Art journalling

Yeah, yeah, I've tried yet another craft recently, (and I'm afraid that's not the last one in my life... *^v^*) - I fought my "fear of the white piece of paper" and started to write in one of the notebooks I bought not so long ago.

My first impression was that it's SO EASY to create an art journal! ^^
No, I'm not saying that I'm so very talented and it's easy for me - I believe it's easy for ANYBODY (if I could do it, everybody can! ^^), so if you have an empty notebook and you don't use it because you don't want to spoil it, just fight your fears and START (just like I fought my notebook demons - "I don't know, what to write...", 'I'm not sure, which technique to use...", "I'm scared it won't be good enough...", ect, ect, ect)!

Make the first step, place the first splash of colour, write the first word, you cannot go wrong with anything you do on the white page. ^^ You can't go wrong because it's your journal, nobody's going to judge the final result. Everything that you'll put on a single page comes from your inner self - so it's beautiful, and true, and artful, and yours so it's different from any other journal other people may create.

You don't know where to start? Create the first page around the theme of not knowing where to start, and you'll see that the ideas, the choice of means, the colours will start to fill your head very soon! ^^

In fact I feel I may create a journal page with what I said above! *^v^*

Now, my first art journal pages (my media - pencil, watercolour pencils, watercolour paints, ink, coloured markers): I started with some thoughts on journaling itself, I wrote about pouring ourselves onto a piece of paper, thoughts flowing like a river. (Look, I couldn't really draw the figure of a person with a jug like I had her in my mind, so I sketched her roughly! ^^)


Then I was soooo busy just before leaving for the cottage, so I felt I needed to stop for a minute (or for eternity...) and grow the roots like a tree, so I wouldn't have to rush so much and meet so many deadlines, phew...

Second day at the cottage - I felt the big NOW, so I wrote all the things that were happening to me at that very moment.

This is the quotation from the Stitch'n'Bitch calendar page, "There are no shortcuts to any place worth going" by Beverly Sills. I think choosing some sentence or even a word and working around its theme is a good journal subject. ^^

This is the page inspired by something that happened to me in the morning on the second day at the cottage - I got up, took a shower, washed my hair, and so very clean and fresh I went outside and picked up an apple from a tree, delicious! *^v^*

Here I wanted to try a new technique - I collected various leaves on my way from the grocery shopping (walking through the woods and fields, yikes! *^v^*), and then used them as stamps, covering them with watercolour paints - I think acrylic paints would make a better job here, but I also like the result I achieved.

This page says "I overslept!...", and I did one day... We were supposed to get up early and pick up our friend from the nearby town, and we slept very long... Fortunately he left home later then expected so we were there just in time! *^v^*

When the sun didn't shine, we had some periods of very heavy rains, and the outside looked like that:

I still have some blank pages in my journal among the painted ones, because I had some ideas coming but they haven't formed properly yet in my head, and with the feast coming I didn't have enough time for journaling, but I hope to fill them soon.

And as for time i discovered that you don't have to finish a page at one go. In fact, it's even impossible to do that - I put gesso first and it has to dry, then I put paints and they have to dry, and then there is a more or less final stage, when I put words, details, ect, but even then I may leave it for while and look for some inspiration or just let it rest and get back to it later. ^^

My favourite medium so far are the watercolour paints - I can add more and more layers of different colours, dip the brush in water and smudge them into many shades, yummy! *^v^* And what a coincidence - this week's subject on Inspire Me Thursday are watercolours! *^v^*

I'm still hesitant about adding some scraps, but I have no fear of writing in different colours and directions, yikes! ^^

It's fun each evening to cover the notebook pages with a gesso layer, so it's ready for the next morning to be filled with new colours and ideas! ^^

Annual Medieval Feast

Before I start talking about the feast, let me show you another crafty thing I made last week - on Sunday I sat at the loom and made a stool seat for my friend. ^^ It was a last minute work just before we went to the cottage on Monday, it's red and yellow wool (scratchy, yikes...) from my tangled supplies.

And now the main subject of this post - the feast.
Last Saturday we held our annual medieval feast, the style was in line with our main medieval reenactment project - the Prince's Court of the X-XI th c. with the Slavs, the Rus and the Viking inhabitants.

It all started with our Prince leading the ting, which means the gathering, where he collected the taxes (we made him an embroidered shirt - photos when it's finished, because Robert didn't quite make it on time ^^, a pair of naalbinded socks and some braided straps), raised some slaves to a higher half-slave rank, judged any quarrels, etc.

Robert read out our laws.

Any free Draconian wanting to speak would step up onto the whalebone and shake the staff with bells, so everyone could pay their attention to him. Free noble men would stand close to the Prince with their spears and shields.

