Unmasked Sketchbook

Finally the entire Unmasked Sketchbook is finished and I used it for my Show and Tell at the last meeting of Thistle Quilters. It's time to send it on it's way to the Brooklyn Art Library and eventually on tour in 2014. It was made for the Sketchbook Project  Capes, Masks and Tights tour and will be going to Brooklyn, Boulder, Santa Fe and Wichita during the 2014 tour. You have seen all the pages already here on this blog (check them out by clicking on the Sketchbook Project tab in the sidebar or beneath this post) with detailed descriptions. Below is a rerun of all those pages in the order they appear in the sketchbook. 

Eventually this sketchbook will be digitized by the Sketchbook Project and it will then appear with my previous sketchbooks and other projects on their website here.

I have already received my next sketchbook and have started work on it already despite the fact that it doesn't have to be mailed back until next January. I suddenly had a wonderful idea about what to do with that one and just had to begin!

Ask Unmask page

And so, almost unnoticed, the end of my most recent sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project has been reached. Called Ask Unmask I have added the very last fabric mask to a page that was collaged with bits of paper from a variety of sources, mainly mail order catalogues but also wrappers for Amaretto biscuits. I also added stamps and washi tape, and then coloured the page with water colours. It's amazing how life like masks become if you put real eyes behind the openings. This has been a sketchbook that was a joy to work in once I got over the fact that I had signed up for the Capes, Masks and Tights tour and that the sketchbook was expected to contain: "extraordinary stories in comic or graphic novel format". I took heart from the fact that the accompanying information also stated: " The theme you chose is a great starting point, but it's not meant to be a restriction. Don't feel limited by it, just loosen up and have fun".  So I did! And I'm sorry it has ended. But not to worry. I already have my next sketchbook (for 2014) at the ready and this time did spend more care and attention to selecting my theme which will be Borders and Lines. Now doesn't that just sound made for a quilter! If you are interested in signing up for a sketchbook of your own, you can do so here.

And my previous sketchbook which was made using an old cotton nightie that I had dyed, for all the pages is currently on the Sketchbook Project Summer Tour, going to all kinds of exciting places some of which I have also visited (such as Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Montreal) but most of which I'll probably never get to, and I can only guess what borrowers will think of my upcycled Victorian night gown! You can see digital versions of all my previous sketchbooks here.

I'll share the outside of this sketchbook with you in the very near future together with a re-hash of all the pages and then it will be winging it's way to the Brooklyn Art Library in NY.

Golden Mask Spread

I'm nearing the end of my Unmasked Sketchbook. Only one more page to finish before I can send the sketchbook back to The Sketchbook Project. It will then become part of the Capes, Masks, and Tights tour in 2014 and travel to Brooklyn, Boulder, Santa Fe and Wickita.

If you're a regular reader you will have realized by now that I'm ignoring the capes and tights and concentrating all my efforts on masks. In this case it's a golden fabric mask that has been added to a collaged background, created by glueing pieces of paper from mail order catalogues and the like to the page using matte medium and colouring the resulting spread using watercolour paints.

I then added stamping, doodling and washi tape for additional interest. As the pages in the sketchbook were not sturdy enough to cope with all these layers I sewed them together to make a thicker surface. This also meant I made less spreads than the original sketchbook had to offer, but I think it makes for a better and more longer lasting sketchbook as a result.

Despite my initial panic when I discovered that I had signed up for this particular themed tour by mistake (and once made you can't change it!) the challenge seems to have spurred me on to make what I think is my best sketchbook to date. If you want to see the other ones, they have all been digitized by the Sketchbook Project and you can find them online here.

Masquerade spread

My sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project on the theme of Capes, Masks and Tights is rapidly filling up with spreads. If you're new to this blog ( and if you are, a HUGE welcome!), I'm concentrating on Masks only, forgetting about capes and tights. I'm making my spreads for this sketchbook by collaging small pieces of paper from mainly mail order catalogues onto the pages composing them as I go along, using matte medium. I then add colour on top using watercolour paint. The next step is stamping and doodling, as well as adding text.

You can see the process above and perhaps you recognize one of my favourite collage materials; the wrappings for Amaretto biscuits. I don't personally eat them (never been keen!) so John gets that pleasure but I love the wrappings with their Italian text and also the metal tins they come in, which get used for storage in the studio.

The final touch for these spreads is the addition of the fabric mask, also using matte medium, both to glue it on and to cover it. All these layers are more than the thin pages of the sketchbook that the Sketchbook Project send you to use, can cope with, so I'm sewing two pages together to make them more sturdy. I could have used glue instead but as my sewing machine is always ready to use and I don't like stickiness I usually opt for sewing. You can see the black sewing lines in the top picture.

Once the sketchbook is done I will mail it to the Brooklyn Art Library and from there it will go on tour to various venues in the US next year and eventually it will become part of the library's sketchbook collection. It will also be digitized and have an online presence for all time to come. If you want to see my previous sketchbooks for the Sketchbook Project you can find them on their website here.

Up Close Spread

The next spread in my Unmasked sketchbook for the Capes, Masks and Capes Sketchbook Project has been completed and here it is. As the fabric mask I wanted to use looked a bit menacing to me I added a similar looking face on the other side to balance the arrangement. It's made in the usual way by collaging small pieces of paper using matte medium, adding such items as the wrappings of Amaretti biscuits. John is the one who eats them. I just buy them for the lovely tins they come in and the wrappings that add a touch of the exotic to any collage. There is quite a bit of stamping on this spread too, using flower and face stamps. Washi tape is also included.

