Travel Journals
This isn´t the topic that I had planned to do today. I was going to share my improvised apron patterns - but I haven´t improvised them yet (obviously, they will be totally fab when I do, but still...). Then I was going to make yummy tote bags out of gorgeous fabric in two designs, one apples and one pears, that I bought at the quilt exhibition last weekend (I want to say Malvern, but I ´m not sure that´s right) - but the week went haywire at work and I haven´t made them yet either. My sewing machine is in the corner at home quietly weeping from neglect!
And now here I am in Barcelona. So it makes sense to fall back on my very favourite creative outlet, art journals and artist books, and share a travel journal. I´m going to share with you one of my favourite travel journals so far, featuring Nova Scotia, Canada last summer. I´m not a very diligent daily writer, so this hodge podge approach works perfectly with the ebb and flow of my inspiration. Once you have chosen your covers, as long as you make sure all of your ´pages´ are roughly smaller, then you can use anything you like inside.
This spread shows a bit of map glued onto some handmade (not by me!) denim rag paper and a Neocolor II sketch on some crumpled paper bag. The map shows the part of Nova Scotia where my family are from, and the sketch captures the colours and feeling of the Nova Scotia shoreline.
On this spread, you get to see some of the delicious layering that happens when you have all these pages tied in together. You can see the dark blue of the map page and the ragged edge of the paper bag. This spread has some doodled shoreline, a found feather and a watercolour background created with the Neocolor IIs - they are such a great travelling art supply.
An assortment of found papers, my own photography and some muslin left over from dying Easter eggs. The great thing is with this book is that you can collect up all your pages as you travel around, put together a few more when you get home, and then bind them together however you like. Try book rings, bind-it-all, Japanese stab stitch binding, or tying them into a cloth spine glued to old book covers like I have here.
They´ve turned out the lights in the computer room here at the hotel, so I will sign off, but thanks for joining me on my travels!
Kel x