Among others, two of our people (mine and Robert's) were raised from the slave status to the half-slave rank - Osk (Anna) and Izbor (Peter).

Then the Prince paid homage to our god Skwarowit thanking him for another good, fruitful year.

Here is Osk (Anna) and Hazine (Kate) with Anna's promotion gift from me - a drop spindle, some roving and a pair of Finnish buckles.

Here is Izbor (Peter) with his present - a drinking horn. can you tell that he's pleased with his gift? *^v^*

And then there was much eating and rejoicing - here I was giving some culinary instructions to my brand new slave Radochna (Marta), she just joined our group two weeks before the feast and managed to make herself a set of basic clothes, so she could be with us, triple arm pump for her! *^v^*

Our Prince at the table.

And here is our youngest draconian - Janna with her 6 month old daughter Zosia. ^^
Unfortunately the weather wasn't that good all day, at one point we had rain and even hail... But we managed to eat a lot, sing a bit (me and my girls! ^^), listen to some great Viking poetry written by Izbor (written by him, mind you! of course in Polish, but it really sounded like a piece from the Poetic Edda, he's gifted!), some of us tried some archery and swam in the river.

We (me and Robert) didn't prepare any new clothes for this feast, and I decided that my Russian outfit, although spectacular, will go to the bottom of the clothes chest for a while, because this year I'll be working on a proper Norwegian and Finish sets of clothes.
What's next on our reenactment events list? There are two XIII c. meetings in September and Robert will probably go to one of them, but I don't have a finished outfit so I'll pass on these ones. Then when the Spring/Summer season is over, we'll have one-day battle events in Autumn and Winter until the first warm Spring days and first market events of the next year.
(I've been thinking veeeeeeery briefly about the possibility of going to Foteviken, Sweden, for a Winter market, but we'll see about that later).

EDIT: Helene asked me about my Norwegian outfit plans.
Well, I should've written "Viking outfit", but I chose a Norwegian persona for my reenactment (married to a Rus persona, a Varangian, hence my Russian clothes as a gift from my husband! *^v^*).
I have some old Viking clothes, but I decided I desperately need a new set, so I started in May, when I made a new linen dress and started to embroider it (in progress). Then I'm going to make a woolen apron dress and another long-sleeved dress out of wool for Winter events, all of which will be embellished with tablet woven bands and embroidery (hopefully! *^v^*). And also, I need to change the lining in my long-sleeved coat, because it's cotton and should be linen, and add the tablet woven bands to it.
Seems like a lot of work, but hand sewing is not a problem. I hope to put together the inkle loom soon, which should help me in making all those planned tablet woven bands (when I figure out how to warp this thing...). I'm lucky I've got lots of Viking jewelery, in the Finish project I'm going to start from the very beginning... *^v^*

Back to reality

It's not that easy to get back to reality after even a few days away... Phew...
I'm unpacking bags, doing laundry, planning shopping, ect, ect, and in my thoughts I'm still there at the cottage. (okay, I missed my flat a bit, and my cat a lot, so I'm partly glad I'm back! ^^)
Photos can be found here: FriendSheep: Fragments

First things first: I'm currently on the 39th row of the peplum of Purple Belle.
It's a really interesting design, very intuitive pattern so I don't spend all the time with my nose in the charts and up till now I'm still very happy that I've chosen this sweater. I made a mistake on the direction of the cable twice but I fixed it easily and I hope to finish the peplum till the end of this week. Then I'm going to knit two sleeves simultaneously. The colour still amazes me! *^v^*

On the other hand, I haven't touched the MS3 at all... There was no time, because apart from resting and having fun we had to prepare the feast, and I've been scribbling in my art journal, both subjects deserve separate posts so expect them soon (I'm not sure about today because I'll be busy all day and in the evening I'm meeting Anna for wine and ice-cream, yummy! *^v^*).

PS.: Therese, I've been thinking about the Mokosza picture you wrote about and consulted my friend archaeologist, it's probably some XIX-th c depiction, I'll dig deeper and let you know the results. ^^

I've been nominated! ^^

Ha! I've been nominated by Huldremor a Rockin' Girl Blogger! I'm so happy to be noticed among millions of talented bloggers. Thank you! *^v^*

Now, it's my turn to name 5 bloggers whose works I find inspirational, so here they are in no particular order:

- Il Bloggo by iHanna

- iLoveLife by Kal

- Helenes side by Helene

- アスタライスのblablabla by Astarise

- rndn we knit by Sigga

They all create in different media and they all are innovative, inspirational, adventurous, brave, love what they make and it loves them back! *^v^* Please go and meet their works if you haven't seen their blogs before.

