Last January, I started making an art journal, which was inspired by a Fodder School lesson (December’s, I think). I had no idea at the time, but this project ended up being JUST what I needed . . . when I needed it most. Although I always love dinking around with my art stuff, this project got me sneaking off at all hours (even a few times in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep) to just . . . play. It soothed me. It distracted me. It hit the parts of my brain that made me . . . forget . . . for a while.

             

I’ve mentioned this project here on the blog now and again. I’ve hinted at it, and I’ve shown a few photos. But I haven’t shared . . . the ALL of it. Mostly because I really can’t. It’s big. It’s 120 pages, and each page is unique. Hard to photograph. Hard to pull together in a blog post. So I’ll just tell you a little bit about it, and share a few of my favorite pages. There are a lot more photos in the Field Notes section of my blog, so you can check that out if you want to see how the project came together . . . and more – but not all – of the 120 pages.

             

There are 3 main “themes” that work to pull the whole journal together (besides the color palette). Circles. Cut out “peek-a-boo” holes. And snippets of song lyrics from old songs I love. In fact, the whole thing was inspired by the Billy Preston song Will It Go Round in Circles, a radio staple back in 1972 (seventh grade for me) when my sister and I shared a room . . . and a radio.

             

I love the papers I created for the pages.  Using all kinds of different “substrates” (sketch paper, packing paper, brown paper bags, notebook paper) I painted and stenciled and doodled to create big “master sheets” before cutting them down to make the book’s smaller pages. Once I cut the big sheets down, I organized them into 6 signatures of 5 folios each, and embellished the pages with collage and stencils and stamps and even more doodling. I also added some random stitching with my sewing machine. The pages are very textural and crinkly and really cool to just . . . handle.

I love the textures. I love the layers. I love that Tom added some chemical structures to my pages. I love the lyrics. (That said, I do love some of the pages more than others. But that’s an art journal for you . . . )

(And what the heck is a signature? a folio? You can learn more if you want to here.)

             

The binding . . . that was tricky. I haven’t done all that much binding before, and it’s usually a long time between binding projects for me, so I always need to re-learn and wrap my head around it again. (And figure out the knots . . . again.) But this one was super fun to try. I did have to talk out loud to myself a LOT while doing it. And I had to try some bits more than once. But, hey. It worked!

I loved making this journal so much, and I found it so satisfying . . . that I’ve started making another one! It’s just what I need right now!