research of how i would save these old pictures because they were all stuck on non acid free surroundings and many has serious foxing and time damaged.

anyways....

with no particular reason besides the extra papers from the class, i added a mini album.

this project will sit on my study table at home for a long time so i can take my time writing in it wholeheartedly.  in my words; it will be subjectively written based on my faint memories and the stories i heard my whole life.

this mini mini album covers more room for everyone, that would be my aunt,uncles and mother mostly.  oh they were quite a scene in town back then that not only my father but his uncle also wooed the eldest sister, then the second and finally married the third—a few years after his aunt was taken in hand my by mother's uncle.  complicated?  imagine the life after...when one has 16 paternal grands, the youngest being the father's junior and 10 maternal siblings.  enough!

love...love...love...everything about this project.  i'm glad i made it to the class.

an even minier pull out accordion at the back...just because.

i've spent many hours scanning, cutting, pasting photos, still need more quality time on the writings and coup de grâce. 

smashing in red

through the course of my imagination, i'm not much of a visual person.  when my friends indulged themselves in tintin and disney, i read famous five and sidney sheldon.  those from my class graduated with distinction due to their exceptional artworks, i owed it more to my thesis in humanities and liberal arts.  although i started out as an art director in my advertising days, my remarkable projects were based on a music or phraseological presentation.  i didn't collect paintings—i disliked—like most of my fellow tete-a-tete townsman.

in the year 2000ish i came across a list—collector’s choice of rare books for collecting, which then led me to the 100 best books lists by modern library, readers and the rivals.  it was my ambition then to not only collect, but also read every single title on the ibca list. i thought i did quite well for the next couple of years, until i got distracted by other lists, amazon, catholicism, and of course harry potter, chic-lit, crafts, odd and ends. then other preoccupation such as passion, obsession, compassion rudely interrupted, and books are completely abandoned in piles, carts and lists.

i haven't read a single book in the past few years, but there was time when i read 4,000 pages of literature in a week and filled up a whole blank journal books with notes and conceptions.  it's a huge accomplishment considering my short concentration span (and don't let me start theorizing it).

for the pass 3 years i could barely pass the first page of unbearable lightness of being; but i will pick it up again.

meanwhile, i'm happy jotting down little things.  like most of us, tada...i'm smashing! 

does anyone recognize the words? :)

i usually start with the inside spreads when i'm building a book/album.  as i always said, the cover will build up on it's own.  here i am starting from the cover.  perhaps tonight i'll go pick some brain lint and start a couple of pages.

the uhlmann story

my first gift to the uhlmann was a photo book about the darling daughter—liv.  this second one is more about the whole family—pe, di and liv.

i used sunday picnic from webster's pages, resins and blooms from prima and various beads and florette trims.

the following are some of the inside spreads...

this photo book is picture heavy,

upon layers and layers of paper cut-outs,

among the flips,

folds,

pockets,

and pop-ups.

this copy is a reproduction of what i later shared (and another coming up in a couple of weeks) in classes at made with love, jakarta.

love life

if life is about living and loving the way we are, the uhlmann—a special family and friends, has given me full inspirational vision of it.

featuring a shabby wood plank finish and bound with various beads and blossoms in the colors of the beautiful days, after some of the uhlmann's captured moments—which i hope we would finish together in the near future; i'm repeating this album as classes for made with love. 

soliloquy

some of the best conversation i had, happened in my mind.  don't everybody's? a sharp-minded friend of mine finds it amusing that i speak it out in monologue...impromptu train of thoughts, just like that and  i can hardly repeat them.  if i try to, slowly, it will sound fake, rehearsed and...never as sharp.

such is the making of this book.  i just gather some scraps and strips of trims, lace, ribbons, whatever is in the bucket and stick them on.

i will use it to jot down my fragment of thoughts...

i don't watch or read news
it's too up-to-the-minute to merit attention
too "post hoc, ergo propter hoc"-ish
(english: after it, therefore because after it)
—which is hardly ever the case
or perhaps think the conflicts are too fabricated by those who don't actually understand (myself included) the issues
simply not quite interested, might be the case as well
(i must say i do on the occasions interrupting my little cocoon)

my dreams are adventurous and in colors, in between midnight black and midnight blue to be exact

anything after the year 1996 are too futuristic

by curse of nature lacking some mystical qualities, i have a severe navigational idiocy
(i should someday decide if it's due to some genes deficiency in ability to have the mentioned focus span instead)

talk no more, talk no more
i'd rather listen to your goldfish

i know some big words too...marmalade, aromatherapy, hermes

i don't drink
i'm too busy translating the asyndeton and aposiopesis of the drunk
to the drunk wannabe

if i'm so consistent,
i'd still be wearing a diaper

life is to live and to love,
i'm breathing it in the best i can
(well, almost...that's the plan at least)

i'm trying to rebuild myself
but i lost the blueprint of my frontal lobe

a friend defines me as a professional bum
because i master the art of bumming around
like no other
(i can be ad hominem too)
he's jay gatsby without the flair
 
after moses parted the red sea,
nothing can shock me anymore

refusing to think is pure evil

i do whatever my heart desires
without worrying too much of the label attached to it

i'm captivated
by the native american myths, legends and lores

watching austin power
is like staring at a cow for 45 minutes
(although i've tried neither)

hypothesis of why i'm like this:
#1 a flower pot fell on my head which left me
with no recollection whatsoever
i'm left with only notions,
no memories of any previous occurrence
#2 abstract defraged my frontal lobe,
the day i let my friend have half a day
trying to paint the color of my mind
#3 freud and his dramas!
blah blah blah of such magnitude
clutter the conversation between
my left and right brain hemisphere
#4 a+ thesis
the day i finally read the first paragraph of
the textbook years later
i second guess priority of reality

i'm rarely confrontational outside my head
but sometimes my mind has a big mouth

recedite liberal hippies
we conservatives are taking over

tragic has its moments

i insist, k armstrong is a carrier as destructive as of that enola gay
and her magnitude of pathological fallacies are astronomical

i retired because it seems romantic at the time
besides, i'm in between jobs
(hey, even budha sat under the bodhi tree for 40 years to get enlightened)

something like that, if not.

this piece was therapeutic and a pleasure in the making.

i wish to share it in a limited private class next week.

for the love of handbound books

here is a chunky book i bounded for a friend's early birthday present.  it covered 6 odd width signatures and 60 journaling pages.  i thought i did—i should have taken pictures of the inside spreads.  the spine band of each signature is something i like and would repeat again and again.

the garter belt like book band was rather distracting, so i took it off. 

took quite an effort and a couple nicks to batter up the spine.  a lady in my workshop saw me doing it and asked why was it all torn up and if i was doing it on purpose.  the binding was an all day job.  well...a couple considering i disbanded the first which was too flashy. this one is much more pleasing to my eyes.

i kind of showed her a picture of it and hinted it's coming her way.  she was thrilled.  i might do something similar for myself.