I was playing with some art exercises the other day – working on A4 paper – it didn’t feel big enough so I switched to A3. It did the trick at the time but today when I got on to the beach at North Berwick I fulfilled a bucket list wish – I drew a mandala in the sand. 
One of my favourite art journaling methods is to use found text and make simple poems. 
I first discovered found poems when I was teaching in the 1980’s, when hubby used them in his English classes. Redacted poems are not quite the same, but I use the same principles, they don’t rhyme and they don’t have to make sense. I have found when teaching art journaling they are a good tool to use if people struggle with using images.
I like messing around using different materials to redact the words ( if you want to see lots of examples on Instagram you need to search #blackoutpoems) I like crosshatching and using washi tape.
I think the cross hatching with mandala detracts a bit too much from the text – but it is fun doing it.
Yesterday Monika and I taught a class where we used text by Bene Brown and other ‘goodread’ quotes about vulnerability as the starting point.
I asked to photograph the work – but promised to just use fragments to illustrate the different techniques the participants used to make their poems. I love the variety of materials and the colours.
https://www.bieldatblackruthven.org.uk/
I taught an art journaling type of exercise at a retreat this week. The Beild Centre is lovely. The accommodation is a converted stable block in the grounds of a small stately home near Perth.
The art room is fab – loads of materials and a log burner to keep you warm 
There is lots of great art around the grounds we particularly liked the mosaics which are like small green pools set in concrete in the path around the stable block.
This is my view from my bedroom 
Sculptures a pond, and a walled garden.
The group I visited with were coming to the end of a 2 year journey. I planned a piece that they could develop as their own, using acrylic, stencils, collage. I was unsure of the participants art skills so I needed to have a frame work to work with. 
Above shows a step by step work sheet I provided. The concept was to build up a strata of ideas about the participants journey using text on the faces rays and layers of paint to represent time
One of the participants wanted to do her own design and had a clear idea of what she wanted to do
The rest of the group used my basic idea, choosing their own colour schemes and a variety of stencils
The face was a stencil designed by Andy Skinner. This was the first time that I had taught a canvas workshop with paint. I needed my wits about me all my years of teaching experience, lol .
I found some variegated coloured crotchet thread in a second hand shop the other week. I had been searching online for a big ball of rainbow coloured thread but it was going to cost far to much to shop it. The box of cotton balls had many more colours than the rainbow I required but I restrained my self to one of each colour and a couple that went in between below is my stash and my first experiment. 
I finished my second quilt with some of the coloured threads- it is a present for someone – I will add a pic when they have revived it.
I bought some plain calico shopping bags sometime ago and decided to add a panel of boroinspired stitching to one side.
These have been great fun to do
I found a Great British Sewing Bee note book kit – I have a few of these – they were produced in 2012 to accompany a TV programme – the consist of a nice quality journal – fabric and instructions to make a loose cover for the book.
It had to be done …..
I had a fab weekend art journaling with my friend Debbie – she has a small conservatory set up to work in – I do like working in the light after my lower ground kitchen.
Debbie is a certified Brave Girl instructor and we worked with two of Melody Ross’s short courses. These are such fun to do – the workbooks are full of great ideas, images and text- check out http://bravegirlsclub.com/ for more info
I Worked in a journal that I had previously decorated with lots of watery mandalas. I am having some respite from drawing these with all my hand quilting. I found that if I add a layers of white acrylic with a credit card they make great backgrounds that I can add text and images to.
The first work book gets you to look at concepts around being true to yourself
I had fun layering up paint and collage (the tree was in a Psychologies magazine) and adding text using various stencils and found letters
We were quite prolific – having the backgrounds started already makes a big difference.
Saturday night we went out to Blenheim Palace and walked the Christmas light trail.
On the way home I thought I dropped my phone and left it on a park and ride bus. My calm thoughtful journal pages were disrupted by a bad nights sleep and the need to let out a lot of frustration.
However – after getting my daughter to hack into my iPhone account the phone was discovered in Debs car!
So my pages based on ‘flying free’ resumed at a calmer level
Lots of swallows, cages and let it go stuff for this one.
I have been enjoying experimenting with my teabag quilts. However, I fancied doing something a bit different. I made a collaborative quilt with Fran Halperin – she added text and pattern to my design and then I stitched a circle over it in white. I was really pleased with how it worked out. 
I decided to have a go at using a quilt as the base for an art journal page. I do these usually on paper and build up lots of layers using mandalas/ printing and adding text.
On holiday in France a made a tea bag quilt that wasn’t doing anything for me, so I used that as a base
And I made a simple 3×3 teabag base.
I am afraid I forgot to take a few photos – blame it on the fact that I was away for two weeks and got over excited on the making front 
I started by making a background using pen and paint stencilled through a couple of mandala stencils. I glued the lettering in place with Matt medium. Then added my white back stitched circles
I didn’t like the text it seemed too simple – so I added more – just stitching on top this time. I added a pale orange set of circles in between the white and drew on top of it with pen and gelatoes.
