A Coffee Loving Ancestor Emerges.....

Last week I received my good friend Pat's Vintage Ancestors book, and I just love the way everyone has continued the theme that Pat established at the very beginning.  One way or another, all her ancestors were involved in the tea business, and the stories created for them are just wonderful.  Of course I'd go with the flow, but with a tiny little twist.  My contribution to the Tilly-Lipton clan, one Hazel Tilly, was definitely the black sheep of the family; horror of horrors, she hated tea!

Here is my two page spread:

This is a very simple layout, almost like a scrapbook.  The background is a vintage coffee and tea adverstisement that I printed on lightly patterned vellum, cut to the size of the two pages, then split down the middle so that half is on each page.  After I wrote my story (in my head), I just went on a search for pictures to illustrate it.  Thank you, Pinterest!  Thank you, Google images!

Here's a closer look at the story, and remember you can click on any of the photos to get a larger image.

 

 

Hazel's travels took her all over the world, but it was in Denmark that she found true love, and married there.  Why Denmark?  I'll get to that later.

 

 

 

Now, what is the meaning of the statement on the coffee cup?  Does that hinge actually work?

 

 

 

Why, yes, it does!  And what secret is revealed?

 

 

 

It seems that the Keurig coffee maker empire had its roots in the union of Hazel Tilly and Henrik Keurigsen.  Who knew? 

 

What inspired my twisted tale?  I happened upon an article giving the history of the Keurig company (very interesting TRUE story, by the way), and learned that keurig is the Danish word for courage.  I already knew I wanted my ancestor for Pat to be a coffee drinker, and Pat and I both love our Keurigs.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Totally invented history, but still......

 

I can't wait to get the book back to Pat.  I know she's going to love it.  I've said it before:  maybe you can't choose your relatives, but in our little collaborative art journal world, your friends can choose them for you.











Vintage Ancestors - A Jilted Lover

Karen's Vintage Ancestors book begins with two lovers, separated by the Civil War.  Sarah and Lawrence write to one another, professing their undying love, until.....Elena gets her hands on the book, LOL.  Then, it's all about Sarah leaving Lawrence for his brother Timothy. 

As I continue the saga, Lawrence responds to Sarah's "Dear John" letter, and I do believe he takes the high road (while getting in a few well deserved zingers).

First, the two-page spread.

 

 

I used fabric and paper scraps to create what I thought a journal made by a young woman might look like. 

 

 

 

On the left, a pocket (a Tim Holtz glasseine envelope covered with 7 Gypsies tissue paper) holding the letter Lawrence wrote after receiving the bad news from Sarah.  Pinned to the fabric below is a bauble I had in my stash.  Yes, the heart opens, and yes, there is something inside.  A lock of hair, perhaps?  Too creepy?  Well, how about a lock of doll hair, then?

 

I did some research, and my friend Google found a photo of a Confederate officer.  Not a general (they all seemed so old); I think this one is a lieutenant.  And his sword is a Confederate foot officer's sword.  I printed it out and covered it with Glossy Accents and then cut it out with my trusty craft knife.  What I really liked about it is that the site where I found the sword said that it was made by a sword maker in New Orleans.  Karen's characters are from southern Louisiana.  Fate!

 

 

 

 

Although I have Tim's rosette dies, I made this one the old school way, by doing accordian folds.  I wanted it to look like it was made by hand, as I'm reasonably sure that Sarah did not own a die cutting machine.  In the center is a button from my stash.

 

The two brads on the cabinet card are from Stampin' Up, and I've had them for years.  I thought they kind of looked like the buttons you might find on a military uniform.  Speaking of cabinet cards.....the holder for the photo is not authentic; it is a replica, also courtesy of Mr. Holtz.  Because the back of the holder had cool stuff on it, I separated it from the front and will use it in another project.

 

And, lastly, here is the letter that broken-hearted Lawrence wrote.  If you have trouble reading it, click on it and it should get large enough to decipher.

