Boo and I are heading off to chase Summer. I hear its already happening in Ontario, so we're following the sun and going seeking aunties, uncle and canine to share it with.
We'll be back on the west coast on July 3rd. Hopefully the sun will follow our example.
I will shortly be receiving my next package of Clothkits goodies, thanks to my sister's visit to Ontario, where we'll shortly be joining her. Timely, as I have just completed all my current projects, the most recent being this Big Birdie Bustle skirt. I love the bustle method. It uses the printing of the a-line big birdie skirt, but you line it and construct it without cutting the individual pattern pieces out, so you see the cutting lines, and the Liberty print fabric peeking out at the bottom and on the bustle on the back is fab.
Next projects: a Rob Ryan (more about how great he is in another post, I'm sure) skirt for myself, and some vintage Clothkits pocket dolls for Boo. Hurrah.
Boo has been going to a little girls' ballet class for a little while now, and has just completed her first group of lessons 'dancing without mama'. It's fair to say that she has spent much of her time gazing into space rather than participating, and she gets utterly distracted when the costumes and props come out, but she seems to love it so. I I think we will continue with it after the Summer, and I hope she starts to 'join in' more as time goes on, especially once preschool socialization starts to kick in.
The class did a little recital for the mums n dads, and the tutus were in abundance. Boo was so engrossed in hers that she totally blanked the dancing going on around her.
At the weekend, we chugged out of town to Cultus Lake, 1.5 hours from Vancouver along the Fraser Valley. Dadda Boo was carrying an injured foot so our trail-walking was somewhat curtailed. Whilst we did get to the sample the short Seven Sisters Trail, which runs between Entrance Bay and Clear Creek Campgrounds, he wasn't upto Teapot Hill. We'll be back for that one, and for the other trails in the vicinity. Thankfully the weather was most conducive to sitting around in. We stayed at Clear Creek campground which had fantastic private forested sites, and the largest slug population you can imagine. Not for the first time, I was reminded how tricky it is to get slug slime off a small one's hands, especially when the water in the bathroom runs cold!
I came across this video of Oliver Jeffers talking about his work and the processes he uses in creating new picture books. The quality is not good but you can just about make out his drawings and the humour of his work is tangible. He also has a rather dandy 'tache, must be the thing in NYC.
'Forever Friends' by Carin Berger, Greenwillow Books (an imprint of Harper Collins), 2010
The story begins in Spring as blossoms open on the trees. A blue bird sings to a bunny sleeping in a hollow log below him to 'come play', and soon they are friends, floating a daisy chain between one another, playing with fireflies in Summer and acorns and drifting leaves in Autumn. Then the bird announces that it is time for him to fly south, though he promises to return in the spring. Through the winter, the friends miss each other, until at last Spring returns and the animals joyfully reunite to play once again.
I am a great fan of collage and currently making my own book using this technique, so Carin Berger's artwork is an obvious choice for me to study. Her collage materials are often found materials such as magazines, with some that are clearly aged or vintage. She uses a muted background of what looks like handmade paper or aged lined/squared paper, and sparingly creates the motifs on top, using fluid lines. Parallels can be drawn with similar approaches seen in the work of Sara Fanelli and 'The Book Eating Boy' by Oliver Jeffers. In this book she has also used some sponge-stencilled motifs, the softness of which contrasts with the hard edges of cut shapes very effectively.
I am wondering if Berger creates her images on a larger scale and then shrinks the images, down, as some of the cut pieces are just so tiny, I can't imagine how she managed it otherwise, small pieces of paper are just so fiddly, even with the use of tweezers.
Another aspect of this book that I like is the use of graphic devices to tell the story, such as when the bird says he must fly south and we see little circular vignettes of his forthcoming migration. Berger also uses split spreads (I'm sure there is a better technical term here!) to show the passage of time and the two animals when they are separated. I am enjoying learning about all these pictorial devices for storytelling as I look at more childrens picture books.
This is a beautiful book, check it out.
Last week, we went to the annual sheep fair at Maplewood Farm, a woolly day with the sheep population of the farm first being rather skilfully herded around a field with farmer n sheepdogs, then sheared by a no nonsense lady from Vancouver Island.
Ok, that last one is a goat.