Oh so slow...

I thought I could blog while being at the Summer cottage but the internet access we have here is very slow and there is no way I can upload any photos... Which is a shame, because I have some great shots for the FriendSheep: Fragments photoblog and a bit of my Purple Beauty, and some weaving and cordmaking pieces, and some art journalling, but all of these will have to wait till next Monday, when we get home.
This Saturday we are having our annual medieval feast here at the cottage so historical photos will follow. Take care, everyone and keep creating and blogging! *^v^*

Busy, busy, gone!

Almost gone! ^^
Tomorrow morning we are leaving for our Summer cottage for a week, but I'll have a laptop with me and the internet access, so I'll answer all your emails and lovely comments then! I also promise photos on FriendSheep: Fragments and first glimpses of my Purple Belle.
For now, I'm off to packing! *^v^*

Ambitious...

Oh, boy!... 428 stitches to cast on!... It was fun, I can assure you!... *^v^*
But right now I'm on row 4 of the peplum of the Purple Belle and there is some kind of a bizarre pleasure in knitting so many stitches at a time (=in one row).

I'm not even sure whether I follow the charts correctly in terms of direction, well... We'll see in a couple of rows, when the cable pattern starts to be recognizable.

*^v^*

Purple Belle

I may finally reveal my next sweater plans: call me crazy, but my second, SECOND knitted sweater will be...

"Silver Belle" from the 25th Anniversary issue of Vogue Knitting.
In my case, it's a Purple Belle, I bought the yarn today, it's a Polish brand called "Zorza" by Anilux, 25% wool/75% acrylic, a bit darker than the picture shows.
I fell in love with this pattern the moment I saw it about two weeks ago and while still knitting Tomato top (=learning how to knit sweater...) I decided that I'll give this one a go next. Well, in this design there is all the beginner in sweater knitting needs: garment knit in parts that will have to be stitched together, cables, unusual working process - you knit the lower peplum first, then each sleeve together with a part of the upper body... *^v^*
Anyway, if I have to learn it, why not do it the hard way straight from the beginning. I'm swatching tonight in search of the gauge! ^^

The theme for the MS3 has been revealed today and I wish I knit this stole in white in stead of black - the theme is Swan Lake!
I still don't understand clue 5 precisely, there will be some asymmetrical wing at the other end of the stole, but I will just follow the directions and will see what happens. ^^

In case you are waiting for the parasol tutorial - I"m very sorry but I didn't manage to finish it this week... Next week we are at the summer cottage, so I promise a tutorial in the week after the next one, around 15th August. I bought a lace yesterday but I still need some paint and some time to finish it.

I've been to my mom's today and came home with some food goodies - 1,5 l of fresh olive oil straight from Greece, where my cousin lives (she sent my mom a can of about 17 l. of olive oil and now it gets divided among all the family members and friends! ^^) plus 0,5 kg of smoked ribs and 2 kgs of lard smoked in spices (I know, it doesn't SOUND tasty when you think about the lard, but it is delicious! You slice it thinly on a piece of fresh bread, sprinkle some salt on it and maybe add some sliced sour cucumber, yikes! *^v^*). Plus I bought a plum cake and some fresh still hot bread, so it's going to be a nice dinner tonight! *^v^*

I wish you a tasty dinner as well and now I'm off to start swatching for my Purple Belle! ^^

What's sewing, doc?

On Tuesday I saw the first yellow and red leaves, still attached to a tree but still...


Today is the Lammas Day - the First Harvest holiday for all the fellow pagans. Originally it came from the first harvest of the season, when farmers could finally collect what they sown and planted and cared for all Spring and early Summertime. But the city pagans can also celebrate this time with reflecting on their hard work in any field and think about the fruits of their efforts.
Let me quote Christina Aubin talking about Lammas on Witchvox:

"Lughnasadh is a time of personal reflection and harvest, of our actions and deeds, events and experiences, our gains and losses. A time when we begin the cycle of reflection of that which is our life. A period for personal fertility magic to ensure the bountiful harvest of life's gifts and experiences, that which we have reaped though trial, tribulation, enjoyment, joy, love and loss. As my Elder once said to me, "We can not know what we have not experienced." Such is the truth of life ö we become not by chance but by experience. Each experience opens a window into ourselves, into who we were, who we are, and whom we are choosing to become."

