Not a lot to show for it

At the back end of last week I made a lot of paper fabric type stuff:

I made a lot of pieces using my own version of the Beryl Taylor method, to trial different glues and different fabrics, trying to find a "definitive" method.

I also tried Jill Kennedy's method for making fabric paper using crayons, paint and Vilene:

Which I then had a go at stitching.  I didn't put Bondaweb on the top like Jill says to do, I used acrylic wax and I wanted to make sure the paper top didn't shred when I stitched it:

It didn't shred, but I'm not sure why it all came out purple - not one of my usual colours.  And I ran out of inspiration for the stitching.

I then thought I'd better try making some little books, coz if I'm going to teach other people to do this I sort of need to know what I'm doing.

This very tiny book came out quite well:

(Shame about the undyed calico lining, but there we go.  Today I tried "dyeing" some with Brusho, which seemed to work.  Not completely colour-fast, but who washes books?)

So it all worked OK, but it's not a lot to show after making such a stack of papers.  I was a bit disappointed with myself, to be honest,  particularly after making this:

Oh yes, it looks half reasonable in the photo...

But I think that staying up 'til 11.30 to rip and paint papers and make cords wasn't such a good move.

Look:

Never mind the hideous colours, the pages stick out of the top and the cords are too low down.  Should have just gone to bed early if that's what I produce by staying up late.

Plans and pressure

I did this quickly last night, and finished it this morning, just to trial an idea. 
It started life as one of the pieces of fabric paper that were causing some stuckness  a few weeks ago.
I think I've invented a new easy way to applique snippets of fabric, so I'm quite excited about that. 
And I like that I stitched some leaves, and I love leaves. 
And I haven't tried to do yet another unsuccessful landscape.  

I had a meeting on Monday to decide what (and if) I was teaching next academic year.  I'm doing the 30 week course again, and as a bonus I've wangled an extra two-day course in May 2012: I want to do something more "messy" and that kind of thing can only really be done on a day course, not in a few hours on a Wednesday evening. 

As I was leaving, thinking that I had over a year to plan something suitably messy and interesting, the powers-that-be suddenly decided that I may as well do the two-day course THIS year.  So no pressure.

I will probably do fabric paper (or is it paper fabric?), and we can make little book covers.  With cords.  And maybe some beads.  I love beads....and cords...

So what was a vague idea now has to be put down on paper and handed in by the end of the week...
and I need to see if my vague idea will actually work...which means that I have to glue things and stitch things as if I was a beginner, with no interesting threads or fabrics, no real idea of what I'm trying to achieve, and no "extras" that I can just go and get from another part of the house...and the students have to come with nothing and go home with "something"...and I have to cost it all out and think of everything we may possibly need. 
Like, now.