I’m full of energy and have a lot of plans – both big and small – which will
unfold this coming season. One of the smaller plans was, to bind a book
with the blackboard covers that Phinner send me some time ago. (Thanks
sweetie!) I stood in doubt about the shape though… the blackboard covers
were square (6 x 6 inch) and I somehow have difficulties working on a square
surface lately. I thought about cutting it to a rectangular shape but then
again: it would be a shame to make it smaller…

…last weekend I found the solution to this ‘pr0blem’.

It shot through my mind that there’s one thing that really NEEDS a square
page to work on: grids! I’ve seen a lot of grids popping up on blogs in the
last weeks (Julie, Annemarie) and while thinking about it, I got more and
more excited. A little book filled with grids would be lovely to work in ‘on
the sideline’. No ‘heavy’ journaling, no deep feelings or raw themes…
just plain, simple grids to fill in, to keep my hands busy on a rainy day!

I started binding the small book right away!
Here’s the cover.

(Note: You can click on any image in this post to enlarge)

("Grids-journal": 15 x 15 cm - 6 x 6 inch)

I used long pieces of ribbon for the binding, so that I could use the extended
parts to turn into a grid on the front cover. The lemon-green chipboard alpha’s
have been in my stash forever… they really shine against the blackboard!

I already knew what I wanted to do on the first page: letters!
I’m a letter-junk. Drawing letters, writing, reading… I can get exited just
from seeing a nice font. I brushed watercolour paint on the page to give it
some colour, sketched my first grid and draw an alphabet.

I didn’t use an existing font, I didn’t think to hard about it…
I just sat at the table and sketched a letter in each square with a soft pencil.
After the sketching, I traced the shapes with my dip pen and Indian ink.
It felt a bit like zentangling: meditative!

So here it is: my self made alphabet!

Grid: Alphabet

Later I thought that these letters should be fun to carve stamps from too.
I might even do that sometime!

I couldn’t get enough of playing with my grids so after I finished the alphabet,
I drew another grid. This time, I choose to fill it with faces. I had a fun time
flipping through my old magazines, cutting out small faces and ‘puzzling’ them
into a nice mosaic.

Grid: Faces

More ideas swirl through my brain now.
I hope I bound enough pages into this book to make all those grids that I
can think of. (Oh what the heck! If there aren’t enough pages in this book,
I can always make a second ‘grid-journal’.)

By the way: I think filling grids this way will also be a fun thing to do for
the ones who lost their mojo. It’s a structured technique, it doesn’t require
much thinking, you keep your hands busy and still you play with colours
and shapes… try it!

You all know this: each weekend I finish my ‘weekly page’.
This weekend was no different, here it is

The Chronicles of Marit 2011 – Week 35

(30 x 21 cm - 11.8 x 8.3 inch)

I somehow got tired of making collages like this one for a while.
It’s been Months I think. But last week, a collage-lady appeared on this page.
Oh, OK. She can stay.
The sewed squares (what IS it with squares and me today?!) are made by Rosie.
Thanks dear, they look wonderful on this page!!!

Last but not least: I have been chosen to be in the Altered Page’s
“Style File” this week.

Some of you might know/visit Seth and his blog The Altered Page already
(if not: pay his blog a visit, it’s worthwhile!) Style File is the 5th edition of
The Pulse — The State of the Art — a survey in words and pictures of the
online artist community.

“The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new
artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you
access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of
individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions
which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series
of online posts which will run every Sunday.”

When I look outside, more grey clouds seem to appear.
I think I will turn on the lights in the living room and spend the rest
of the day at the big dining table, creating.

Have a wonderful week dear ones, stay warm!

Weird things happened this week. Strange vibes were in the air.
I didn’t really feel it, but when I visited a few blogs after finishing
some (art)work I tumbled from one surprise into another!

Nothing strange happened with this page (but you never know,
I became cautious!) I made this last weekend…

(21 x 29,7 cm - 8.3 x 11.7 inch)

‘Wees een onafhankelijke denker. Wees de schaker, niet het schaakstuk’
~ Ralph Charell ~

‘Be an independent thinker. Be the chess player, not the chess piece’
~ Ralph Charell ~

It has been ages since I used my embossing tools, but I did on this page.
I had fun with Tim Holtz distress embossing powder!
A close up:

The above page was made in my Miscellaneous art journal.
I had not worked in this journal for a while, and when I flipped through the
pages I came across this page I made a few Months earlier.

(21 x 29,7 cm - 8.3 x 11.7 inch)

I made this as an example for one of the prompts in Summercamp.
The booktitles form a poem…

‘My mother and I
Two women
thinking about love and power’

An idea was born: why not combine titles to form a haiku
for Haiku my Heart? Aaah, that was way too difficult!

I changed my self-imposed challenge into
‘form a haiku from words on a bookpage’…

… and I did manage to do that!

(13 x 21 cm - 5.1 x 8.3 inch)

..

(I couldn’t get the syllables right in the Dutch translation without loosing
the meaning, so the Dutch one is not a haiku.)

(*** This page is made on the wings of a ‘stange vibe’ … see later on)

I made this page at the beginning of the week.
After that, I started working on something I’d planned to do the minute
I bought carving tools: make my own alphabet stamps!

I drew the alphabet, copied it onto erasers and started curving.
It took me two evenings to complete the whole alphabet.
On the paper, you can see I drew the ‘holes’ in the letters (the O for example)
I ruined two pieces of eraser trying to get that little peace out, so I decided
to leave it alone. I kinda like the effect of the ‘closed alphabet’ though!

(*** Strange vibes were still hanging in the air)

*** Here’s what happened when I visited some blogs.

Rosie had been working on a page with a technique called ‘found poetry’…
She shows a lovely page with cut out words and sentences that form a poem.
I must have picked up her ‘vibes’.

Julie Fei-Fan showed her hand carved alphabet she cut out a long time ago.
She even left the ‘holes in the letters’ closed, she must have had the same
problem with that as I faced! Julie’s vibes were in the air too I guess…

Can you imagine I hardly dare to start a new page?!
Who’s vibes will accompany me this time?

There might even someone stand up right now and say:
‘Hey, I made a page about chess last week! You copy-cat!’

I better clean the house.
Do the laundry.
Work in the garden.

🙁

Any cleaning vibes in the air, maybe?

Hope to see you next week.