Fabric Journal Pages

Recently I was fortunate enough to take a day long class with the fabulous fabric artist Lesley Riley!!! It was a dream come true for me!! I was so very excited and I was certainly not disappointed!! The goal of the class was to gather knowledge from Lesley regarding her methods for creating fabric books. She uses children's board books, the thick paged, 10-12 pages total, kind. She uses the book as a canvas for fabric collage. Her work is wonderful, full of texture and color and unexpected treasures. I am still in the process of finishing up the book that I started in the class. I will post it here as soon as I finish it!

She also creates collages that she calls Fragments. These are sewn fabric and photograph collages that she sells individually.

I was so very inspired by the way that she combines such a variety of elements and creates a wonderfully unified piece.

A very dear friend of mine has just been diagnosed with breast cancer. She lives in Oklahoma and I will not be able to be with her to help her with her treatments or to give her a hug or to make sure that she is eating enough. I will be able to be with her through my art work. She has provided me with such artistic direction in the past, and such support and friendship in the past and present. I am not sure that I will ever be able to convey what a treasured friend she is!! She is also a huge fan of Lesley Riley and in fact, I found out about her cancer the evening before my class. Needless to say, I was thinking of her the entire day. I decided at the class that I would create a fabric collage book or journal for her and send it to her one piece at a time.

So I have begun creating fabric journal pages just for her. I am trying to make a similar one for myself at the same time. Somehow I always end up gifting all of my artwork!!!

This is the first page that I created for Mo. The phrase says" Love and Buttons Keep Us Together". I sent this to her on the day of her first chemo treatment.

This is a page that I created for myself. The colorful collaged piece that is the background is one of the paint scrapped pieces that I posted a long time ago.

Although a bit washed out, it is easier to see more of the details in this shot. The quote is from Indira Gandhi and says, "We must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to be vibrantly alive in repose."

This is the second page that I have created for Mo. The phrase is a Chinese Proverb that says: It is not possible to stop the birds of sadness from flying over your head but you can prevent them from building a nest in your hair!

Again, this shot is washed out but the details can be more easily seen. The bird stamp is one that I carved myself and the fabric that she is stamped on is fabric that I painted myself using Lumiere paints. ( The white is just a dish towel used for photographing)

I am discovering all sorts of new possibilities as I explore combining all of the different elements in these pieces. my next project will be to create a special box for Mo to store her Journal pages in.