Hello Readers!
I'm just gonna dive right in and get the show started. I was gone from 5 September till last Thursday. That's 20some days. I had a great time!
There was a big hail storm here at home while I enjoyed the company of my people. Annie is a hoot! You'll hear more about the kidnapping later. When I left home the milo field looked like this.
When I got home last Thursday, it looked like this.
It was too dark to get a decent picture from the porch at about 8pm. It was still light enough in the field. Porch is in deep shadow that time of day.
This is what it looked like up close. Apparently a big hail storm came along and Mr. Farmer decided to cut his milo. Ma said the hail lasted for a long while but it wasn't large hail. So the saga of the milo ends with premature demise. He cut it all down and
turned the devil's claw into twigs. I think he ran it over with the combine. It was really close to the milo. We'll see what he plants next time. I'm guessing wheat. He might still have time to plow it under and put some wheat in the ground before it freezes. I'm guessing on that. I have no clue. And now that I think about it, he'll probably put cows on the milo. There's plenty of it laying on the ground. As far as I could tell, from being in the car for three hours, passing hundreds of milo fields along the way, no one else has cut their milo. I'm a little bummed about the devils claw. I was hoping to see what the immature pods look like. I've only ever seen them mature and dried out.
Like this.
The devils claw were in bloom when I was kidnapped.
That's Murray cat out in the field with me. She was gone on her own adventure while I was away. Ma said she was missing for about 10 days. I really thought she was a goner. Since I've come home, she's not strayed too far from home. I've seen a lot of her.
That's Murray cat out in the field with me. She was gone on her own adventure while I was away. Ma said she was missing for about 10 days. I really thought she was a goner. Since I've come home, she's not strayed too far from home. I've seen a lot of her.
I've shown you all the art from my kidnapping.
The muse wanted to paint when I came home. I've been here for six days now.
I've only made books.
This one is my favorite of the latest batch of little books. It's also the largest in the batch. It measures 6x6 inches. I made it out of corrugated cardboard. It's painted with brown wall paint and the blue is a concoction I conjured up from pva glue, acrylic ink and blue marker refill ink. The texture comes from over heating the wet paint to make it bubble up as it dries. Smells funky but I've noticed no lasting effects. It was varnished with acrylic varnish before sewing the caterpillar stitch. It has drawing paper pages numbering 100 if you count both sides of each sheet of paper. 10 signatures of 2 sheets each. I sewed it with colored hemp cording.
I did not realize how much the caterpillar stitch disappears into the background until I see the picture now. Should have used orange and pink or some such. At any rate. I taught myself the caterpillar stitch by watching this video on youtube.this video
I was pleased with the outcome of the stitching even though it is nowhere near to being perfect. I screwed up numerous times!
This elephant book is 4x3.5 inches. It's just random papers and ephemera glued to thin corrugated cardboard covers. It's sewn in copic binding with variegated pastel embroidery thread. It has 5 signatures with 5 sheets each of copy paper.
This one is markers drawn on cardstock glued to thick fiber board. It has 8 sheets of heavy textured cream colored paper. I have no clue what this paper came from. I salvaged it from something.
Same little 4x3.5 inch book. Front cover and back are done up. It's sewn in the japanese stab binding with variegated pastel embroidery thread.
This little book is 3.5x3.75 inches. Background is a painted newspaper remnant. The other things were found in the box with little paper stuff in it.
It has 3 signatures of 5 sheets of copy paper. It's sewn in the pamphlet stitch onto a cardboard cover. The cover (and the elephant book cover) started life as a box that held a replacement ring for a light fixture. I took 9 of those empty boxes out of the dumpster at the electrician's place at the edge of town. The spine is built right in!
The pigs and the elephant had zero painting involved.
This thing is really so much better in hand! The purple is tempera paint that I left with a bit of texture showing. I let it dry completely before I started splattering yellow and green watered down acrylics. This one is 5x4 inches with 8 signatures with 5 sheets each copy paper. It's sewn in copic binding with yellow hemp cord. Covers are painted chipboard.
I'm not real crazy about this one. I like the design on it, but the sewing leaves something to be desired. It worked out alright, I just don't like it real well from this batch.
The covers are made from corrugated cardboard that I painted with marker refill ink, acrylic paint, pva glue and clear plastic glitter. I let the red and orange dry a bit before putting pva over the whole of it in a thin layer and sprinkling glitter all over it. I hit it with my heat gun just enough to melt all those tiny glitter bits into tiny balls of plastic. It has a nice texture to it. I varnished it with acrylic varnish once everything was dry.
It measures 6.5x3.5 inches. I can't really say what stitch its sewn in as I made it up as I went along. It's kind of a mix of copic and japanese stab binding. The page block is drawing paper sewn together in copic stitch. It has 7 signatures with 2 sheets each.
