Buttons through the ages

Well, when I get started on a project it seems to take over somehow.
This one started off about the Atlantic Ocean
as I am reading Simon Winchester's fascinating book on this very subject but somehow the signatures I was doing wouldn't jell. I had introduced a button to represent Christopher Columbus and it just didn't work out. The other
signatures also decided, nope, this was not a book about the Atlantic ocean.....

So I plugged on, and at this stage I had used up the wooden buttons I bought in Tasmania years ago intending them for one of my knit-woven
garments.
So, there was nothing for it but to make this a book about buttons , how old the oldest button ever found was, and the psychology involved in buttons through the ages.
It turned out to be a very interesting subject which could be expanded into a major work...

 I did  these signatures in landscape form, as there again, the way I had positioned the painted Bondaweb looked better to my eye than the usual upright page.
I ran into more technical problems as well, as I had decided to use some velvet as backing for the pages. Velvet of course has nap and also a mind of its own when being stitched as the nap will resist in some areas ans want to slant off on its own trajectory

 Then I had also forgotten to allow for a flange on the velvet and this had to be added on after
as the signatures have to be visible but bound into the covers. Putting the flanges together in between the covered cardboard, and then piercing the lot to get the binding thread through was quite tricky and they are not all lined up as they should be because of the resisting nap of the velvet...... So I will return to recycling more cotton denim jeans for backing the signatures....

Last Wednesday, we went to the Mt Lofty Botanic Park to see the rhododendrons and azaleas flowering, but they were not quite at their best I think another ten days or so.
I loved the ornate flowering cherry tree, next to the steps they created last year so you can go down to the dam and feed the ducks.
We always come home via the Balhannah and Hahndorf  towns
and Hahndorf was an absolute nightmare to come through as the
road is so narrow and the sides crowded with parked vehicles,
where do all these people come from.......
The garden too, at the moment is taking quite a lot of time but it is good to see it emerging less like a wilderness. Whats more, the Tawny Frogmouth is still sitting on his nest, meanwhile the greenies have hatched and fledged their young and life goes on
amongst the gumtrees.......

Artist book...on the Riverland, introduction by Forebears

 The Forebears, in their exuberance, climbed all over the Rooster and wanted to be in this blog also before they all leave home to go out into the wide and wicked world.....who knows where they will end up....they were wanting to give their opinions too on my latest effort in the artist book line, but being too full of themselves I was not prepared to repeat what they said.....

The next artist book is about the Riverland and that of course is our own beautiful Murray river which we visited and stayed at in August.
We stayed in the Loxton Community Hotel where we had a very good deal with free breakfasts and beautiful dinners at night at a special rate as well.
Country people are so much more in tune with people than city people and the staff at the Hotel were very friendly and attentive.

 Again I chose a fairisle pattern for the cover
and tried to get the Riverland colours  by mixing the fine yarns of various hues to give the impression of the richness and diversity of what the land can produce under irrigation.
The orange trees were absolutely loaded with gorgeous orange fruit and while the vines were bare of course and resting , the soil in between the rows is this fabulous red and the weeds a lush green.

 We did a bit of touring as well and had a look at some of the SALA exhibitions in Renmark and around the town of Loxton as well.
There were some excellent nudes in soft pastels
in the Touries information center, but my walls are pretty well covered in paintings now
so resisted buying one.....

We took some photos of the Kingston  bridge,
Brian being particularly fond of trucks thundering towards him or going away from him out of the photo, on that bridge.
I found an amusing plaque there describing how
Captain Charles Sturt in 1830 when he was exploring the Murray near that area, had an exciting experience with a tribe of local tribesmen .....luckily no one was killed.....

For the back of the cover I reversed the colours and it is quite interesting to see how much clearer the grape pattern appears there...
Don't forget to click on the photos to get a better view...or am I starting to sound like the announcer on the new train??

Concertina Book

 My next artist book is a concertina form.
The cover is again a knitted fairisle done in a long strip . Having cut the core for it
and scored it so they would fold, the fabric was then sewn around the long strip with enough room for the signatures to be comfortably encased and folded into a booklet.

 Next I wrote the individual verses and sewed the
the antiqued fabric onto the knitted fairisle.

Because the verses were placed on both sides of the individual signatures, I had to find a way of closing it so the book would be read from the beginning ( where else would you start.....)
So I came up with the rolled front and attached a cord which then wraps around the whole
folded book and the cord slips around a nice wooden button I have had in my stash for years.

It was fun to make and though it presented a few
Technical problems it keeps you thinking and finding solutions.
My next book is on a theme of the Riverland
and while the signatures are ready, the cover is not as yet on the go.....

Heteropoda in Spring and the Tawny Frogmouth on his nest

 This morning I went out to measure the wonderful rain we had during the night and Lo! and Behold, there was heteropoda, sitting in the rainguage and politely got out of the way for me while I took out the tube with rain to see how much we had.
He sat outside on the rainguage looking decidedly relaxed and well fed, unlike the first picture which I took at the beginning of winter, where he looks all scrunched up with the cold and the wet.

I had been tipping him out onto the ground and weeds but he persisted and climbed back each time. I had worried that he would starve in there, not seeing what on earth he would be living on in such a barren space.
 however he obviously managed to find enough to eat and he is looking fit and well.

The Tawny Frogmouth has started to sit on his nest since last Thursday. It is the same nest as they used last year and the Ashtree is starting to sprout so he will soon have cover .
The greenies too are nesting and the Murray Magpies are gathering mud out of the pond.
I could hear a baby Magpie squawking and we did find a dead baby Magpie on the edge of the road the other day so Spring  has sprung......
PS. When I measured the 1ml of rain this morning September 3rd, no Heteropoda....has he left home or was he a meal for a bird? Oh , I do so hope he is off on an adventure.....