Tuesday, November 3, 2009

A page for Lynn by Caroline

'Gather ye rosebuds'


Last week I reported that I had an idea for Lynn's page - hmm, well that didn't quite work out as I expected but nevertheless, I'm pretty happy with this collage resulting from my many experiments! Lynn's book has some lovely textile pages, so it seemed a good idea to keep going. What's that you say? You don't see any fabric? Well, my finished page does have one small piece of fabric in it, honest! Can you tell where?..... It's actually the strip of rose petals! These are petals from roses grown in the Cameron Highlands (a beautiful area in Malaysia where it is wonderfully cool: flowers and vegetables are cultivated alongside tea plantations up in those hills. I will be posting about my recent trip there over at my blog in the next few days, if you're interested!). Anyway, I digress - back to the fabric. I bonded these petals to a small strip of silk fabric and though I intended incorporating it with other textiles, I got side tracked when I found a lovely magazine image of pink roses! I didn't want to stick this directly on the page so used an image transfer method which results in a slightly distressed look. On top I layered pink tissue paper which gave it a nice misty feel. I then took another sheet of watercolour paper and washed on some pretty colours, wet in wet. I chose areas of this to tear up into strips and drew rose outlines with coloured pencils, adding more colour to the large background bloom. A few lines of text were postioned and coloured to blend into their backgrounds. I covered the main rose bloom and leaves with hand made paper, leaving a white edge on the background for emphasis - I love the way the fibers in this paper make the bloom look so realistic ! I also added a little water to the coloured pencil on the stem to give it form.

Hope you will like this Lynn - I so enjoyed the process and learnt a lot along the way!

8 comments:

  1. I opened this post and my breath expelled from my body with a huge OH sound of appreciation for the beauty I beheld before my eyes. And THEN I saw it was for ME I nearly fainted. It is SO beautiful Caroline.
    Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!

    I must say the sentiment, the words also took my breath away. "Gather your rosebuds while you may"...is certainly how I live my life now. Since turning 65 (three and a half years ago) I have been ever so conscious of time running away from me, of having less time to live than already lived, and trying to fill my days with joy, creativity and love, to make it worthwhile. So this fits me to a T. Perfect. Wow. And it is SO BEAUTIFULLY done, each detail. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate what you've done here. Thanks for explaining your process and where the roses came from etc. too. All of it. Wow.

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  2. OMG Caroline. This is marvelous. I enjoy the way that you describe what you do.

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  3. Wow Caroline what abeautiful page!!!!
    I understand Lynn nearly fainted. everything is lovely about it the colors etc.
    I just saw all the latest pages and I am in awe of the beauty everyone is producing . These will all be wonderful books!
    Too bad I can't have them all .... ;)

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  4. OMG Caroline! This is gorgeous! I love pastel colors and roses too. I think this is such a lovely example of a watercolor collage, so delicate and feminine. Beautiful!

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  5. OH this is truely lovely. I cant imagine what you WERE going to do but this is beautiful. Lynn will and I see already does love it.

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  6. I love Lynn's reaction!!
    I'd say you accomplished this mission beautifully ;)

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  7. caroline, this page is gorgeous and I too love the description of your process. how wonderful to have some rose petals from Malaysia on the page too. It is so bright and cheerful.

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  8. Yeah, this is truly beautiful and spectacular!

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