So Sylvie

Adorn Yourself, It's Later Than You Think

Author Joan Didion once said she believed in using the good silver every day, because "every day is all there is." It's in that spirit I'd like to embolden you to take some creative liberty and adorn yourself, any day, not just the holidays.

 

header from Carla S. Foxe's Facebook page

The Art of Adornment, that's the name of Carla S. Fox's Etsy shop.

How to define Carla...she's a jewelry designer, a milliner, or more acurately a Facinator , and I would say an embellisher. But her work transcends those terms. Her necklaces, cuffs, neckpieces and hats are works of sculptural art, like a cross between Coco Chanel and Dale Chihuly -- elegant and nostalgic, playful and fantastical.

She creates dazzling assemblage pieces using found and discovered materials fabric scraps, antique buttons, bits of vintage jewelry, leaves and feathers.

"I seek out the unusual, the discarded, the overlooked. I see beauty where it may not currently exist, but I'll coax it out and give it new life." 

autumn rose

coraline

white mum

 

rose garden necklace

 

bluette cuff bracelet

 

dogwood

 

lucretia cuff bracelet

 

I'll finish with this dreamy creamy bridal headpiece. Happy EVERY day everyone!

the flapper bride

Altered Book Art - Lesson #2

Here are the instructions for my wall sculptures posted HERE.

Start with a funky hardcover book:

 

Remove the pages from the boards (the front and back cover) by cutting through the end papers (the paper that's glued to the boards):

 

 

Divide the pages into sections by marking them with a pencil. I've done three sections of equal size, but you could do whatever size you like and as many sections as you like. If you chose to do six sections then your final sculptures would have a more shallow projection from the wall. You could do different sizes allowing for varying depths of projection coming off the wall as well:

 

With your utility knife cut down through the pages using your pencil lines as a guide. It takes time, slicing through the pages little-by-little. You could also use scissors if it's easier:

 

Once you've cut through all of the pages you will then cut through the glued backing paper at the 'spine' to separate the sections:

 

 

Fold each of the pages in half, tucking the leading edge in towards the 'spine' of the section. Continue doing this until all of the pages have been folded:

 

 

On my first attempt I used a large book (maybe 400 pages) and found that after all of the folding was done the pages were too tight to have a good end result. To remedy that I cut down through the 'spine' and made two folded parts from one. This allowed me to add one more feature to the look whereby I folded every-other page in again so that it were half the size of the others. This gave the final piece a more textured and interesting effect:

 

 

 

Here you can see how the pages of the section right are fuller than I wanted and the section on the left is one that comes from having cut a full section in two. I wanted the final pieces to 'breathe', not be so dense and compact. You could play around with it and see what you come up with...experiment!

 

 

 

 

Look HERE for my Altered Book Art - Lesson #1 on making a vase.

Altered Book Art - Wall Sculpture

I made these three pinwheels shaped sculptures from damaged vintage books from the free bin at the library. My instructions can be found HERE.

 

 

 

 

Look HERE for Altered Book Art - Lesson #1 on making a vase.