The Case of the Lace-less Lace Pages

When I'm about to start work on someone's journal, the first thing I normally do is look for a focal image.  Last week I received my friend Sox's gorgeous lace journal; her theme is vintage fashionable ladies.  Scrolling through my files, searching image sites and Pinterest, I found an abundance of beautiful images, but I kept going back to one.  Not a Victorian lady, not an art nouveau beauty, not a Marie Antoinette look alike.  Oddly enough, what my muse was telling me to begin with was a picture of two geishas.  I don't like to argue with my muse (when she's around long enough to actually have an argument with), so I printed the image onto some cotton fabric and then started gathering the other things to go with it.

It soon became clear that lace just didn't feel (or look) right with the asian fabrics and embellishments that were strewn out on my work table.  Hmmmm......the group is called Vintage Lace.  Sox is the leader of the group. When it comes to creating with fabric and lace, she is my inspiration, my mentor, my guru.  What to do?  Well, I wrote her a quick note explaining my little dilema, and she quickly wrote back and told me she had no problem with no lace, and I should just go for it.  Which I did.

NOTE:  The page (entirely made of fabric) is a double spread; when Sox binds it into her covers it will fold down the middle and become one of the signatures in the book. 

So, here is the front:

 

And some details.  I made the little kimono from some asian inspired fabric I bought ages ago in a scrapbook store in Bar Harbor.  Just like paper piecing, except with fabric.  And a sewing machine.  Those are some strands of embroidery floss hanging from the faux asian coin.



 

More of those faux coins, connected with more of that embroidery floss.  I have about 5 pounds of the stuff, and was so happy to actually use some of it.

 



 

The main background fabric (seen below) has a story.  On the last Tim cruise my friend Kyoko from Tokyo brought a bunch of cool things for those of us on the cruise who were about to begin an asian round robin.  Amongst the stash was some vintage kimono fabric.  This background is a bit of that treasure.  Isn't it great to include something in a piece that has a history or at least an interesting story?  

 

Some seed beads to enhance the outfit:

 

I don't know if you can see it in this photo, but this chopstick is decorated with a picture of a geisha, so I thought I'd include it.  It was adhered with a bit of glue to keep it in place and then wrapped with embroidery floss.  I also used the floss and some pony beads in a simple blanket stitch to go all around the piece to finish it off.

 

 

 

This is the back.  We don't have to decorate the backs; they just have to be finished looking.  But I went ahead and added a little something anyway.  BTW, the background is plain muslin that I stamped with permanent ink and then sprayed with some Perfect Pearls mists.

 



 I printed (on cotton) two pages I did in that asian journal group, layered over some fabric someone (and that someone might have actually been Sox) sent me.

 

A little decoration made by stamping and embossing on bamboo tiles:

 

At the very last minute, just before I was going to clean up and put everything away, I remembered I still had some scraps from a beautiful piece of lace that my friend Lee from Australia sent me.  I cut out two of the elements and added them.....just so I could say I used some lace.  Besides, they do work well (I think) there.

 

So, Sox, what is the verdict?  Are you still OK with the (almost) lace-less lace pages?