Karen Ruane

sequins and a green ribbon wrap

A little hand made sketchbook with an embroidered cover. This one has sequins at the lower edge and a green silk ribbon which wraps around the pages from the top to close it. I'm making a few of these and then I'm going to list them in the shop. I have two finished books at this point and a third which is almost complete. They are a joy to create. I'm loving working with the brightly patterned ribbon and fabric, the vibrant threads for the embroidery and the pretty sequins which change colour depending on the light.

handmade books, sketchbooks, embroidery books,

There was more 'appraisal' happening here this morning, namely how much work is still needed on my embroidered cloth book and my little collection of handmade sketchbooks. This appraisal wasn't as scary as the one I did yesterday, I've made much more progres with these.

The longer piece on the left hand side is the cover for my embroidered cloth book. The cover is finished, lined, edged but I can't finish the actual book yet as it needs more pages and I'm waiting for silk. The lower piece is a cover for a little four inch square sketchbook. That piece still needs to be lined and the green ribbon which appears in the next images will be used as a wrap on that one, a closure.

The finished artist book top right is one I made around two years ago. It has inspired and informed what comes next. I feel so lucky to have such a wealth of resources which I have created myself. It definitely pays to create and keep, that way inspiration is always to hand.

four inches square

This little hand made sketchbook is four inches square. Of course for me it's more about the cover, the chance to embellish and adorn and piece cloth but having said that I do find myself turning the little pages quite a lot....flicking through them even though they are blank.

It's funny but since I started to make these little sketchbooks last week I have had a few enquiries about my marathon artist book class from last year, namely am I running it again and why isn't it listed as a work on your own class. First of all I doubt I will be running it again for at least a year if ever. Secondly, why isn't it listed as a work on your own class? short answer...I haven't a clue. (we don't make these little books in that class and I have explained that to those enquiring but it doesn't appear to have put anyone off which makes me very happy)

So this morning I sorted all that out and 12 months of artist books IS now listed as a work on your own class here.

and if you don't want to 'work on your own' there are two live classes running at the moment...embroidery here and Ledger titivation here.

Going back to my little book, the cover still needs quite a bit of work and I'm itching to start another sketchbook.....but....my little cloth book is almost finished and I want to finish that too. It's a bit like the chicken and the egg, which will come first.

still not finished

It probably looks finished to you but it isn't. It has moved on from here though. I have more plans for it.....I'm going to put buttons and threads and things inside. The cover is lined and attached to the pages and there's a very long piece of ribbon coming from the reverse edge which wraps around the book to keep it closed. Three edges have been finished with buttonhole stitch, the other with dangly blue sequins.

I could become addicted to these. However.....my 'to do' pile is huge. I have stash squares to stitch and charm squares to stitch and a cloth book to finish along with a cover for a much bigger artist book. I have another one of these little sketchbooks cut out and a cover for it pieced and tacked ready to be embroidered. At least I won't be twiddling my thumbs any time soon.

a little hand made sketchbook with an embroidered cover....not finished yet

A little hand made sketchbook created with acrylic paper and a couple of pretty spotty and striped pages. I made this yesterday, I was only playing but I love it. The embroidered cover was compulsory, you know I can't help myself. It's not finished yet, more embroidery is needed on the cover which then has to be lined before being stitched to the spine of the book. I'm also thinking of little 'bits' I might be able to put in here. Little thread cards perhaps? Some tiny buttons on a card? I don't know yet...I'm thinking.

soft rolled embroidered book

My little rolled book of cloth and paper is finished. I added a simple ribbon string and delicate little toggles before simply tying the pages together. This piece is beautiful to handle. It's so soft and really delicate. It's now in the shop.

This morning I've been playing with stash squares and charm squares, titivating cloth with embroidery, beads and sequins. I was in my 'cave', my little workshop, my happy place. Embellishing cloth with tiny beads can become addictive, the repetition of it, the ability to go anywhere in your mind. That's what I'm going to do now, as soon as I get off this PC I'm going back to silk and seed beads. See you tomorrow. x

rolling soft pages, an idea for a little book of embroidery

The soft embroidered pages I shared on here the day before yesterday have now been lined. Each of them has a reverse of pieced vintage lace and vintage trim. I now have a firm plan for these pieces, a soft rolled book of embroidery. The images here almost exclusively show the reverse of these 'pages' but when it's finished I will show the fronts, the embellished surfaces in more detail.

I speak about the 'putting together' of this and the rolling in the short video below.

(Ledgers girls....you have videos coming in around an hour)

 

 

wrapping pages

Visuals for you today of page wrapping following on from the video yesterday. (I have put the video at the end of this post too)

I love this, really love it.

Ledger girls.....I will be posting your next videos later today.

 

for the cover

This little piece measures 10 x 10 inches although once the seams are taken into consideration it will be smaller. I'm thinking ahead to a cover for when my artist book book is finally put together. (the book you have been seeing pages for in the past few posts)

I'm hoping for a sturdy, acrylic paper cover which I can then wrap with a long piece of embroiderd cloth. Initially I cut a very long piece of cloth to embellish, to add layers to, to add toggles, pom poms and tassels but it was overfacing so I cut it down to this size, a more manageable piece and a good size for appreciating progress as it happens. One embellished section on a vast expanse of white cloth is daunting, with the smaller piece it's much easier to see your progress in terms of surface embellishment.

So now the plan is to make several of these smaller pieces and join them to form my wrap. I'm not sure how many I will need at this stage, I will join them as each one is finished and measure as I go along.

gathering pages

I've started to play with placement of all these pages. This placement will change I'm sure as more pages are created, more inserts finished. I'm loving working with the ribbon especially. Who knew I would become a ribbon addict?

Things are still a little topsy turvy here, workmen, mess, drilling. It will be going on for a while longer I guess. I will just have to keep trying to work round it all. They have been working on my new workshop this week and I'm hoping they'll be finished by Wednesday and I can start to move my stuff in there. Keep everything crossed for me.

You can see a picture of how that's progressing on my Instagram feed here.

This morning I made you a very short video, a closer look at this work.