Paris Shopping for Yarn

Baby blanket I crocheted with my French yarn

While in Paris go to the Passage du Grand Cerf and find a shop called Lil Weasel if you want to buy yarn - made in France of course. Going from the 1st District (or Arrondissement) near The Louvre, the Passage is about a half hour walk to the 2nd District.

The Passage du Grand Nerf was created in 1825, among the first shopping malls. Businesses are on the ground floor, storage areas on the second, and apartments are located on the third floor, very pretty & compact.

Close-up of my crochet stitches

Mostly yarn and buttons are sold at Lil Weasel. Other shops: eyeglasses, antiques, furniture, clothing, plus a cafe. The Passage has grown in popularity - now boasts 25 shops. 
I found pretty yarn and gave my business to the friendly French woman who also spoke English. We had a lovely time chatting. I also bought these Eiffel Tower buttons and plan to use them on a sweater.

These are about the size of an American quarter

Find Lil Weasel on Facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/Lil-Weasel-127579470591966

The interior of the mall is the width of the street with a glass roof.

I bought several skeins - though it seems as if there is too much yarn to possibly choose.

Buy a tote bag in the mall - who doesn't need another bag when you are traveling?

You can spend all day in The Passage! Then walk back to the 1st District and go to the Air France office to get your Boarding Pass printed the day before your flight. They are very friendly. 

Bon Voyage!

©Anne Rita Taylor 2017

Calligraphy at The Marriott

Every two years the Houston Calligraphy Guild reserves classrooms in the Marriott Westchase offering discount rates for over-nighters. I last attended in 2011 when I taught Zine-Making - see my prior blogs about Zines:
https://anneritataylor.blogspot.com/2016/10/publishing-zines.html
https://anneritataylor.blogspot.com/2016/11/writing-zines.html
https://anneritataylor.blogspot.com/2016/11/designing-zines.html
I attended the HCG Retreat last weekend & really enjoyed myself.

There were 9 classes (2 & 1/2 hours each) to choose from. Forty HCG members each picked 3 classes. Saturday morning I chose Journal Contour Drawing with Shirl Riccetti: http://www.shirlriccetti.com 

Shirl exhibits her drawings & watercolor art at the Archway Gallery in Houston.

My quick portrait of Shirl Riccetti - left / Lobby sketching - right

Shirl liked timed drawings of 2 and 3 minutes! First we drew a chair copying from an upside down drawing from Van Gogh - I liked that! We practiced outlining and filling in while copying from magazine photos. 

I loved using one of my Paris photos for a timed journaling exercise. Finishing up, we actually went out to the lobby & sketched - fun & daring.

My Saturday afternoon class was Pointed Pen Uncials taught by Cindy Haller, a talented local calligrapher for hire:
http://www.houstoncalligraphyguild.org/blog/cindy-haller.html 

The class was modeled after Michael Kecseg who was bringing this historical letterform into the 20th century. 

Cindy’s class would have been better for me if my bottled ink had not exploded in my art supply bag - ugh! Cindy suggested I use a pencil first and go over it with a monoline tool (no thicks or thins). I will practice these letterforms since done correctly, they are very pretty.

On Sunday morning I took J.B. Banzon’s class, another talented local calligrapher. This was his first time teaching and he was excellent! Snowflake Flourishing was lots of fun with attention to detail. How long ago had I used this compass!?!

On Friday evening we dined at a lovely French restaurant, La Madeleine. During the weekend the Marriott provided two breakfast buffets with yummy crispy bacon, and a fine lunch and dinner on Saturday. The cookies that afternoon were a treat! Plus I actually had two good nights of sleep. 

Saturday night there was a raffle for calligraphy prints from a legacy left by Helen Shinpaugh, a most beloved HCG member. I was lucky enough to win the print above by Mark Van Stone.

All in all it was a fun weekend of making art and being with my calligraphy tribe.

©Anne Rita Taylor 2017

Paper in Paris

It was fun to search for art supplies when I visited Paris. I mapped the paper stores and they were not far from Notre Dame.

Since there were huge crowds in front, I walked over two foot bridges, about a 15 minute walk, to the paper stores on Rue Pont Louis-Phillippe.

They are located in the hip neighborhood  (the 4th District) known as the Marais. I bought Faber-Castell color pencils and this lovely little pink journal at Paper Plus.

They also had this lovely Italian paper on my "How to Meditate" book I sell on Etsy: ARTbooks.Etsy.com - I buy the paper at Paper Source in Houston.

