Erosion Bundle - finally finished

It has taken some time but I finally got my erosion bundle finished! I admit to finding it a bit of a struggle because it was just too pink! I don't do pink!!! As a result the contents of the bundle sat lonely and abandoned in the corner of my studio for weeks. But eventually I gave and took up the challenge to embrace my inner girl!

So pink reigns free!

I decided to make it into a book, and fill the pages with pink girly gorgeousness!! This is a departure for me as I have only ever made book covers for pre-bought book!

So here we go. This is the front cover - with paper and fabric machine quilted and a flower made from the pink calico. I painted some more calico with blue and purple just to tone down the pink and balance out the colours and used them to represent to the leaves - bits of this fabric was used elsewhere in the book. It was important that the pink did not become too sugary so I used purple, blue and reds in there too!

For this one I used sheet music printed from my pc onto paper and painted (including a song appropriately called 'The Coal Black Rose). I wrote the quote onto some of the pink calico using a fabric pen:

This page was fun! One of the images of the rose is printed onto paper and stitched, and the other (faded) image behind it is printed onto the fabric using an ink transferring technique which didn't seem to work as well as I hoped, but together the two images work well.

this page used more the other bundle of dyed calico and paper which I cut into strips after I had stitched into it. The circles are stitched onto some of the bundled paper with increased tension on the bottom thread making it pull tight and giving a slight domed effect on the paper:

The little flower is made form a piece of lace in the bundle that didn't really change too much, so I helped it out with some fabric paint!

The next page is my favourite, which of course includes some buttons! How could I make something without buttons!!! I made a little trapunto Makintosh style rose in some gorgeous red silk and popped it all on a piece of delicious purple silk that has been sitting in my scrap box for ever. I love the vibrancy of the result!

The next page is a little more delicate with some more rose motif srepeated from the photo, as a machine embroidered piece and in cord stuck to paper in a rose design.

This page uses some of the bundled calico which is stitched into and then added some embellishments from my bead soup!

 

Here I played with some of the bundled paper and some fabric from my stash repeating the fabric motif in pencil straight on the page.

Here I used some of the bundle paper as a background and repeated the 'leaves' from the front cover.

For this page I played with some crayons to mirror the torn paper edge and I again used the leave motif.

I used the more of the papers from the bundle to do a 'double page spread' to which I glued some buttons and some mica for added 'sparkle':

I also used some of the handmade paper that took some of the rust from the metal elements I included in the bundle, as well as some of the copper wire.

 

 Here I used the last of the paper as a background with some threads and bits and bobs stitched into some needled felt. The little thing that looks like a bit of dried up orange is in fact a piece of brown felt stitched and then melted to within an inch of destruction!

And finally... The back - here I played with fabrics and paper bits left over because I hate to waste anything!  I repeated the leaf and circle motifs used elsewhere in the book to tie it all together.

I have held the whole thing together with rivets (making the lovely Paul come running up the stairs thinking someone was being murdered as I merrily hammered away!)

This project was a challenge as pink is not something that usually inspires me and forced me to work outside my comfort zone. Creating a book also took a lot longer than I expected as well, but it gave me the chance to play around with lots of different techniques and ideas without having to worry about producing something others would want to look at/ receive as a gift or buy! This in itself was quite liberating and I would definitely give it another go next year!

So for now I have embraced the girl in me, and let her be pretty in pink!

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