Hand Dyed Papers | Julie Dawn Designs

January 23, 2022

Sunday Afternoon Vibe

It’s been cold here lately, probably not compared to a lot of places, but for Texas. Today finally warmed up to 64 degrees with very little wind. Cooper decided to take advantage of it.

It’s such a weird way to lay, with his belly pressed up against the cabinet. All I can come up with is that the sun had warmed the cabinet and this way, he is able to get sun on his front and his back.

We have really old windows with zero UV protection, so the sun can really warm things up inside. I wonder if he is going to be disappointed when we get the windows replaced next month.

I’ve been hard at work on more journals. The latest one was really a challenge. I finished the cover without too many issues, but then when I went to put the signatures in, I realized the pages were all about an inch too short. I ended up having to add an inch of some sort of embellishment or a tab to every page to get them the right size. Once that was done, the signatures almost ended up being too thick to fit inside the journal. I finally got it finished and photographed today.

This is another I made after taking the online course The Beauty Within. I really enjoyed the course and it’s really fun to take a hardcover book and flip it inside out and turn it into a journal.

This is the first one I made from the course.

Now I’m on to the next one. I haven’t decided what type it will be yet. I still have a long way to go to get enough to sell at the Craft Guild Show in April. I wanted to make enough so that I would need two tables, but junk journals take a lot of time to make, so my next one might have to be something a bit less time consuming.

September 16, 2020

My Obsession

I recently was given the opportunity to take a class online that has previously only been taught in person. I was never able to take the in person workshop before because it was in Auckland, and unfortunately, that was just a bit too far for me to go. Then the pandemic hit and lockdowns ensued. I haven’t found too many positive things that have come from this nightmare we are all currently living in, but Liz Constable of Book Art Studios decided to teach her classes online for the first time ever, so I guess that was my silver lining.

Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to sign up for anything and everything she has made available. Her Dyed and Gone to Heaven class has led to my current obsession – hand dyeing papers.

I’ve always coffee and tea dyed a good portion of my papers, but her technique took me in a direction I never knew was even possible. I can’t divulge the process, it’s a highly guarded secret and you can only learn it by taking her class, but I can tell you it’s amazing and has taken my paper dyeing to a whole new level.

Here are a few examples:

Finding dyes has been more of a challenge than I expected. Apparently, tie dyeing has been very popular during this pandemic, so the supply of Rit and Tulip dyes at local craft stores is quite low. I have experimented with food coloring, both powdered and gel, as well as India inks and other inks as well.

I really love the results and I’m also super excited that Liz is teaching the second class, Dyed Again, online as well. I signed up for that one and I can’t wait to learn even more amazing techniques for turning ordinary paper into something extraordinary.

September 2, 2020

Practicing New Techniques

As artists, we all have other artists we look up to, learn from and generally admire. One of my favorites is Liz Constable from Book Art Studios. Not only is she an incredibly talented book artist, she is a great teacher and very generous with her knowledge.

I have always wanted to take one of her Dyed and Gone to Heaven workshops, but unfortunately, I could never figure out how to make that work since she is in Auckland and I am in Texas. Up until now, she has only taught in-person workshops, but the pandemic changed all that.

I was able to take both her coptic binding class and her dyed and gone to heaven class via zoom. They were great, and thankfully recorded, because I had to refer back to them more than once. I had done coptic binding before, but this is a new method that took some practice on my part.

Here are some pictures of one of my favorite books I made, filled with scrumptious, hand dyed paper, using a process that I’m sworn to secrecy not to divulge. If you want to learn it, you can visit her website and sign up for her next online class!