Scroll Journals: A Project in Progress

This weekend, Rebekah, BryonySeries artist and local author Sue Midlock, and me gathered at Sue's house to start making scroll journals, art pieces that reflect our books.

Basically you attach a long piece of paper and affix it to a wooden spool. But first, you decorate it and write on it.

Here are some of the supplies Sue gathered for us to use. Her husband Bruce made the spools for us.

Next, we painted long strips of paper with watercolors. Sue chose autumn colors to reflect the witch story she is writing. We chose pale yellows and tans to create an aged parchment look.

Then we began embellishing and writing on the scrolls. Ours have "bryony" vines and tiny pink flowers, of course.

We spent about three hours on the project and hope to return to it this weekend.

Unwinding Some Fun

A couple weeks ago, BryonySeries artist Sue Midlock pitched an intriguing idea.

She sent me some pictures of giant wooden spools where artists had wound long paper around it (like a giant scroll), and then wrote on the scroll and decorated it.

Sue was planning to make one of these giant scrolls as a companion piece of art to one of her books and asked if I'd like to make one with a BryonySeries theme. Naturally, I agreed, even though I don't have a clue how this works.

I'm also not very creative. So this should be interesting.

Fortunately, Sue also invited Rebekah to join is. So now I can play artist understudy to Rebekah and Sue simply follow their directions. We are planning to make the scrolls this weekend.

This is the spool Sue's husband, a woodworker, made for her. His making one for me, too, she said.

Next week, I'll update with the completed projects. I'm sure with Sue's guidance and Rebekah's talent, mine will turn out all right.