Concertina Album: With Love, Bluebear

I was hoping I could get through this pregnancy without falling sick, and there I was, almost the home stretch with 7 weeks to go, I got sick! A cold, but it was still annoying enough that made me short tempered and cranky like hell. The worst is over, I hope, I'm just dealing with a stuffy nose, phlegmy, occasional cough and unexpected sneezes when it gets too cold.

Despite being sick, I managed to start and finish making this album. Made me feel better too.

This was a commission from a friend in Australia, who used to catsit her next door neighbour late cat who passed away at 17 years of age and very much missed by his human parents. As a parting gift for her neighbours as she's moving away, she asked me to make an album in memory of the cat, who was named Bluebear.

I chose a stripy material to remember the joy Bluebear brought to them, and used red as the joint for the spine and the ribbon closure for the album, and holding the photos down are red skinny ribbons at the corners.

I used the same material throughout the whole album and a handmade red woody paper for the end sheet. I like this shot, you got the zig zag of the concertina and the vertical stripes of the pattern of the material.

I used red for the spine joints and it echoes beautifully here with the pattern of the material, and then you get the diagonals of the skinny red in the corners. The album was about 9 by 7 by 1 and a quarter inches, and the photos were 5 by 7 inches.

This was the bit that almost made me cry, I'm a cat person so I could relate... and also this pregnancy is making me very sentimental, things just trigger me off...

When the photos were passed to me included was this button, a blue bear, I sewed on the lower part of the spine with binding thread so it will stay on nice and tight as the spine was slightly curved. On a whim I decided to put a red heart on top of it, thinking love... and that was when it hit me, this album was like Bluebear's last 'letter' to his human parents, a memory of him for them, his love for them and their love for him. I was floored, and added on two hearts to represent his human mom and dad.

When my Aussie friend came to pick it up, she was really happy. Now I wait to hear what Bluebear's parents have to say when she gift it to them...

More pictures of album and content can be viewed here.

Would You Like To See Where I Create?

Right, am biting the bullet, I look at all the other artsy craftsy blogs out there and when they feature their studios it looks like a dream. I'm like, no way I can compete with these lot! Lovely curtains, soft furnishings, beautiful arrangements here and there... But hey, each studio got their own personality right? Mine is still in the process of being shaped, right now it just needs to function.

These pictures, was the studio's current state few weeks back, now it looked like a hurricane went through it, need more shelves so I can organise the stuff more effectively. One day I'll have purpose built storage for all around the room... one day...

These are my two work table, the higher is actually a kitchen island that used to be in my mother-in-law's kitchen, she had hers replaced and so we took this one, I like the height as it allows me to work standing up, which I tend to for easier movement. The lower table was some generic six seater dining table which came with the house. That's Shazam! being her cat like self...

So we know this space used to be a verandah, check out the late 80s floor tiles, and glass sliding doors leading to it from the family room. So if I don't want the cats to make a nuisance while I'm trying to work (for some reason as soon as I'm busy with a project on the tables they decided to keep me company by being ON the table and knocking things and messing about) I'll just close the doors and you can see them waiting to be let in and still allows me to see what everybody is up to on the other side.

The shelves are all packed, the ones on the right are all my reference books and continually growing. On the left are the 'stuff'...

Ta da! The easel in the painting corner like I said it was going to be! Painting on the easel was done by my niece, it was one of her I'm-bored-give-me-something-to-do project. The painting behind the easel on the floor is mine, which I have yet to finish... I hung up my butterflies using magnets all along the metal pipe behind it that's holding up the roof. It looked real pretty against the nature background.

This is the whole 'bit' on the right side of the door when you enter, the 'stuff'. The table far left holds all the canvases waiting to be used. Next to it in the purple bins are my rolls of decorative papers. In front of it in the brown fisherman's basket contains my remnants of materials. The three tiered baskets are all my pretty patterned ribbons. The shelving racks are the rest of the tools, items, equipments, bits, supplies and more... Still have yet to make a dent in anything. Maybe I should just pack a box of random crafty stuff and do a give away eh, that might help with the overload, what do you think?

There you have it, an overall tour of the studio just to give you guys out there an idea of the space I work in. Hopefully it'll look different in a couple of months time, but with baby on the way, who knows...

Meet Chi

We have two cats in the house, this is one of them. Sweet as honey and keeps me company in the studio. He'll be 5 years old this year in July, and right now having the time of his life.

"Wachu lookin' at?"

"Sigh... nothin' on tv... again"

Yes, he really sits like that. I forgot to mention he's also a very talkative cat and he loves being cuddled. Pictures are too cute not to share!

My Current Studio...

Everything in this room, I am currently in the process of moving out into my new studio space. I took pictures, I just haven't offload it from the camera. When that happens then you all could see the wonderful space I'll be moving into. In the mean time, just a couple of pictures to give you a feel of how much stuff will be moving...

This is the day bed area I have, it's tucked in a corner of the room with enclosed by my book rack and work bench. Everybody who goes into the studio ends up crashing on the day bed. I have people who come over and end up taking naps and even sleeps over, in the studio. I'm working away and they're curled up all cosy fast asleep.

The work bench on the left holds stacks of handmade papers and various other crafty stuff like my seeminglessly endless supply of miniture roses and flowers and ribbons.

The surface is where I do all my work, and my bench grinder. The background was a wallpaper that my parents had installed before I took over the room and turned it into the studio. They're probably be happy when I finally clear out so they can see it again. Before that the whole wall was covered up with postcards and magazine ads and various other stuff, one day I got tired of it and took down. I didn't realise people liked it so much until when I get visitors and they go, "What happened to the wall?! Where did it go?!"

The rack on the right contains all my art reference books. Origami, design, paper, graphic novels, pop ups, and above are a bunch things I collected throughout the years.

Oh, and the tiered basket wire rack contained chocolates on the top, rolls of ribbons in the middle, and masks at the bottom. I always have to fix back the ribbon ties on the masks after the kids been through them.

This is on the other side of the room. More racks. As you can see there is not enough racks to house all my boxes and other items that lived in the studio. Those green baskets top left, more flowers, white basket next to it, more rolls of paper, picture of me when I was 8. Painting I did when I was feeling happy. Behind it boxes of greeting cards to be repurposed. And my three helmets, which one I sold to a colleague at work.

The rest of the shelves, boxes with labels to tell me what's in them. The middle rack top shelf holds all my sketchbooks since 1990 til present. Envelopes, more bits and pieces in containers, magazines... Half of what's in the picture have been moved out already, most are still on the floor.

In the foreground, left hand side of the picture is my guillotine. You can just carry it with another person helping you. If you're wondering how I was able to get all my books all sliced up neat, it was thanks to this gizmo. It's a manual thing and it even has a safety that the blade is locked unless the safety cover is in place. I can cut up to an inch and a half stack of paper.

This is the purple flying elephant painting that was sitting on the shelf, when I did the painting it was art night and all of us were cracking jokes and laughing so hard stomachs were aching. Then I donated the painting to charity and it managed to raised quite a lot of money to feed at least ten children in India for a year. Right now it's hanging up on someone's wall which I hope will make them smile everytime they see it.

This swing is right outside my studio door. It's older than me and the planks of wood has been been changed and painted over and you can see just how old it is but it still works. So one day getting tired of seeing the blank worn out wood I spent an afternoon with my acrylics and did a quick and bright painting of my fat cats. If you see it in real life it got glitter all over it too. The swing is a two seater and there's my cat Chi plonked right in the middle, this was the best picture out of the whole lot with him in it. I wasn't sure what to paint on the seated part and I started painting in pink hearts, but I never finished it because it didn't look right...