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Traditional Preserving Kit
Summer always brings back memories of the bottling season when I was a child. The table would be filled with fruit and all hands were on deck as Mum and Dad washed and sterilized the old vacola bottles and filled them with seasonal fruits. "Fowlers Vacola" was a legendary name in Australian Home preserving. Mum had jars, a unit, lids, clips and reausable rubber sealing rings. It was an excellent system for preserving and the jars of preserved fruit were carefully stored on the pantry shelves. They kept us supplied with fruit throughout the winter months. Now turn your mind around how you could bottle your art. Messages in bottles? Stories in bottles? Creative Preservation Ideas Had you thought of making a collage out of patchwork pieces or working with tiles? Carol Abel shows you how. And just for good measure Carol shows us how to make Artist Trading Cards. Personally I think these are the most amazing things and my daughter and I have framed small collections. I have also given sets as gifts ready to be framed. Make Cubes
Don't just collage. Cube it! This awesome Collage Cubie tutorial, from Chris Dunmire of Creativity Portal fame, takes you on a self-guided tour of paper collage, decoupage, paper model folding, and 3D sculpture. Try this once and you'll never view your paper collage art from inside the box again! Collage Cubies are a fun play on traditional collage art. Instead of simply producing a two-dimensional work of art, this creative technique allows you to first design your collage flat, and then fold it into a three-dimensional sculpture. Blogging As travellers of the Silk Road have sought to preserve their journey's some have taken to blogging. Carol Abel undertook the role of Silk Road Scribe and has kept a record of the journey. Individuals
kept personal blogger. Here is a selection of their blogs. Carol
Abel Altered Books
Journal Cover by Gail Kavanagh Caravanserai Pilgrims gather at Pilgrims Well. (Caravanserai Blogger) They are briefly housed in tents to freshen, check provisions and find their camel. It is a busy encampment. Everyone is expectant. At dusk, roped four abreast, the column of camels shuffles in the darkness, out and across the rocky plain, each following the shadowy forms of the four in front. The drivers and passengers intemittently doze in the saddle, jerk awake, doze again. From a distance the sweeping train is marked by the swaying of lanterns and the faint accompaniment of tambourines. In the east the sky lightens. Camels gurgle, bray, balk, stride on as tired as the pilgrims who are riding them. Everyone stolidly goes on at the insistent command of the caravan leader. It is a sharp eyed camel boy at the head of the column who first spots the tiny smudge on the horizon appearing, then disappearing in the shimmering light. Pushing towards it the caravan moves onto the floor of a small valley, then forces its way up a steep ridge and stops. Everyone looks, their gazes awash with emotion. The first of the Caravanserai's is in view. Make sure to mentally take in all the details of the pilgrims well and the journey to the first Caravanserai. This trip has been uneventful. No bandits even approached the group. Use your senses to evoke a sense of time, place and emotion. Arriving We have arrived at the front door of the first 'inn'. It is a modest abode that we are staying in. It is not at all like the caravanserai of Sultan Han Aksary where travellers often stayed.
There is nothing more pleasant or arresting than a door. The intriguing possibilities of what lies beyond or behind it has inspired many who use doors (bab) as a metaphor for both hope and denial. The Silk Road was known for its tents and its nomadic past. Yet the Middle East is filled with an astonishing array of entrances of great beauty and variety. This door, from Asir is exuberant in colour and ornamentation. The painting extends into the house over the walls and doors, up the staircases and onto furniture itself The paintbrushes used to paint these walls were created from the tough hair found in a goat's tail. Blue came from the indigo plant. Red came from the pomegranates and certain mud. Visit the first Lemurian Caravanserai, a modest abode in comparison to most, and describe the vista that greets you behind this door. Of course you can simply write using the door as a metaphor. Look around, using all your senses and try to evoke a sense of the time, place and people gathered. Use some of the creative preservation ideas to help document and preserve your memories of this journey. A Study of Doors
Edwina Peterson Cross made a study of doors. She says that "the time comes when those old doors, now so ancient that they can sometimes hardly be differentiated from walls, begin to leak. Toxic, virulent gasses begin to creep around cracked door jambs, through keyholes and insinuate through clefs, chinks and fissures in the fabric of the once sturdy wood. Behind those doors were wounds that had been closed unclean, and they had had plenty of time to fester."
