Nueva Vida!

 I cannot explain you the joy when making and doiing this! Next week I will finish this one and I'm ready to explore that impressive mountain ridge on the border of Switzerland and France with my guide from 1925 :)

Time for a trip!

 I started in my second year of Bookbinding at the Academy and this is one of my trials for a long-stitch binding. A piece of thick felt and wool coloured and made by some woman from Aayacucho-Perú.

So happy with my bag of Peruvian wool...in all kind of colours!

Interesting to combine making books with some embroidery.
Time for a trip I guess with this little diary?

Welcome to M²!

This day

1/ I woked up with a very strong light in my bedroom. The sky was deepgray on one side and the sun was burning the other side. Somewhere over the rainbow...that was my place this morning. 2/ The postmen ringed once and there he was with a little gift for my sister-in-law...hope she will love this creation made by Fleurfatale. The way of packaging made me feel so happy and let's not forget the jewels inside. Visit Greet's shop FLEURFATALE...and discover a sweet world of beauties. 3/ A shot of productivity in my class this afternoon, working with soapstone...and they loved it! More photos on my other blog / EL DIBUJO DEL NIÑO 4/ A rare photo of myself with my students, thanks to my collegue Ellen who  took this picture :)

And now back home, time for tea and a soaked biscuit :) Hooooooooray!

More books!

 And  my evening classes (The art of books) goes on and I love it! Here some first trials with a Japanese stab binding. I'm getting loads of paper from my boxes on the attic and finally I can give them a new life! Like the last cover is made from a Peruvian schoolplate about all the fruits the country can offer :) New sketchbooks with a soul. Yesterday I started from an old book that we have to demount totally and restore if required and binding again with a new self-designed cover! So time to draw some Alice. The book is from my mom and she is very curious how it will start his new life :))) Me too! :)

The pleasure of paper and books!

 School began again and besides being a teacher of Arts I love it to go on with studies and learn more and more about the things I love to do. Finally I started  this branch of 'making books'. I learned it once in one hour, very quickly and I had to do it with that base of knowledge. Happy I'm into the class of Katja Clement (NL) and so curious what we will learn this year. My first exercise / A leporello book, a little book by folding.

Made my little cat-book...it's not finished yet...want to make a little Dalí puppet for it...you will see...want to finish it very soon! ;)
ooooh...and just on the radio...this song is a perfect beginning of this day!
Bon Iver and Holoscene
ENJOY it!

Tableau Vivant

Yesterday we celebrated together with 11 Antwerp Academies of Art, Music and Drama the yearly event on wich we want to show to our arts to a bigger audience. It was the first time they organized a huge event in one place, everybody together under one roof. It was a terrific day, loooots of people, parents with their kids and an enormous crowd where present to discover our treasures. While the big crowd was turning around different stages and performances, my coleagues and me started a Tableau Vivant. Students on the piano and harp played some classical tunes while we tried to illustrate words given by different people with ink and pencil on a tremendous paper. So much fun we had to do this! Not that easy but the result was quite impressive. All those styles together...one big story...hidden in lines. We have to do more things like this! And soon want to try that with my 6 years old students :)

Kids and creativity

oooh, hardly can find some time to draw...meanwhile want to show you what my kids are doing in the academy. Visit my other blog HERE to see more of those 'little BIG artists'

Mail-art with kids

I'm very busy to find for every kid in the two academies where I'm teaching a good address. I'm taking them into the world of Mail-art. They prepared a postcard with their self-made stamp and a design on the other side about the house where they are living...their place. The mail-artist who will receive the card will add his/her house/place onto the card and send them back to the kid. So I can start planning a little international expo with all the results of this mini-project.
I'm sure of one thing, the kids are loving it and some cards already arrived somewhere on this planet and those artists are loving it too already!!! Only fun and happy people over the globe!

THANKS to all my IUOMA - friends, The international union of mail-artists
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Sinds twee weken ben ik druk bezig met de organisatie van een mini-project op de twee academies waar ik lesgeef. Ik heb de leerlingen meegesleurd in een nieuwe wereld...deze van de mail-art of Kunst per post. Zij hebben hun kaart klaargestoomd met een afbeelding/collage/ reliëf van hun huis/omgeving en de bedoeling is dat de mail-art kunstenaars verspreid over deze bol een verbeelding maken van hun omgeving/woonplaats en deze kaart dan terugsturen naar de kinderen. Beide partijen zijn voorlopig razend enthousiast over dit hele heen-en weer gepost...zegels plakken, onbekende adressen in verre landen...zo spannend!
We wachten af vol ongeduld!