Repurposing books.....

On a rather lovely day out in Melbourne with my sister visiting the particularly trendy Fitzroy Street, Brunswick street and Rose St Market we spotted some tired,and in some cases rather battered books (well just their hard covers) that had been given a new lease of life, that of a delightful notebook.
We couldn't hit the op shops fast enough to find some books that needed retiring from one purpose and given another, both settling on the childrens "Little Golden Books" with their dated illustrations and simple text. (The blue cover on the other book was also appealing so had to snap it up as well)
After removing the hardcover and cutting new pages the same size as the original ones from many different papers the whole lot was spiral bound very cheaply at a local printers. I did keep several of the original story pages within my notebook just to add to it's charm.
A button and tie was added as I always tuck loose bits of paper into any notebooks used and they inevitably fall out! Those old Ladybird books would be great so will be scouring my local charity shops next week!
This will probably be my last post from this side of the world as sadly we head back on Thurday, will miss the companionable creative time spent here with my wonderful sister.... roll on next year.

....and yet another bag!

Two weeks ago my youngest daughter and husband arrived here in Australia and of course had the whole "Show and Tell" of my time here prior to their arrival. Erin was really taken with my oversized bag, thinking it very "trendy" and "please can you make me one". So, the day after her arrival I showed her the delights of the local Spotlight store, that has kept me supplied throughout my visit, where she picked out some fabric. Voila, a few hours later the bag was hers.

.....from sketch to print

We made our third, and sadly final visit to the Art Dept last Friday. Debbie and I had decided that we'd like to have a go at making our own screens. Firstly the design had to be drawn onto paper so i sketched a "gum tree" in the garden whilst sitting in the hot sunshine, oh life's hard! Really wanted my print to be "sketchy rather than a solid linear one.


The sketch was then transferred at a local copy shop onto a transparency then hot footed back to the studio for the next stage. A blank screen was then coated with photo emulsion in a dark room then left to dry. When dry the transparency was placed on a lightbox, covered with the dried coated screen, exposed for 30 seconds to ultra violet light then taken off and rinsed in water. Hey presto my tree was there! The black areas printed on the transparency prevent the emulsion curing under the ultra violet light and so when the screen is rinsed those areas are washed away leaving them open to transfer colour through.





Very chuffed with the results, hope to be able to bring my screen back with me for further use!

Last of my purchased fabric....

Decided that I'd like to use a little of my screenprinted fabric along with the last of the purchased bits and make a "largish" bag, pictures show front and back view. Well, large it is, in fact it's huge. I made the pattern up, just cutting pieces of newspaper the sort of size I thought would work.... The pieces themselves looked a reasonable size but the "capacity" when made up isn't instantly visible from flat bits of newspaper!
It will certainly hold lots and lots of "stuff"