Bookmarks: All Done!

Hooray! I'm done. Who knows if any one will want to buy them, but I'm happy to have them completed.

Resurrection: L&L Style

The Itidarod is winding down now, so I have some room to breathe. Let me fill you in on what I've been thinking/doing in the rare moments between sled dog racing stuff.

When I posted last, I was wondering whether the piece was salvageable. After some more depressing fiddling, I decided to stop. I almost threw the piece away, and then I reflected on how long it takes to prepare a piece of Lutradur, and I hesitated. I flipped it over to the other side where I had pasted a few pieces, and decided to try something. Getting my fingers all "paint-y," I did a piece the looong way and painted the back one color, then cut out individual pieces, painted them individually, and then used more paint to stick them to the back. This was what I had been trying to avoid in the first place, but honestly, it felt GOOD! I finally felt like I was making progress.

The downside to this method is that since you can't rearrange the pieces as you go, I couldn't get as "tight" a pattern as I did before. I can't remember if I posted my original pattern (before I had to take the pieces off to do the layers of MistyFuse), but here's what it looked like:

ASIDE: I did get a comment on my last post from someone named "mistyfuse" that I intend to try next time. (Manufacturere? MistyFuse guru?) This person suggested that I back the lace, then cut the lace up, arrange it, and then iron it again. I think I will try on a smaller piece than 11x14, though! If this works, I will be soooo elated! This person's other suggestion was to use Teflon instead of parchment paper, which I will try next if needed.

Anyhoo, I didn't know those things at the time, so I started "over" the only way I knew: by pasting down each piece by paint. This took a while and was messy (true confession: I strongly dislike getting my hands icky), but the result wasn't bad. I found though, that with the random placement of pieces, a random pattern of paint looked too chaotic. So, I experimented with a loosely representational image of a stream. It's not much in the way of a picture, but as a simple pattern it seems to work:

The difference between the blue stream and the green banks was quite stark so I did a gold wash over the top. There are also some color subtleties that don't come out well in the photo. Right now the piece is drying after having glitter spray applied.

When I decided to do the stream thing, it ended up not looking quite right in 11x14 format. I cut it down to 8 x 10 and I like it much better. The good news is that I ended up with two new, attractive bookmarks out of the excess.

That is the other project I have been slowly working on: finishing and edging the bookmarks. I also ordered some bookmark tassels to put on them. I am down to my last few that I hope to finish today, and when I finish them, I hope to post a picture of the whole lot. I am hoping to sell some at an upcoming used curriculum sale. I am also considering framing some of the lace motif pieces and bringing them along just to see if there is any interest.

I am also knee-deep in pricing used curriculum. It's currently all over my workspace in the laundry room that is also used for crafts, so I can't do too much messy L&L stuff until I'm done.

Well, off to price more used curriculum. If I get cleaned up enough to sew the last bookmarks, I'll put another photo up today.