The book continues

 The next steps.

I have loved the background to these pages and really enjoyed the typewriter written words., but have been wondering what else to illustrate and support the words???

In my previous works Under Construction, I had successfully used twigs, both stitched down individually, and bundled and stitched, so I thought to see how that might work.

As ever, I do love the twigs.

I liked them more when they were angled slightly. 

But I was a bit worried about their fragility and if they would hold up as pages were moved around. The books I had previously used them on were concertina style books where the book was displayed like art, rather than one where pages were lifted, turned and placed.

And I think my fears were probably well founded given they snapped and fell apart as I tried to bundle them. I will have to see if, or how, twigs can be part of this book; but they won't be on the pages I now know.

I then turned towards stitching, as the words about the building of nests so often suggest threads, and weaving and stitching.

For some reason, the notion of couching came to mind as I thought I might like the little bobbles that form part of it. So I did a line of couching. And was a tad underwhelmed. So I did another line thinking that together they might say something more.

But I wasn't convinced.

So back to running stitch I went. And I decided I liked the alternate lines of stitching and I think that three might work well.

I then used a metallic silver pen to make a few marks on the page (barely noticeable here) and added a few bits of scrap material I had rescued on the way out the door of the studio. I think they add something...

As ever, the challenge is how to support the words without overwhelming them. How to make the pages interesting but not too busy... I have one more thing I want to test and then I think I can begin.

And on another note - I have been invited by Sandra Pearce of Art from The Urban Wilderness to give an artists talk at Hive Studios in Brisbane in late March. I am excited to talk about my work and show some books and generally have fun chatting with artist book type people.

If you are local and/or interested in getting along here are the details...