I love this sentence: "we become not by chance but by experience"! It involves action, going out to people, asking questions, touching things, listening, watching carefully, thinking, transforming what we saw and experienced into something new, changing. I don't say I feel comfortable with all that (in fact I'm scared of going out to people...) but it definitely is a process that makes us who we are.
As for my celebrations, I'll be starting my first proper over a week long holiday this year soon to this Day. *^v^*
And no, I haven't knitted a shawl for Lammas, but I'm working hard on the MS3 so it counts a bit! ^^

Here is what I've been doing lately - my new products for the folk gallery Ludowo Mi.I made six patchwork chicken bags and some fabric bracelets with a special bus ticket pocket!Let's hope they sell, I need money for yarn!
Speaking of yarn, I'm going out right now to buy yarn for my next sweater and (hopefully) white lace to finish my Gothic Lolita parasol and to finally give you the tutorial for it.
Have a great Thursday! *^v^*

Journaling

Thank you for the compliments on my cats, I've never known I could draw like this, really! ^^

I've never attended an art school, on any level of my education, or any art courses (only the silver & copper jewelery course, but that doesn't count here since they didn't teach us how to draw, just how to make jewelery! ^^). But still I've tried drawing and painting in many techniques, I have some works in pencil (very sci-fi/fantasy like, they even were almost printed in a Polish sci-fi magazine called "Fiction" ^^), I painted one picture in oils (well, it wasn't ANY good, that's for sure!), I tried watercolor paints, acrylic paints, pastel crayons, pencil crayons, glass paints, I'm always on the lookout for the new techniques and tools, and I'm always behaving silly in the art supplies shops, because I have no idea what I want to buy... Because I was never taught about the types of paints, crayons, papers, brushes, gesso, ect, ect, I stand in front of the shelf with millions different bottles and tubes, and I endlessly admire their colourful containers, I touch all the papers, and eventually I point my finger at something and that's what I am sold. Lucky me I found one art supplies shop where the assistants are nice and don't look at the non-artistic clients intimidating!... ^^
Since I feel too old for the Art studies (and you have to be really talented to get there, with numerous drawings to show them at the entrance exams and an extensive art knowledge, which I don't have) and I don't have money for the private classes, I may try some book courses, I believe I even have one at home somewhere, must dig it up! *^v^*

I've recently felt an urge to come back to journaling again.

I've never written a proper diary (like a moleskin cover notebook with pages filled with "My dear diary, today was a crappy day, because..." written late night hidden under the duvet with a flashlight... ^^), in my teenager times I had a scrapbook with drawings, poems, stories, dried flowers, scraps from the magazines, ect. It was one very thick notebook and when it ended I stapled another one onto its back cover and continued my musings there. ^^ I was 16 at that time. When I was 18, I had a new journal, this time it was in the daily planner - not that I paid much attention to the dates, I just filled it with whatever emerged from my loony teenage head. *^v^*
Then I had a journal about four years ago, where I put my thoughts on my daily existence and also lots of wise citations from several psychological and self-improvement books and magazines. This one still isn't finished, I may come back to it sometime.

Nowadays, apart from the online blog and photoblog Friendsheep:Fragments ^^, I keep a designer's diary where I put all my ideas for clothes, bags and other things I make. It's nothing special, just a notebook that was a freebie to an old "Elle" magazine, but it's very handy because it has blank pages and it's square and fairly small, so I can carry it with me in my bag and put my ideas down when they appear.

On Monday though I bought two new notebooks and I love both of them!

The first one is the one I spotted in a shop first, with flowers on the cover that remind me the Summertime and a pink elastic that keeps it closed.

Then I realized that it's this time of the year - September is near (oh, please, it's still one whole month to go, but you know the trade law, they will try to sell you the fur coat in June!...) and there was an alley in the supermarket full of school supplies! So, I browsed a bit and found the second notebook - this one has some retro photos on the covers, also has an elastic to keep it closed and it's divided into three parts: 1/3 of the pages is lined horizontally, 1/3 has both horizontal and vertical lines, and the last third is blank, and there are orange pages between them.

Moreover, the second notebook's pages have an interesting rough texture and I'm crazy about touching everything with inspiring textures, it may give interesting results with crayons and paints.

I also bought a set of watercolor pencils in a metal box. have you ever used them? I haven't! *^v^*
That's why I'm so excited about them. Apparently you draw with them like with pencil crayons but then you can spray some water on the picture and use the paintbrush to smudge the colours like with watercolor paints! (or not, just let the water flow, or use your fingers! ^^...) I'll be doing some tests soon.

Next Monday we are leaving for a week at the cottage and I'm taking my new journal with me, we'll see how I'll get inspired in the woods! *^v^*

Here are the two journaling artists I admire:
iHanna
Marieke

In case you are wondering, there was no knitting going on here since Friday, but there was a lot of sewing happening, photos tomorrow. ^^