I recently purchased a secondhand book because of the charming little pieces of art published in it. This sketch of the ballerina Marie Taglioni is my favorite. She was the first to dance on point and the artist commented, "She danced quite beautifully, quite as if she flew in the air, so gracefully and lightly."
This pretty-in-pink portrait of a musician was done by the same artist, who lived during the 1800's. Can you guess who the artist is?
This portrait is entitled "Mifs Victoire Conroy from nature" and is dated December 1836. Any last guesses? The artist of these three pieces is none other than Queen Victoria (The Sketchbook of Queen Victoria by Marina Warner). For some reason, it really surprised me that Queen Victoria was such a good artist. I know that young women of that era were expected to have "accomplishments" such as drawing, playing music and sewing, but somehow these light, pastel pieces don't seem like they would have been created by the woman who looked somewhat dark and dowdy in her later-in-life portraits.
And here's another surprising piece of art, also found in a second-hand book. This is a collage, from a series on Queen Elizabeth, by Gloria Vanderbilt (Gloria Vanderbilt Book of Collage). It fascinated me that a fashion designer and a woman of such wealth would choose to make her art out of scraps of humble materials like gingham fabric, paper doilies and tin foil. You can see another one of the Queen Elizabeth pieces at David Duncan Antiques. I'd love to hear about your secondhand book finds.
Have you seen Marie from Somerset? It's filled with gorgeous art inspired by Marie Antoinette. It must have made quite an impact on me, because I seem to be finding her image all over the place, and somtimes bringing the item home. Like this box from an antique mall in Des Moines.
Or this tiny notepad from Barnes & Noble (tucked in a watered silk bag found in an antique store in Hopkins, Minnesota.)
But my favorite item has to be this piece, which now adorns my dress form. It has the sacred heart emblazened with flames and Marie's cipher. I found this a couple of weekends ago at an antique show here in the Kansas City area. The dealer's tag had no clues about the piece--I just recognized the cipher from seeing it used in several of the Marie magazine art pieces. Now, I'm reading Queen of Fashion (What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution) by Caroline Weber. Has the tragic French queen inspired you?
What a delight it has been to participate in the Puppy Love Tag Book Swap. Karla, who was our hostess, created covers for more than 50 of us who wanted to swap and put the books together with ribbons and charms. My cover has what I think of as one of Karla's signatures--a pleated ruffle made from vintage paper. And look at the cute little Scottie dog charm. It reminds me of third grade, when a boy who liked gave me the prize from his box of Cracker Jacks. Ah, young love! Here's a look at how six of the swappers celebrated the theme with paper, glue and creativity!
Debe Leon wowed me with her clever combination of cheesecloth, crepe paper, flocked hearts and a vintage valentine image , but those tiny dog bones dotting the red and white baker's twine really pulled at my heartstrings
Robin chose a vintage photo with dogs that look a bit like my terriers. How important it is to claim things with the word "mine" when you are young. Robin expressed this so beautifully by adding the hand-stitched sentiment to this wonderful image.
Don't you love the concentration this boy is putting into expressing his affection for a girl while his faithful pup waits for his attention? Amy Wald added a sweet crepe paper ruffle stitched with Valentine's Day red to finish her tag.
Like me, Carrie Witherite, chose an image of a white dog sitting on a pink pillow. I love the Victorian feeling she created for this tag has with rose wallpaper and layers of green velvet ribbon, pink rickrack and delicate lace.
Debra Ganas picked a cute vintage image to show that no matter what language we use to say the word love, the meaning is the same everywhere--we don't want to leave the one we l0ve behind. The striped scalloped circle pulls the words and the image together and adds a playful toch.
I know this tag's maker--it's Shawn. I met her and her cute little daughter at Karla's blogger tea party. The deeper colors and wistful image she chose to portray that old-fashioned phrase "Be Still My Heart" are just perfect.
My posh pink pups are on their way to Karla's for the Puppy Love Tag Book Swap. I was pretty pleased with how they turned out, but I wish I'd learn to do broader strokes of layering and less fussy detail. I seem to get hung up on things like making the tiniest slit in a paper bird's beak so it can be glued under and over a bit of lace so it looks as though the bird is acutally holding the lace in its mouth.
In this case, I was quite taken by the tombourine this trade card dog was holding. I really got caught up in turning it into an "instrument of love". I cut away the original advertising and sandwiched tiny, free-floating punched paper hearts between the paper pup, pink vellum and a background paper. That tested my cutting and gluing skills! Then I handstitched through those three layers to attach gold sequins and beads to highlight the three tombourine jingles. For the life of me, I can't figure out how one person, making six little tags with such teeny details can make such a mess! There were sequins, beads, snips of paper and bits of trim everywhere! It was a jumble of everything I had considered and everything I had used. This morning the studio straighten-up began--but only after an inspiring hour spent with the new issue of Where Women Create.
