and now for something completely different...

Well I said I wanted to post something different at the weekend and here we are! This is all to do with my plan, remember my plan? Do you also remember a while back I said I wanted to turn my blog into a book? The plan and the book are connected. After lots of feedback and info from you good people I have realised that BLURB is a no go. It doesn't support Blogger and transferring my blog to another host would not be so easy if I want to keep my archives intact. So we have LULU, thanks Camilla, not a site for blog books as such but a pretty handy site all the same where you can upload your pics, (and text too if you want) into books of all shapes and sizes. Then I began to think about all the work I have under beds, on top of cupboards etc, I know it's there but I am never quite sure what is there, how much inspiration is hidden or how much rubbish needs to be thrown away.
So I have been rummaging, crawling under beds, scavangeing off the top of wardrobes etc etc. And this is what I was looking for...... I want to preserve my work, all my work, in book form starting with the very beginning, my design work from University. I have spent all day taking hundreds of photos and I am not exaggerating I mean hundreds. I got so confused changing my pictures to 72dpi for the blog then 300dpi for the book, back and forth back and forth, I thought my brain was going to explode. I lost goodness knows how many, copied tons of them by accident, my hard drive is going to object, stamp it's feet and go home soon I'm sure! Anyway this is a tiny selection of what I took today, depending on the feedback I get there are hundreds more where these came from. I will try and talk you through them,
the first two are from my very first week at university (2003), an exercise on examining the structure and weave of fabric in paint. Boy did this sketchbook page bring back memories.
then we did quite a bit of this, same module about four weeks later. I absolutely loved doing this. The tutor hung a make shift washing line in the studio and draped different types of cloth over it, table linen, shawls that kind of thing. First we had to draw it and then the best bit, paint it onto fabric embellishing with stitch if we wanted to.





The next two pictures are the same task approached in a totally different way, a more abstract freer piece of couching and machine embroidery.



And then a sketchbook page, collage and water colour. These images are photos of photos, my daughter has the original sketchbook but I think they have photographed quite well considerering. Again this is from 2003, a module called 'plant drawing'. In the second picture those round things are buttons.....yes I know it was plant drawing.......I call it artistic licence!!

Please let me know what you think of all this stuff, I have loads more I want to share if you want to see it. I think the book will probably take about four weeks to put together, for me to get online and download everything, check the layout, think of text etc, I am really excited about it.

Now for swaddling band one.....I promise I will show the finished piece in my next post. Here it is though after I had lined it with my silk section, ready to be put together properly, for seams and fastenings to be added.

Thinking about preserving my work had me thinking and panicking about flickr. Without paying for a pro account you have limited storage which I had gone way over. That meant all my pics were suspended unprotected and vulnerable in cyber space and it had me in a cold sweat! So I bit the bullet and signed up for a pro account, now I can play all day creating sets and collections, it's great. Pop over and have a look if you have the time. Take a look here aswell, lovely words about me! It makes me go all warm inside!

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