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December 2 Preserving the Journey of the Heart
Main Entry: jour·nal Pronunciation: 'j&r-n&l Function: noun Etymology: Middle English, service book containing the day hours, from Middle French, from journal, adjective, daily, from Latin diurnalis, from diurnus of the day, from dies day 1 a : a record of current transactions; especially : a book of original entry in double-entry bookkeeping b : an account of day-to-day events c : a record of experiences, ideas, or reflections kept regularly for private use d : a record of transactions kept by a deliberative or legislative body. How many times have you thought you would like to keep a diary or a journal, have even made a start on one and then given up a couple of weeks or months later because it just seems that too much effort is involved? The big difference between a diary and a journal is that you are not limited to making a daily entry with a journal. You can make an entry whenever you feel like it. I started one last year but gave it up after a while but this year I now have two on the go. I was given the first one on my 40th birthday and in it was written "if life begins at 40, you had better start taking notes". I only started two months ago. In it I record my travels, visits to theatre or cinema, other events, thoughts, feelings and I will probably include the occasional picture or poem that I have cut out of a magazine.
The other one is my "cave journal" which I started at the beginning of my adventure on the Soul Food Silk Road.
There are other types of journal, the two most notable ones being travel journals and art journals. A travel journal is one in which you describe a journey you have taken and which can include sketches you may have made or photographs, together with whatever ephemera you have picked up en route. This may include postcards, entrance tickets to exhibitions or museums, postage stamps, menus, information leaflets, etc.
An art journal can be one in which you experiment with different techniques but can also be one in which you keep inspirational Images/Articles. Whenever you see something that catches your attention just cut it out and put it in a notebook or file. This serves two purposes: The more you know about your taste in colour and design the more likely you are to do work that truly pleases yourself and others. You will gradually easily recognise the sort of images with which you like to work. When you can't seem to find inspiration in anything, take a look through your collection of images - you may be surprised at what you find. For this sort of library of images it is best to use a ring binder and add some plain paper for jotting down ideas and sketches as you have them. Transparent plastic pockets are perfect for this as you can see at a glance what you have got. Scan or use photocopies of images in case you want to use the same image in another piece of work. However, for the purposes of this article I am going to explain how to start your own personal journal. Basic kit: What to use? An inexpensive spiral bound students notebook is ideal as you can easily remove pages you don't like or think you have spoiled, without damaging the rest of the book. It doesn't matter if the covers are plain and boring - just collage some images on to them and cover them with plastic to protect them from wear and tear. This one with pockets would be very useful for storing bits and pieces until you are ready to put them in your journal. Alternatively consider using an old engagement diary that you might have been given, never used but didn't want to throw away because you liked the pictures. Simply paint over the calendar part of the page or stick something over the top of it. Voilà you get to kill two birds with one stone! Handwritten or computer generated? Hate your handwriting - use it sparingly then but do use it - it's a dying art. Try creating your own new handwritten font. Create a piece of typewritten art by experimenting with some of the many fonts you can download free from the internet. Cut out from magazines, newspapers, etc. words and letters in different styles and colours.
What to put in it? How many times have you cut out a picture, a poem or an article or received a greeting card that was just too nice to throw away? What did you do with it? you probably squirreled it away somewhere thinking you would do something with it one day, you lost it or forgot where you had put it. Here is your golden opportunity to let all those bits of paper and card see the light of day again. Added embellishments? Although it is possible to buy lots of interesting embellishments for your journal, in fact you need look no further than your own home: old fashioned blue embroidery transfers (check in old magazines, eg. Brigitte, Verena etc), labels, sweet wrappers, wrapping paper, tickets, maps, bank notes and coins (coins can be scanned or rubbed), newspapers & foreign character language newspapers, illustrations from old books, old manuscripts (musical & handwritten) old letters, old documents, postcards, greetings cards, playing cards/tarot cards, postage stamps, cake doillies and paper napkins, handmade paper, interesting calligraphy, ribbon/rafia/string, cellophane (eg. from bouquets of flowers), bits from broken watches or jewellery, beads and sequins, knitting yarn, laddered stockings/tights with textures or appliqués, fabric scraps and lace, leaf skeletons, dried & pressed flowers/leaves, seeds/cases, grasses, feathers, Garden magazines (new in colour), seed catalogs and bags, books on nature from junk sales, fashion magazines, postcards, glitter glue, your own photos, oriental paper, tea bags, food wrappers, things with an interesting texture like wood (place the paper over the textured subject, and rub with a pencil), plastic netting for texture (we get onions in it here, maybe you get something similar?), shells, stickers that come in junk mail, soap wrappers, funky yarn bits, handmade paper (or paper that looks like it), fabric paints, small metal charms, unusual shaped tags from toys or clothes, look in your garage or tool chest for washers, and finally in your sewing box. No matter where you look, embellishments can be found. It just takes an eye for the unexpected. Try taking photos of the books you read, the movies you watch or the CD covers of music you listen to. Use these photos to create a scrapbook page and journal about what they mean to you and your family.
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