 

 

 

Will Lawrence survive the war and find fortune and love in California?  Will Sarah and Timothy actually marry?  Will we ever even know?  Well, that all depends on those who receive the book after me.  They may continue the story or go off on another track.  And someone further down the line may decide to go back to the current story line.  That's one of the things I love most about this particular journal;  you just never know who might turn up in a family tree, and what they will be doing.



 







Another Ancestor, Found

I mentioned before that one of the latest round robins I'm in is called Vintage Ancestors.  It is so much fun, because we're all searching the internet, garage sales, and flea markets for cabinet cards (or making faux ones) and giving everyone an ancestor with a back story.  I am having the best time with this, and have been working on my friend Sox's book.  Sox started things off with a relative who was a circus performer and though I didn't start out with that in mind, I gave her one who was also quite the rebel.

Without further ado, the tale of Claudine Romanov-Mercurio, gypsy, dancer, actress, runaway, and so much more.

Here is the photo that started it all:

First, a quick look at my two page spread:

 

 

Where is the cabinet card?  Well, it's hiding behind the narrative.  I printed the story on transparency film.  Originally I was just going to put it over the second page, but decided to back the transparency with vellum, which also makes it easier to read.  Time to backtrack a bit.

 

The title, "A Misspent Youth," continues on page two, with the question, "Or was it?"  The story answers that question.

 

The first page consists of many tags and other memorabilia that our wayward Claudine collected in her youthful travels.  They are strung together and pop out of their pockets easily so they can be looked at.

 

 

 

The transparency, vellum, and underlying page were machine stitched together on one side so the story can be lifted to reveal page two.

 

 

 

And this is Claudine's story:

 

 

 

You just have to love a project that allows you to be both artist and storyteller.  Can't wait to get my next victim, I mean book.













Vintage Ancestors and Art Is You

The newest collaborative journal I'm involved in is themed Vintage Ancestors, and we will begin mailing our books in mid October.  We're using cabinet cards (or our version of them), creating a back story, and then each successive artist will give us another relative or two or six (might be a group photo) and add to the story.  I see great opportunities for every style of art.  Seriously elaborate lace, fanciful altered ancestors, and everything in between.

I think most of us created our own books for the project, and from what I've seen so far in the photos we've shared, they are pretty fabulous.  My own is modest in size and decoration, but I think it does have a vintage feel.  Here is the cover:

 

 

The covers are corrugated cardboard disguised by many layers of decorative napkins, tissue paper, paper tape, gesso, ink, and paint (not necessarily in that order; I just kept layering).  Here is a sideways view (a little dark; sorry about that) to show the exposed spine.

 

 

 

The binding method I used is one I learned from Michelle Ward at CREATE this past summer.  No sewing at all!  Pages are attached to one another with strips of paper and strong glue. In Michelle's class we used tyvek, but I used decorative paper, which the artists can incorporate into their work or ignore and cover completely.  I'm leaving that up to them.

 

 

 

The back cover I left plain. 

 

 

 

To get my party started I chose a cabinet card that has some special meaning for me.  According to what I read, the couple in the photo came from a town in the Ukraine called Brody.  My paternal grandmother's maiden name was Brody, which I always thought odd.  I thought Brody was an Irish name, and imagined that it probably started out as something like Brodsky and was shortened by immigration, as was often the case back then.  Now I'm wondering if her name was something else altogether, something not understood by the folks on Ellis Island, so they just gave her the name of her home town.  Remember how young Vito Corleone got his name in the Godfather?  Anyway, here is my first page.  I haven't written the story behind it yet.

 

 

 

I won't be working on that story for a while.  This afternoon I leave for Connecticut and what I know will be a fabulous week at Art Is You.

 

 

 

Everyone I've spoken to agrees that this is one of the finest mulit-teacher art retreats around.  If you live on the east coast and haven't signed up for classes, they're not all filled and it isn't too late.  Hope to see you there!