Karen Ruane

twelve pages, twenty four sides, twenty four embroidered compositions

It's finished. You have followed its progress on here. A hand embroidered, hand made artist book.

It will be hard to let this go. This is the third or fourth little book I have created with the intention of offering it for sale.

Up to now I haven't been able to part with any of them.

This one however is now listed in my shop.

(sold. thank you!!)

If you scroll to the end of the post there is a little video show and tell.

In other news, Alchemy is progressing well. The group are engaged, creative, innovative, supportive of each other and the work being produced is of another standard.....just wow.

My own work for that course is progressing slowly, slower than I would like so I am going to be giving that some attention over the next couple of days.

They are keeping me on my toes!!

video, a little page work

There's a video today.

A saying 'hi' video and putting a little page together in my latest little artist book.

I may take a few days away from here.

Stay safe folks. x

 

a woven page keeper

The little artist book in this post has a patchwork page keeper.

Inspired by some of the work being produced by the group in my Alchemy class I am creating a woven cloth page keeper for this one following on from the tiny bit of weaving I created for a page a few days ago. You can see that here.

(by the way...the weaving happening in Alchemy, created by one or two of the girls is of a far superior standard to my efforts)

this artist book.....

It's an old one today. The picture was taken five minutes ago, the video made over a year ago.

I realised yesterday after posting my little, happy coloured weaving that I need colour at the moment.

We all need colour, we all need happy.

(as the video was made over a year ago some of what I say will be out of context)

 

just a scrap of weaving

There is weaving happening in Alchemy (the girls not me), amazing weaving, innovative weaving....this little piece falls far short of that.

However.....it fits on this page and it makes me happy.

putting pages together

Up to now you have only seen the beginnings of this little artist book. I have been posting images of loose pages and the embellishment on those but yesterday I thought it was time I put the book together. Putting this together allows me to see more clearly what's still to do, how much more playing and titivating is needed before this one is finished.

The outer cover I have embroidered for this is now attached (I showed that in this post)....that's progress but as you can probably see from the images there are still quite a few empty pages left to fill.

how you all doing?

How you all doing? I won't apologise for bringing it up, Covid 19.

Way back in March when all this started I thought we'd be over it now, that it would be a distant memory.

Instead we are in deeper and deeper lockdown, cases rising despite the erosion of our freedoms and I have no idea how we get out of this, what that process will look like or how long it will take.

If you feel anything like I do mentally then you have my utmost sympathy and understanding because I feel pretty crap about the whole thing.

I want to help but I don't know how.

I posted my free class earlier in the year. That has been taken down now out of respect for those who paid for it when it was live.

I don't have another one to post.

I am considering creating new video for here on a regualr basis but that will take a little planning.

Meanwhile I have been trawling past video and will post those as and when it's appropriate.

Remember these were created some time ago so some of what I say might be out of sync time wise.

Hang in there, I am with you. I feel exactly like you do. I'm done. Enough already.

 

A little page in a sketchbook

 

 

lace cloth, lace paper, a cover for an artist book.

Embroidering onto paper surfaces is so very satisfying. Couple that with lace cloth and it's a dream.

These pieces have been joined, combined, composed to create a cover for the little artist book I have been working on recently if sporadically.

There is still a bit of titivating to do here and of course I need more embellished and adorned pages before this one is finished but it's a joy to work on these little pages, these little books.

playing, doodling with my needle...

Following on from my post yesterday, more playing with little artist books. This is another four inch one in the making.

Creating these little pages, choosing embellishments to add, making little ribbons is I guess my version of doodling. It's relaxing, my mind can wander, it's immediately satisfying when you atttach a hand made toggle or a ribbon or a little piece of patchwork.

I would recommend this process being prescribed by your doctor.

I was in school this morning. Alchemy 2020 went live at 9am. The girls have their homework and I can breathe for a couple of days.

Can you hear me sighing from there?

And I could make these little dangly braids all day long....

 

a little artist book play

Yesterday was spent with artist books, refreshing my memory, making plans for new books, adding to already worked pages.

Later today I am going to think about the idea I had in this post for adding lace pieces to my 'doodle doo' sketchbook.

I am thinking my lace pieces are actually too big for doodle doo though. I will have a look and if they are too big I will make new plans for them but now that I have reminded myself how much I love my 'doodle doo' sketchbook I might be compelled to work in it a little more with new pieces.

Alchemy 2020, my new class is due to begin on Monday....yikes....you can read more about that here but if you are registered, to confirm, our first post will actually be tommorow.

I hope your needles are sharpened!