It's Day 33

I did quite a bit more pen work on yesterday's pages, but not enough to show, so you'll have to wait for an update on those.  Besides, with the heat, the dust, and the humidity, I felt restless all day, so I decided to do something else.

I have a stack of journals in process, each with it's own unique attitude, use, flair, understatement, drama, etc., so I browsed my stack and came up with an ex-library, a discard full of really richly mulit-layered backgrounds and coded journal entries that I started last summer.  I love this book.  It's 5-1/4" X 8-1/2" and only 1/2" thick.  A nice size to fit in a bag, but the backgrounds in this book make it really difficult to work in out of studio.  It is a nice size to take along for pen work.  

I removed half of the text block by alternating the signatures I pulled from it, so there's plenty of room for expansion.  Best of all, the cover is a lovely shade of  deep plum.  As soon as I have the boards cleaned and have covered the spine with a new strip of painted canvas, I'll photograph it.  It's very strong and can certainly take a beating, but still, unless my project is the book itself, I like to save the covers for last.  That way I don't worry about how aggressive I get with the pages.  Here's today's spread:

Rather than explain the coding -- there are several layers of it, too, I'll list some of what's on the pages.  I'll probably forget something, so if you spot something I've forgotten, please let me know in  a comment.  Here goes:

Black and white Xerox of hand and Mandala; parchment paper cut into interesting shapes; left over patterned paper after shapes were cut from it long ago; color copies of artwork I've done previously; layers and layers of acrylic paint; masking tape and gesso to fortify the substrate; flower Mandala shapes, hearts, dots, and lettering penned with India ink; old, dried up red letter rub-ons; brown ultra-fine tip Micron Pen; red Marvy Marker; tissue paper; glass rim stamped with black Staz-On; olive green washi tape; transparencies; ...and I think that's all...but I'm probably forgetting something...

And by the way, this is day 33 of my daily blogging habit...

Comments

[Rosie]

Wow! I love this spread... I still can't get my head round working in so many layers. That must be my impatience and inexperience!
I like best the reds and greens - for me - rose colours - deep green stems and leaves and lush red blooms. They speak to me of passion, which is fitting because you have written "Journals save lives" and I couldn't agree more. xoxoxo

[Monica Smith]

I would love to really see this journal as it is hard to appreciated layering on-line. Here i am assuming that coding means layering. it is a wonderful spread and inspires me to work on some books mad recently.

[joanne thieme huffman]

Love the drama of the black and white hand on the beautifully colored spread.

[maggie]

Your page is awesome as usual. Kudos to you for continuing the count down of posting your work.
hugs,
Maggie

[Rita Ackerman]

I fall down in the layer department so I look foward to seeing your work. This is such a rich page. I want to do that.

[Barbara Hagerty]

Actually Monica, I really mean coding, as in codes, or a secret language. The squiggles and dots at the top are encoded letters and short words, and there are three or four other places in these pages where I've written in code, or used symbols as code.

[renee]

it definitely works - I think I see a corner transparency from Kelly Kilmer's class! Love that journal love!