The Documented Life Project 2015: Week 1

I have often drooled over pictures of Artists' Journals in books and on web pages, but have always 'known' that I wasn't creative or skilled enough to make one of my own. However when a Facebook friend put up a photo of the first page of hers, and mentioned The Documented Life Project, I asked about it and investigated - and then signed up. 

Of course, being summer here, it wasn't easy to start. The first challenge  was for the week starting 1 January, at which time I was spending three days paddling down the Whanganui River - not the best place to get out the paper, glue, scissors and paint.

And then we had visitors including another internet friend from America....

And the grandchildren.....

And swimming and summer and gardening and summer......

However, all the time, I was reading the challenges and planning them in my head and making notes about what I wanted to do and at last, on the 1st of February, I finally began. 

The January theme was the blank page and how to face it. I certainly needed help with that! But the project gives you that help.

The first week's Art Challenge was Book Paper. Panic! What the hell is 'book paper'? It's okay, they explain. Easy.

The first week's Journal Prompt was Be Your Own Goal Keeper. Obviously the very first thing to do was to actually have a goal. I thought about that a lot and came up with the idea of allowing adventure into my life - both of the planned and spontaneous kind. So 'adventure' became my theme / goal. Except it didn't sit quite as comfortably as it should. I knew I didn't mean huge adventures like climbing Mt Aoraki or even Mt Karioi, but small adventures both physical and of the mind. Yet still I wasn't comfortable, and procrastinated. 

Eventually it became February and I knew I just had to start.  I didn't like what I made. I didn't like my 'adventure' goal. I kept going. I added 'colour' as a goal. I didn't like that either. I nearly screwed up my paper to throw it away, but I remembered how many times I had read, just cover it up, paint over it, add, subtract, change, see what evolves.

The words had to go! But they were sprawled across the page. The water colour pencils had smudged instead of washed. What to do? I was totally out of my comfort zone - just how I had been totally out of my comfort zone when I went on that river trip, and when I had invited someone I liked but didn't know well to visit. Comfort zone. Hmmmm. Then I knew what my goal really is - it is not to move out of my comfort zone but rather, to EXPAND MY COMFORT ZONE. And part of expanding my comfort zone is to accept that everything I do it not going to be perfect; not going to be 'up to standard'. And it doesn't fucking matter!

So, here's my first page. Oh yeah, as usual, I haven't done as I was told. I didn't buy a large journal as instructed - I decided that I will do my stuff on loose pages and bind them at the end.

The colourful bit on the right is a lift up tag, under which are reminders of the different areas of my life in which I especially want to 'expand the comfort zone', and notes of ways in which I did this in January.

It's nothing like what I imagined, it's unsatisfactory in many ways - but it doesn't fucking matter! My new mantra - 'It doesn't fucking matter!' I think I need to go add that to my page in big, bold letters: IT DOESN'T FUCKING MATTER!

Solstice Catch Up

Looking back I discover that I haven't written about my garden for five months! I have been out there working our land though.

We had a reasonable summer garden, though we have resolved not to use peat pots any more. The courgettes, pumpkins and cucumbers did not do well, and this was the second year that we'd had problems. The only ones that did well were the cucumbers that sprung up self-seeded from the previous year. As I cleaned up the garden at the end of the season the penny dropped. The peat pots had not disintegrated the way they are supposed to, and thus the plants could not spread and develop their roots.

It was a bumper year for my peas and beans though, and also the capsicum. The tomatoes were sufficient for day to day use, but I wasn't able to store many, just a couple of bottles of sauce.

The big thing was that I cleared all the dead plants in good time, have spread a lot of mulch, and planted winter things for only the second year - though still not from seed, instead buying seedlings. Maybe next year. I had broad beans, onions, leeks, garlic, spring onions, lettuce, a variety of brassica (including pak choi, after Simon told me it was yummy - Simon - vegetables yummy? - have to try them then!)

Last week I went outside to plant some more garlic and a few remaining spring onions which have been bravely fighting to live since I planted out the rest of the punnet a couple of months ago. I went to get my garden bag with my gloves, tools etc. - oh no! I hadn't hung it up on its hook last time and everything was soaked. Including half a paper packet of broad beans and a packet and a half of peas - soaked and sprouting. So I had to spend a whole lot more time hoeing some garden space and planting seed carefully so as not to break off the wee shoots. The bag has been scrubbed and is almost dry again.

 The chook run has become more and more overgrown. The flax bush has grown so much I could hardly get in, and couldn't get the wheelbarrow to the right place to clean out the hen house. It had to go!

 The 60th birthday party bunting that I had transferred to the run to deter the harrier the year I 'grew' my own chicks, had become torn and bedraggled and needed to be untied from the trees and discarded.

 An early winter weekend was perfect- sunny but not too hot.

This summer we bought a moveable fence to extend the run. It could be an electric fence, but we don't bother - the chooks don't get out through it anyway. They do clean up the ground - especially good when the nashis were dropping on the ground and starting to rot. Anyway, the run has had it's winter clean up.

 My bees are a sad story: I put strips in one hive early, as it was showing signs of varroa, but I was late putting them in the other two, and they were too weakened to survive the massive wasp attack we had this year, along with much of the rest of the country. We killed five nests, but hardly made a dent in the numbers attacking the hives.So I lost two of the three hives. It is heartbreaking, especially when I know that it was partly my fault for letting them get weakened like that.

