The Medieval Lace Book RR

 

The next Medieval Lace book I was working in was Karen. Her theme is John Waterhouse’s heroines. Here are the front and back covers of the spread.

By pure coincidence I used a large piece of lace on the left side of the page, that perfectly matches the lace Karen used for the last page of her book. It will look like it was meant to be. Which of course, it was…

This is the inside left page, showing Courtly Love.

The right page is built around an image of a young lady kneeling in front of her knight in shining armor. The two pages are built on top of a beautiful piece of dyed lace, which has completely disappeared under all the embellishments. l-))

On the right page are several layers of doilies, with some chiffon to frame the image, and some guipure lace. The top trim is metal hearts and under the purple velvet is upholstery trim.

I never realized how very dark Waterhouse images are. It was a challenge to keep the page light.

 

I added a vintage brooch that I had in my collection, with beautiful stones that echo the colors on the page.

It seems I haven’t posted the previous pages I had done for Teri in NYC. So here they are. Her theme is Horses and Armors.

On the left page, I used a picture of a horse that actually comes from a carousel. I loved the colors. I tracked down, with a lot of help from my friend Deb who is also in this RR, a horse blanket pin. Then I aged it.

On the right, I printed some horse equipment terms in French, like Haslebarde, Bride (which is the bridle), Henaut, the helmet, Joult, (Joust), Harnais, (harness), Destrier (a form of horse) Cheval (horse) and Palefroi (a farm horse)

For the right page, I used a reporduction of the Black Prince riding armor. It was such a beautiful image. I used a belt which I had cut up and painted, to look like a bridle.

 

I have to admit, it is quite a superb round robin that we’re having, and the books are really turning magnificent. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful group of talented artists.

Last Vintage Lace Book Page

This Round Robin journal is now going home to Elena, and it was my privilege to be the last one to work in it.

Her theme was vintage Paris.

I made the design on the back pages on my new embroidery machine. Gotta love it. I also added a crown and the letter “E” for Elena, because she’s our queen friend, who organizes lots of wonderful Round Robins.

Her book cover was mainly black and white, so I followed the theme.

On the left page, I printed images of Paris on fabric, and decorated them with a beautiful white flower from Beads and Buttons in Portland, and a sweet little white bird inside of a black rose. For the background, I used this wonderful black and white Paris map fabric that I had. It all got covered with tons of lace, of course.

For the right page, I had this wonderful furry and feathery black nest with precious stones in it. It guided the design for the rest of the page. I used a large piece of lace that covers both pages. It has these large white flowers on it, which seemed to continue the theme.

 

Here is a view of both pages together. I trimmed the top of the page with black and white gingham, very French. The bottoms silver and black trim comes from the collar of a jacket a girlfriend just gave me. It comes from Italy, and has tons of silver beads. Not easy to wear outside of Italy, even if you live in Palm Springs! It was perfect to finish the pages.

The Rosa of Cairo

In the Round Robin on Vintage Ancestors, the next book I worked in is Teri’s book. All about this famous tailoring studio, which appears in Paris after the intervention of another RR player! Thanks Sue. 
In my pages, the Sheik of Arabia comes to the studio, meets Auntie Rosa, falls in love with her, and marries her.
Not until he orders her wedding gown to be made by the studio. Hence the introduction of ARABesques, and damasks in Paris, which became all the rage at in the 19th century.
This is how she became the Rosa of Cairo.



The left page shows the scroll that tells the story.


The scroll ‘holder’ has a story. I was browsing on the internet to find some arabic text. And I saw this scroll holder which just triggered my mind. Yesterday, a wonderful neighbor gave  me a bag of goodies. You know, broken jewelry, unloved scarves and earrings. And  this outrageous pen. We both looked at each other, wondering what I could possibly do with it.
Well, not 24 hours later, this wonderful pen has become a jewelled scroll holder! Don’t you just love synchronicity?

And here is Auntie Rosa herself, quite transformed, and quite glamorous on her wedding day…

Second Round Robbin

I'm also involved in another round robbin, but this one is an altered book. I love an altered book. It's my interest for altering a book which got me into all this art stuff that I'm so deep into now.

There are only 5 of us in this exchange, 2 people in England, 2 in Canada, and the hostess in the US. I found a small book with few pages so it's not too heavy to mail around, but sturdy enough. It is (was) a copy of Hans Christian Andersen in French. I like to play with the words on the page, but I guess in French, that's being a bit unfair.

My theme is Colors. I am mainly interested in the altered books techniques, since this is my FIRST AB exchange. I thought I'd keep the theme simple so the ladies can be creative on the technique.

I'm much into free motion sewing these days, learning the technique. I made the cover with some white satin, a layer of lace which completely disappeared under the stitching. I added a layer of very open lace trim, and free motion sewed on top with metallic thread. I put some Angelina fibers, but with the metallic thread, they've become invisible.

Here is my sign up page, and my own spread in the book: 

I used my Pan Pastels for the background. That's the ONE thing I learned in the class by Cre9It from Jessica. That's about all she had to share...

And the back cover. I left the bottom open, in case someone wanted to add something to it.

Round Robbins

I just finished my spread for the journal I am doing in the Round Robin for the Sketchbook yahoo group. I have Rita's book, and her theme is 'serenity'. I love that theme, of course.

I knew exactly what I'd do, but by the time I had done it, it was just a bit too stark after all. So I added. And added. I hope I have stopped in time before ruining it. 

I've also added 2 beads that seemed perfect:

The little round one is a Tibetan bead that I found at the Sewing and Crafts Show Saturday.