The Sketchbook Project 2012

I've been participating in this fabulous international project co-ordinated by the Art House Co-op and the Brooklyn Art Library called the Sketchbook Project 2012.

When you join the project, you pick a theme and the organizers send you a blank sketchbook. You can fill its pages with whatever you like. The only provisos being that it stays within the specified dimensions and that the materials are able to travel safely ie dry and stable, not sharp, not hanging off and likely to break etc. You can completely remake the book if you want.

And I did.

My chosen theme was "It's Winter Where You Are" and my subplot was 'but not over here'. Because, well, the project is based in the US, and when it is cold and snowing there, it is usually hot and steamy here in the Queensland subtropics of Australia.

I used a medium weight artists paper for some pages because I wanted to use both sides without the paints and pens showing through. And the other pages... of course these are made from hand dyed fabrics and felt. And I bound it with a hand-dyed silk cover. I've not done much book binding before so this was a steep learning curve for me.

I've tried to show how the beautiful, vibrant things in my garden inspire me in my textile work. So the sketchbook contains images from my garden and samples of hand-dyed cottons and silks and how felting them changes the surface into a rich conglomerate of colour and texture.

Over the next few months I'll be posting some pictures of finished items that this process inspired. So keep popping in for updates.

Click this link to find out more about the Sketchbook Project 2012 .
Or if you would like to see more of the pages of my sketchbook go here to my project profile