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!
There are times when a piece comes together almost effortlessly on the first try. This was not one of them.
I originally planned on creating an abstract floral piece that consisted of a very detailed mixed media background, along with a vase and flowers. I worked for hours on the background and the vase come out just the way I wanted it to.
Unfortunately, the flowers did not. They were a disaster. The loose style I was trying to obtain never quite came together. I tried to fix the flowers, but I only ended up making them look even worse than they already did. I was at the point of no return.
As much as it killed me to do, I had to cover up everything with gesso and start from scratch. Hours and hours of work, now gone.
Next, I decided to go in a different direction and try some sketchy watercolor type florals. I just didn’t feel confident enough to try the same technique I had just failed at.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get this right either. It was just not good. Although I was able to fix the flowers using stencils and acrylic paints, the leaves and stems were still awful. I was thinking that I was going to have to start all over once again.
It was then that I remembered a vine stencil I had. I pulled it out and decided to give it one last shot. I’m glad I did because that stencil allowed me to save the piece.
I don’t think this will ever be one of my favorite creations, but I’m glad that I didn’t quit and that I was able to step back and take a moment and figure out a new direction.
Wouldn’t it be great if we were able to do this in our personal lives as well? Sometimes, when things aren’t working out the way they should, whether it be a job, a relationship, a personal goal, etc., we tend to become emotional and just walk away. We quit, we abandon, we sabotage.
I know I have done that so many times over the course of my life. I felt that it was easier to just walk away instead of digging in and doing the work that might have salvaged something and perhaps taken my life in a new direction.
I’m not saying that we should stay in toxic or abusive relationship. That is never the case. But I am saying that perhaps a friendship could be saved or deepened or a relationship with a child could be turned around if we just took a step back, took a deep breath and figured out what we need to do next instead of walking away.
So today, I’m going to choose to hang in there and do something difficult instead of giving up and walking away. I know it won’t be easy, but I know it will be worth it in the end.
So what do jellyfish have to do with a new website? Honestly, not much, but this is what my brain feels like right now. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that shutting down my former website www.juliemortillaro.com and creating www.juliedawndesigns.com would be take so long to complete.
Not only do I still have an enormous amount of product photos to edit, this is my first blog post. I’m embarrassed to reveal how long ago I started working on this.
The photo editing is definitely the most labor intensive and time consuming part of this process. The problem is that I can’t just take a photo that comes out with a white background, so I have to spend a lot of time in Photoshop Elements and Fotor to get them to look decent. Perhaps one day I will be able to invest in some professional grade lighting, but for now I have to make do with what I have.
Product photography is difficult for me and tricky at best, but so very important. I thought if I just tried to wholesale my journals or sell them on consignment I could skip this altogether, but that wasn’t the case. I found out that even if you aren’t setting up an online shop, store owners or buyers still want to be able to view your products either online or in some sort of catalogue format.
Thankfully, I found this out before I went out to a bunch of shops with my journals in tow. The night before I was going to do this, I came across an article written by the owners of a store in Austin. It talked about the most annoying things to do if you are trying to get someone to carry your products. I was about to do them all.
So instead of driving around peddling my wares, I started taking photographs of all the journals I had created over the past few months. Had I known I was going to have to do this, I would have taken photos after I finished making each one.
This might also help explain why this is my first blog post, even though I created this website in July.
As far as blogging goes, I’ve always been horrible about it, which is simply not acceptable. So this time, I’m vowing to be consistent and I really mean it this time!
This is going to be a place to share not only my journals, artwork and the creation of both, but pieces of my life and things that matter to me.
So, goodbye for now, for I have many more photos left to edit!
