Tuesday 11 July 2017

A New Hand made book: progress of my Codex

Crafters! Welcome!
It is good to have you here.

What I am sharing with you today has me feeling very vulnerable and exposed.
A few months ago I showed something I had made for my self which was a rather awesome book.

I have started filling the book and it has become such an integral element in self care and Self discovery.
I became inspired by the idea of making this book after watching a video on Rocking your Grimoire by Molly Roberts who is a magic practitioner and witch among many other things. While I do not subscribe to the practice of magic and witchcraft as many do, I saw value and benefit to the collection and compilation of information that held meaning to me.
In the wiccan and magic circles this type of book would be termed a grimoire or book of shadows, which for me just did not fit. I have called mine The Codex. Being a book of information relating to me and for me.

So I give you The Codex.
There is a video link at the end of the post with a flip through.


In the book I have sections relating to different things I wanted to have record of. 


I have recorded information on my Altar and Zodiac as well as Essential oils, which are a big part of my life. There is also a section on my cat Delta.



I have recorded Plants and Flowers I like and why I like them.


I have found a great bonding with myself by creating this book. Anyone who knows me, will know how much I LOVE tech and the digital age we are living in but I love having a document, a handmade, handwritten BOOK which solely related to my spiritual beliefs, values and principles. It has substance and existence to me which make me feel those things with in my self. 

The flip through video. I do mistakenly call the Codex a Chronodex in the beginning which is something entirely different. Doing to many things at the same time. 


I have loved working in this book and I still have lots to add and change. And it will be an on going "work in progress".

If this inspires you to create your own Codex all about you so me what you create, I would love to see.  I know not everyone has the skills or time and materials to make their own book,
for you, I will be making up and adding blank books like this one to my Etsy store over the coming months. You can also order one by emailing me with some direction of what you would like. 




Tuesday 4 July 2017

Manifestations from a Dream



Hello hello!
Welcome!

Today I have something a little different to share with you.

I have been playing with air dry clay and have created something I dreamt about back in March. 

First a little bit of back story to help understand the gravity of this piece. 
I have been seeing a psychoanalysis since Nov 2016 to help me with my knee issue, which has been so beneficial in so many different ways. 
Mid March I had this very profound and lingering dream which I brought up with my therapist, who walked me through some dream analysis. 

One thing that was so strong about the dream was an item that seemingly represented something very significant to myself. I could recall the texture, weight and importance of this item. The item itself was an oddity as it was a chess piece. However this chess piece was actually that of two melted together, the knight and rook. The chess piece itself was analysed to it's inth degree with much of the information discussed resonating with me on so man different levels. 

The image, weight and texture of the chess piece haunted me for weeks until I decided to see how I would go actually physically making it. 



I started out by first working with some air drying clay tiles to work out the texture and finish of the piece. Nothing was working out right, but I kept going. After about 10 tiles I found a finish that sort of worked, but it still wasn't quite right. By this time I decided to start making the actually physical form of the chess piece.


   

This part of the process happened in an hour or so with very little effort required. I felt I was working by muscle memory which, if you think about, is VERY strange as I have never physically held this piece. I had to leave the raw chess piece for a couple days to dry. Then came the next process that had to be figured out on the fly. Brick work, which I carved out of the dried clay. While I was working on this texture of the final figure I realised I had NOT taken the brick texture in to account when playing with my tiles at the very start.


To see how this would likely work out I of course made another tiles and did a test. Luckily I was able to get a better crackle texture with a slightly different technique and I would not have worked this out if I had not have done this test.



The final step was actually painting the chess piece. This was the scariest part of all even though I had spent an entire day working out the perfect colour I wanted.


After applying the crackle medium and waiting for that to dry I added the darker blue was to get the colour finished I wanted. 


The final step of the entire process was sealing the surface. I used Glossy Accents to get that seamless glaze quality I was after.


As I love macro photography I managed to gave some very awesome close up shots of the crackle. It came out perfect.



I hope you have enjoy reading how I made this piece. It was a joy to make.