The covers are sewn to this foam packing material which I adhered to the covers with double sided tape. I don't remember just how I incorporated the page block's stitching into the cover stitching but somehow it all worked out. I either should have painted the foam or went with something entirely different. I blinged it up a bit with a gold plastic button and an acrylic bead strung to the end of the yellow hemp cord used to sew it all together.
7 tiny page blocks. These guys all measure about 1.25x1.5 inches. I've dragged out some leather to cut for their covers.
3 page blocks, glued and drying, covers pending. They measure .75x1 inch. I'm thinking key chains or necklaces.
3 page blocks with covers waiting on sewing. The largest one at the bottom, you've all seen that cover before. The other two are brand new. You'll see them again as soon as I sew their pages to their covers.
I also have a cover ready that has no page block. I made chocolate pudding last night and while the pudding was cooling, I made a book cover out it. You'll get to it soon as well.
In the last post I said you all you would meet Tom in this post.
Tom and Murray checking one another out. Tippy totally ignores Tom. She could care less one way or another about Tom. Murray seems to like him quite well and he in turn seems to like her too. They've yet to get into the yelling match Tom and Lola have repeated a few times.
The first time they had the yelling match...you know what I'm talking about...it was Lola who instigated the whole ordeal. Tom stood his ground though! They had a boxing match along with the yelling match and it was Lola who turned belly up on the carpet in submission. Apparently she was not paying attention when Tom smacked her upside the head. He has no front claws. She is heavily armed.
They've not had a repeat of the boxing match that I know of. They have repeated the yelling match quite a few times.
Tom came to be mine because his person passed away. Raymond was his person. Raymond was an elderly man my daughter in law, Lue took care of. Lue took Tom home with her because no one else seemed to give one hoot about Tom's fate. She and RW already have 5 cats of their own: Dennis , Miss Kitty, Alice, Mira and there's another one I can't remember its name....anyway....Tom and Dennis were not the best of buddies and Tom wouldn't let Dennis in the house sometimes. I was at the fair, just leaving the tiger show, when RW calls me on the phone to ask me if I would take Tom when I got back home. I said I would. He's a lovely boy, really. He's about 5 years old, neutered, declawed and well established as a housecat. He hasn't any bad manners that I can tell from two days of living with him. He and Lola will figure out their differences in due time. He loves pets and he likes to snuggle. And he's a big orange boy! I love orange cats!
I think he will work out fine.
Well, that's about it for this post.
It was a long one and I appreciate your sticking around to the end!
Remember
Be good to one another!
It matters!
Peace
831
The muse wanted to paint when I came home. I've been here for six days now.
I've only made books.
The pigs and the elephant had zero painting involved.
This thing is really so much better in hand! The purple is tempera paint that I left with a bit of texture showing. I let it dry completely before I started splattering yellow and green watered down acrylics. This one is 5x4 inches with 8 signatures with 5 sheets each copy paper. It's sewn in copic binding with yellow hemp cord. Covers are painted chipboard.
The covers are made from corrugated cardboard that I painted with marker refill ink, acrylic paint, pva glue and clear plastic glitter. I let the red and orange dry a bit before putting pva over the whole of it in a thin layer and sprinkling glitter all over it. I hit it with my heat gun just enough to melt all those tiny glitter bits into tiny balls of plastic. It has a nice texture to it. I varnished it with acrylic varnish once everything was dry.
It measures 6.5x3.5 inches. I can't really say what stitch its sewn in as I made it up as I went along. It's kind of a mix of copic and japanese stab binding. The page block is drawing paper sewn together in copic stitch. It has 7 signatures with 2 sheets each.
I also have a cover ready that has no page block. I made chocolate pudding last night and while the pudding was cooling, I made a book cover out it. You'll get to it soon as well.
In the last post I said you all you would meet Tom in this post.
They've not had a repeat of the boxing match that I know of. They have repeated the yelling match quite a few times.
Tom came to be mine because his person passed away. Raymond was his person. Raymond was an elderly man my daughter in law, Lue took care of. Lue took Tom home with her because no one else seemed to give one hoot about Tom's fate. She and RW already have 5 cats of their own: Dennis , Miss Kitty, Alice, Mira and there's another one I can't remember its name....anyway....Tom and Dennis were not the best of buddies and Tom wouldn't let Dennis in the house sometimes. I was at the fair, just leaving the tiger show, when RW calls me on the phone to ask me if I would take Tom when I got back home. I said I would. He's a lovely boy, really. He's about 5 years old, neutered, declawed and well established as a housecat. He hasn't any bad manners that I can tell from two days of living with him. He and Lola will figure out their differences in due time. He loves pets and he likes to snuggle. And he's a big orange boy! I love orange cats!
I think he will work out fine.
Well, that's about it for this post.
It was a long one and I appreciate your sticking around to the end!
Remember
Be good to one another!
It matters!
Peace
831
1 comment:
Cat drama! Ha ha ha...At least they are entertaining. :) ...You are a book making queen!
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