Blue thread, a needle and a piece of carpet

Well the Memoir is finished, bound and ready to send to the USA. The end happened quickly and exactly in time for me to return to commission work. During the past month I had bought some hand letter stamps which I really enjoyed using on the cover.

I hope to use them in art work that goes on beyond the memoir. I visited an exhibition on art and caligraphy at The Beaney in Canterbury last week and hope to look at the idea of when is writing drawing. I had had to guess how many pages for the book as I had dismembered the original notebook from The Sketchbook project. There is a place on the website where people talk about how to use the books and I found one person very helpful when sewing the binding. I chose blue cotton embroidery thread that I am  using in a textile piece linked with the memoir and punched holes with a sharp point using carpet underneath to receive the impact. It was very satisfying.

Today (April 26th) I copied the book and then had 5 copies made and bound. These will go to family and I will be able to send away the original. I set out to write about my childhood travelling in time to meet The Memoir Project deadline but this is only the beginning. The textile piece is moving on in vibrant Indian colours. I hope to use the written words as a starter for more art based work and am looking forward to the journey continuing- writing as drawing and drawing as writing.

Pens and paper - having to choose the right one!

Well I have started to write up the Memoir. Not as easy as I thought as I found, after I had dismembered the note book from America , that fountain pen bled through the paper. I have moved to Uni Ball (other brands of pen available!) and have now found that this bleeds through other lined paper I am using...... so hello BIRO!!
My hand and shoulder are still a problem so I can only do a little at a time. After trying different things I have decided to add photos directly into the text as it is hard to work out two page spreads as I don't know how many pages the book will end  up with. Today I did a small amount of writing and started work on the cover which I will reveal next blog. My husband is proof reading and I am pleased that I am not making too many errors. He is enjoying using a red pen!
The fabric I started dyeing is finished and looks like a spice market. I am beginning to sew bits together and overlay colours and have decided to hand sew. This is a project to do alongside the Memoir and it might involve some block printing too. My commission work is beginning to reappear so I am using the last of the waiting time between projects to write the Memoir.