waiting for the muse

Believe it or not, I can actually draw. (Jean-Michel Basquiat 1960-1988)

OK, so you all know I'm doing another wee handmade book about my obsessive ironstone collection, right? I have photographed all 200+ pieces, photoshopped half of them so far, and printed them out onto about twelve different kinds of paper seeking the best 'look'. I have ripped all the pages to soften it up- white on white gets monotonous- and then this morning I tried a silver pen over the deckle edge and liked it, but my Xylene quota was met early on and the pens dried up. So, to the craft store I headed to get more sparkly pens and a corner cutter. See that below- it's by Fiskars and does two different size corners. Pefect. Some of the other models got quite fancy and did embossing but I don't need that, never understood the need for embossing.
Much better. These are actually out-takes I was testing the cutter on but I really like it. Also, the new pens work well and now I will re-edge all 75 completed prints as well as all the pages before I stick them in the printer.

I worked on the end pieces and this marbelized paper was perfect with the colors I have already glued into the box. By accident I found the lady- well, I found the lady's dress- carrying a white coffee pot so in my back story she has a piece of ironstone. I think these will be trimmed a bit more and I will probably lose the edges- haven't figured out what to do about her feet. And aren't her legs FAT? When I stick the dress on her the dainty little feet of the coffee server don't quite cover them up. The other end piece has a child who has thrown her good clothes to the floor. Her outfit is holding a rabbit and today I won't go into how the rabbit is my familiar. Perfect. Too bad I covered it up for the picture.

I already showed you the little ironstone industrial parts that were sold to me as watercolor trays. I don't really think they were but now they are going to be the covers on the book. I had some old pasteboard letters so wrote out 'ironstone.' and then formed the letters into the indentations by wetting them and smooshing them down till they stuck. So, it will be done soon- all the components are together, I just need to sew it up.

If anybody knows of any book shows coming up, please give me a heads-up. I haven't yet entered that loop and don't know my way around. I'm a stranger in that village, unlike the quilt city where I was, for a time, an elected official!

Oh, cut it out.