You can the different elements quite well on the above detail. Only 3 more spreads to go to complete my sketchbook now, so well on the way as the sketchbook doesn't need to be shipped to the Brooklyn Art Library till August. In due course they will digitize it and it will appear with my other sketchbooks I did for the Sketchbook Project here.

Hiding spread

Sadly the sun has once again retreated behind dark clouds, the wind is up and it's raining, but the memory of yesterday's beautiful day still lingers. In the studio the next spread in my Capes, Masks and Tights sketchbook has been made, concentrating only on the Masks bit in the title. The spread has been made much like all the previous ones (if you want to see these, press on the unmasked label below this post or in the sidebar). Scraps of paper (mainly from mailorder catalogues but also including the wrappings of Amaretti biscuits) were collaged onto the page and painted over using watercolour paint. Stamping, doodling and outlining were added as shown.

You can see more of the details on these pages. The words are more used as graphic elements than as meaningful phrases.

The last thing I added was the fabric mask which was collage down using matte medium. The stitch lines you see are holding two pages together. I had to double the pages up as the pages in the Sketchbook send to me by the Sketchbook Project were too thin to cope with all that paint and glue. It also meanst I had less spreads to make which enhanced the quality of the individual spreads, I think.

Black Mask spread

My latest spread for my Unmasked sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project uses a lot of orange which is rather appropriate for today when a new king will be crowned in The Netherlands. He is the latest member of the House of Orange to reign over the country where I was born. Amazingly I left back when Queen Juliana was still on the throne, which makes me feel ancient. He is also the first man to rule the place after 3 queens and one queen/regent.

The sketchbook is one of a line of them done for the Sketchbook Project (you can see the previous ones here), and is dedicated to Masks although made for the Capes, Masks and Tights theme. It's made by collaging the pages with snippets of paper from a variety of sources and using matte medium to hold it all down before adding watercolour paints, washi tape, and stamping, until I was happy with how the pages looked.

 Here is my favourite bit from this spread. I just like how that dreamlike face comes up from the depths.

The final touch is the addition of the black fabric mask, also adhered with matte medium. Because of the layers of paper and paint the pages of the sketchbook weren't really sturdy enough to cope so I sewed some of them together to provide a more solid background and it also meant I didn't have to worry about the paints leaking through to the back. You can see the sewing line clearly above. I could just as easily have glued them together but I prefer to use my sewing machine. That way I know they won't come apart!

I have the feeling that I'm going to find it rather more difficult than in previous years to part with this sketchbook but it will be in the collection of the Brooklyn Art Library for all time to come as well as being present online in digitized form.

Hiding Behind A Mask spread

My Unmasked Sketchbook is talking shape nicely and this is another spread I made for it. You will see the link for this project in the sidebar too. It's part of the Capes, Masks and Tights 2014 tour of the Sketchbook Project which will take in Brooklyn, Boulder, Santa Fe and Wichita. I'm ignoring the Capes and Tights, and concentrating all my efforts of the Masks. If you want to see my previous spreads in this sketchbook as well as previous ones I made for the Sketchbook Project you can click on the Sketchbook Project tag below this post or in the sidebar. Eventually this sketchbook like the previous ones will also be digitized and you can find that on the Sketchbook site here.

 All my spreads are made by collaging small scraps of paper onto the pages, mainly coming from mail order catalogues, using matte medium, then adding colour using watercolour paint with the additions of Faber Castell Gelatos (love them!) as well as stamping and doodling.  The mask is fabric and has also been adhered with matt medium. All this collaging makes the pages of the sketchbook much thicker and I have therefore only used half the pages in the sketchbook and sewed those pages together with the remaining empty pages to give them more sturdiness as well as reducing the thickness of the sketchbook which is not to be more than 1" thick.You can see that stitching along 3 sides of the pages in the top picture.

I love all the additional texture of the collaging and the "happy accidents" that occur when glueing in the initial paper scraps, as happened for instance in the presence of that little face you can see bottom left in the above picture. No idea it had landed there till the page was done!

Further good news came my way as my 52 Journals made last year (one journal quilt for every week of 2012) will be exhibited at the Loch Lomond Quilt Show on from 15th - 18th May coming up. I'll try and be there myself too for some if not most of the time so if you're going, come and say hello. I'm in the Riverside Parish Church together with Ineke Berlijn and Gillian Cooper. It should be fun! More nearer the time.

Pink Mask

Time to show you the second spread in my Unmasked sketchbook made for the Sketchbook 2014 project on the subject of Capes, Masks and Tights (spot the button for it in the sidebar). There is still time to sign up yourself and you can do that on the Sketchbook Project site. As I told you previously I have ignored capes and tights and am concentrating my efforts on masks. You can find the first page here or alternatively if you click on the label Sketchbook Project below this post or in the sidebar you get a list of all my Sketchbook Project related posts on this blog.

The sketchbook will eventually travel to Brooklyn, Boulder, Santa Fe and Wichita in the US and I wish I could accompany it specially to Santa Fe!

I used mainly collage for all my spreads in the sketchbook and with mixed medium as an adhesive applied torn pieces of paper from a variety of mainly mailorder catalogues to each spread, followed by a layer of watercolour paint, stamping and doodling by hand. I added a fabric mask the same way and as this made all the layers quite thick, sewed pages of the sketchbook together to provide a more solid base. This also meant I had to make fewer spreads than in previous sketchbooks and I think this in turn improved the quality of the pages that I did produce.

If you want to have a look at my previous sketchbooks for the Sketchbook Project you can find them completely digitized here.