Inside, I have been undoing and re-knitting the jersey I gave up on last winter. I don't feel bad about that since I discovered that my sister Elizabeth, who is an awesome knitter, has also undone hers to reknit - it was obviously a not well written pattern that I got from her. I've been playing with paper and books, and just bought myself an overlocker, so will be having fun with fabrics when the wet weather keeps me inside.

Today is the shortest day and so far, despite a stressful time over the past six months, I have had no hint of depression. Life is good.

The Joys of Finger-painting

For the last couple of days I've been spending time playing with what we called finger paint when my kids were little. Now I'm a 'grown up' I've found a fancy name for it - paste paper - and an excuse to play with it. I use it in my book making.

 As well as the cornflour and water, I add glycerine, detergent and a little pva glue. And paint, of course.

This is just paint spread around, another sheet of paper placed on top, pressed down, then gently pulled apart.

First I did a rubbing of the gravel on our driveway, then spread paint over the paper and poked at it with a looped mop painting tool from Playways, in Hamilton East.

Another tool from Playways - a roller stamp with a house on it.

 The tool for this was a grouting tool from when we laid our floor tiles.

 I didn't have the red I wanted, but this is still quite yummy.

 Not a good photo - it's an orangey mix of leftover paint - the red and yellow mixed together scraped on black paper with the grouting tool, and is really lovely

 Pulled red paper. Gorgeous.

 This one was done on a textured brown paper and is nicer than it looks here - I just couldn't get it to photograph well.

But my favourites were with gold paint on black paper - and were just a way of using up the gold paint which I used with the red and yellow, but which isn't even visible there!

 Again, these were made with pre-school tools! small sponges attached to dowel handles, ranging in size from around a 10cent piece, to the top of a shot glass.

 (Sorry about the shadows.)

My favourite - and sadly I don't know how I got that veined effect so it's definitely a one off!

 Next week - having received my new book from the wonderful Book Depository, I'll start playing with new book forms and use some of these papers.

Book making

I've decided that I really am going to build up a decent quantity of stock and have a go at selling at the Raglan Market, though wet, cold, winter weather makes the prospect daunting. Apart from the physical misery, there's the problem of trying to keep paper goods dry!

Oh, what one can achieve when left alone for hours on end on Mothers Day:


This one is a lot greener than it looks in the photo.

Plus one from a couple of days ago:

Summer Fun

Three weeks ago I enjoyed a summer school book binding class in Huntly. I came away inspired and looking forward to getting back into my book making, and to experimenting with new ideas.

a sample of some of the things we made

But then everything got crazy with visitors and other busyness. We had so much fun, especially with our costume party.

the Mad Hatter and her March Hare pimp

I came a a crazy post-menopausal old woman - as myself in other words.

But now that's over, J has gone to Wellington for a week, and I have tidied my craft room, and have been practicing one of the bindings I learned at summer school.


The paper is a pulled paste paper that I made some time ago.

Playing

I always loved the 'mucky play' part of Playcentre, and still I find such things therapeutic. As an adult, doing mucky play without children seems, somehow, not quite the thing. However, 'coming up with excuses' is one of the few lessons I learned at school, and so I have found an acceptable reason for indulging myself!

Finger painting - how can anyone resist the sensual pleasure of sliding one's hands around in slippery, slimy finger-paint?


Take out a bit of aggression by ripping up paper into tiny bits. Then soak it, beat it, and do some recycling while treating yourself to some water play - making paper.


Use the results to make a journal.

Then there are all those National Geograhic maps that come with the magazines, and somehow I just haven't been able to throw them out, just putting them into a box each month. Well, now I have used one, plus a local map, to make a travel journal for a friend who is going on an overseas trip.

The front cover is a map of where she is going, and the back cover is a map of where she lives.

There is another map of her destination on the inside front cover.

The inside back cover is to remind her of where I live.

On the inside I have random bits of leftover papers used for other books - I have become addicted to doing this to the books I make,

just adding an offbeat note, and using some of the scraps I can't bear to discard.

Creating

My son asked me to make him a new journal, which I did, and that kick started me to make my next year's diary, and to make myself a new journal as well.

The cover is pulled paste paper (ie paper spread with coloured paste, another sheet placed on top, pressed down and then pulled apart). The binding is two needle coptic.

The inside cover is a leaf rubbing using crayon, then dye washed.


I got carried away and stuck lots of 'bits' (paper, feathers, leaves, ribbon etc) on random pages, turning it into a bricolage journal, which is appropriate given the random nature of the thoughts that will be written in the book!


A scrap of glad-wrapped dyed paper.


Another scap of dye-washed crayon rubbing with paper flowers attached.

So that's the new journal - but I need a diary for 2009 as well.....

My 2009 dairy - cloth covered to be sturdy - I fell in love with the pukeko. One cheeky puke was looking through our ranch slider last week!


I print my own pages to get it the way I find most useful and again have random bits of my favourite papers scattered throughout.

And for the second year in a row, I have put one of this years birthday cards from a special friend around my birthday month.

Now I'm off to bed, and will be up early to go to a poetry workshop in Tauranga - if the workshop works I may have to come home and make another book to write my poetry in!