This morning when I got up it seemed too simple . So I attached the lettering
I attacked the other quilt which went through a similar process too 
Details of the quilts – I chose the text flipping though a Psychologies magazine with soft eyes and picking out words that jumped out at me
I have had a sewing box for ever. This is the first time I can remember running out of white thread.
I had a go at embroidering a mandala with the same thread that I used for my most recent quilt ( see my last post). I sewed using cheap white thread that I had had for years. I was disappointed with the results. So I overworked the stitches and added some thicker cotton/ wool
I saw some multicoloured thread on a friend’s Instagram feed and thought it would be fun on teabags. I went on a shopping trip and found some fab colour ways made by Guttermann.
I also bought a heavy duty white thread and a large multi use 100% polyester white. The multicoloured reals are 100% cotton.
I love the results 
I think the orange will be great as the cotton to sew the tea bags on to my substrate. The darker/ rainbow mix shows up the best. However I like combination of the three colours.
The stronger thread shows up against the tea bags very well
I decided to make my – mandala into a sample piece. I added the paper fabric as an edging
I am getting better at making my work more regular (😂😂😂)
Jon has been writing a book for the last four years. It has finally been sent off to the publishers . During the last few weeks he has been reading sections to me, I have read bits and become immersed in the words.
He has written about ‘writing as inquiry’ ( Richardson1997 ) before and I reminded that I could substitute ‘art making’ or just ‘making’ for ‘writing’.
It’s how I think through my process. My art making could be an seen as an inquiry.
Recently I have been sewing into my mandalas this seems to form its self into definite, purposeful shapes, engendering in me a sense of solidity (Wyatt 2019, forthcoming).
And there is a pulsing between the lines ( ibid)
The sewing, drawing, printing, making, seems to be an assemblage of times of day, space, bodies, objects, movement and more (ibid).
The pieces hold an imprint of that time of making, held within the layers of work- almost suspended -captured by the movement of my hands, my body, my inquiry.
References
Richardson Laurel, Fields of play (Constructing an Academic Life) 1997
During my life I have lived by water. I am fascinated by how the light plays on the surface, the movement and the patterns that are created.
I grew up near the Thames at Wallingford and as a child we used to visit Abingdon where I ended up living for 25 yrs. During uni a I was in London and up in the North East at Newcastle upon Tyne. I suppose living on a small island you are never very far away from water…
Now in Edinburgh there is the water of Leith that winds its way through the city. I travel over the the Forth of Firth regularly for work and visit the North Sea at North Berwick.
Recently in Bristol I was interested to see that architects had incorporated elements of water into a foot bridge in the quay area and some railings on Temple St.
My latest ripping/ hand sewing into a mandala/ blue abstract on paper is reminding me of water this morning
I wrote into it today about mandalas, their cultural significance, how to draw them and their meditative values with Hindu and Buddhism.
I started weaving in some text from yesterday’s writing about art making 
And watery concepts popped into my head. I have been making lots of layers using digital imagery this month so I needed to attack this in the Image Blender app
I attached the piece to another mandala which peeps through the gaps – I’m not sure about the text and patterned strips they might come out.
more Image Blender stripes
I have always sewn things. I can remember living with my biological Dad before my parents divorced. I used to go and knock on my parents bedroom door and ask for a needle to be threaded before they were up. My parents divorced when I was 5yrs old. About that time my mum made me my own sewing basket. It’s only recently I can’t find my felt pin cushion that she made.
So I have always liked sewing. Sometimes I forget. Making tea bag quilts reminded me. I am saving tea bags to make a bigger quilt and my hands get bored of drawing mandalas so I decided to sew through one on paper.
I worked on the back- the stitches didn’t photograph well – so I dipped the paper in a tea vat that was lying around
Sitting in front of the TV I sewed some more – this time I crumpled up the paper until it felt more like fabric – it was easier to sew circles at the at the beginning in the middle of the paper.
After sewing on the teabags these seemed a bit dull – I enjoyed the sewing but the end product wasn’t doing anything for me.
I decided to see what would happen if I tore it.
The thread did fab things and the paper was so soft …..
I decided to play with the other piece too – I had sewn the second mandala with black thread.
I like the way the ripping and the thread disrupt the drawn lines of the mandala and the way you can see through it.
I attached the blue piece to another mandala. I went to bed thinking about the words I could weave through it.
This is what I wrote this morning. I was thinking it would be more poetic about being stuck drawing mandalas ( lol)
‘Sitting still art making my back seizes up drawing mandalas my safety net protecting my stomach from stress watching the tv Round and round in ever increasing circles trapped in the patterns sewing and drawing until my hands ache trapped in my endeavour my art evolves through making experimenting – what happens if I do this how does that material react if I do this which ink is water soluble try fountain pens they are better for the environment what happens if I crush that paper, sew with black rather white stamp that paint through a new stencil
sew that tea bag on to this fabric carve that stamp change that pattern dip that paper use that floor wipe that colour run panel use that as a substrate collect that bumpf stitch that teabag read that book go to that conference hear that seminar write some words drink that cider think about that concept’
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