Les Exprimeurs offered pretty stationery where I bought these wonderful bookmarks for souvenirs. Everyone loved them!

Calligrane sold colorful Japanese papers, greeting cards, and journals; their elegant books and paper were pricey.

The cheapest machine-bound small blank journal book was $55. But I did get some ideas for binding my own journals.

After Notre Dame, I walked around the corner to the bookstore, Shakespeare & Company.

The aisles were crowded, of course I bought a Paris postcard and looked at the books.

Another shop, called Tse Tse, across the street from my apartment in the 1st District on Rue Saint-Roch sold home accessories and notebooks. 

I bought this lovely Fabriano notebook, 8 1/4 by 11 1/4 inches.

I also bought this pretty gilt edged book with silver elastic - tres chic. 

Did you find any art supplies during your travels?


©Anne Rita Taylor 2017

Art Journaling Online

I made a Beaded Longstitch Placemat Journal for an online class from Kelly Kilmer called A Prompt a Day. The paper is 120 lb. hot press watercolor paper from Dick Blick. Click Link for related blog: https://anneritataylor.blogspot.com/2016/06/repurposed-fabric-book.html

I met Kelly in 2003 in her fabulous Los Angeles bookbinding class in Beverly Hills. Kelly still teaches around the L.A. area.

Kelly has this wonderful class - A Prompt a Day - on her blog site:  kellykilmer.blogspot.com  She gives 30 days of suggestions for backgrounds, such as collage, colors, images and writing prompts - for example: writing about a current life issue.

I enjoyed a prompt about writing a secret and placing it in a sealed envelope tucked away on the left side of the dancing girl page - above.

Finished with 10 Things I Do Every Day on April 30th. On this page I used a photo of my younger self.

Please tell me about your art journaling; and let me know if you have any questions in the Comments.

©Anne Rita Taylor 2017

Envelope Accordion Book

©Anne Rita Taylor 2016

I wanted to give some suggestions to my friend who was traveling this summer. My envelope accordion book was fun and most appreciated!

Supplies:

Arnold Grummer Paper Making

Handmade paper - 2 pieces 4 x 5 inches

Arnold Grummer Mini Zig Zag Books

Ribbon, 18 inches 

PVA or Mod Podge glue, and Scotch tape

Bonefolder, scissors, ruler

Magazines or calendars

Begin by folding the inside of the four accordion pages in half, so now you have eight sides plus the two covers which are not folded.

Making the envelopes: I used flower pictures from Martha Stewart’s Living magazine. I made my template to fit the 3 1/2 inches accordion page. Before gluing up the bottom and sides, it is 4 1/4 inches tall by 5 inches wide.

After you have four envelopes, place glue on half of the front of each envelope. 



Then glue each envelope to the half accordion page.

Instead of writing my own travel advice, I used four of the cards from the pack of Travel Tips, available on Amazon HERE.

You can take out your favorites, I decided on cards about safety, communicating, sleep, and being wary. Copy them and place them in the envelopes, making sure they fit and could be taken out easily.

Glue your handmade paper pieces to the covers. Before you glue the covers onto the book be sure to tape the middle of your ribbon to the back.

Add your handmade paper covers and you have a pretty Bon Voyage gift!

Bookbinding in Los Angeles

©Anne Rita Taylor 2016

I like to take a class when I travel. I found Charlene Matthews Bindery in Hollywood when I visited Los Angeles during Halloween 2010. We emailed to come up with a day when she had a workshop. Turned out I was the only student!

Charlene’s bindery is a storefront on Melrose Avenue where you can see the famous Hollywood sign. Charlene has bound books for movies such as Indiana Jones. We had a whole day - including lunch - of bookbinding. I was in heaven! 

Charlene showed me around her fabulous shop and asked me what I’d like to learn. Even though I was bookbinding for a while I look for alternatives to use. Charlene let me know she was using something new: a fine mesh screen-like material for pages and covers. 

Charlene demonstrated, covering the fine mesh with paper; we each made covers. We made the spine pieces, figuring out which paper to wrap around them; we hole-punched the signatures using lovely watercolor paper, and sewed the text block through the mesh onto the spine.

Since I made two spine pieces Charlene suggested I make another book with a leather wrap-around cover. I learned that the thread does not need to go through every station (hole) that was punched. It was a revelation to me!

I love these variations of the Tightback Longstitch Bindings taught by Charlene. I had not used spine pieces before and the books open flat for art journaling.

Charlene sent me home with some of that fine mesh material which I’ve since found at Ace Hardware. Recently I bought a whole roll of it and I'll use it too.