Working men

There used to be a saw mill on the island where we have our summer house. It started around 1900 and closed in 1952. There are a lot of old photos from that era, and I love looking at them, seeing how the island looked in those days, what people were wearing, the interiors of their homes and how life was organized around the saw mill.

There are, among others, some group photos of the workers. I can´t help but noticing how proud they all look, from the thirteen year-old boys to the oldest men. Their lives must have been quite tough, the work was hard, but they were still considered lucky to be working in a place with good housing for the workers and a lot of advantages that workers in those days usually didn´t have, such as free fire wood and electricity.

These drawings are from one of those group photos. They aren´t portraits, the faces in the photo are too small to see each one clearly, but I tried to capture those proud expressions on their faces and their clothes. I´ll be doing some more of these in the next few days, since I think they´re so interesting. Plus, it gets me drawing again. I´ve been kind of lazy lately.

20 x 15 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Polar Black ink on Canson Montval watercolour paper.

Boat love

I am not a motor boat person, I´m a sailor. But as it is, I don´t have a sailing boat, I have part of a motor boat. It can´t beat sailing, but I have to confess that it´s still quite lovely to be able to go wherever you want on the water.

This boat of ours comes with a new feature compared to our old one - you can actually maneuver it to exactly where you want to go. That sounds stupid, I know - how hard can it be to steer a motor boat with a propeller in the back?! - but I assure you that with the wrong boat and narrow circumstances it is perfectly possible to make a complete ass of yourself EVERY TIME you´re trying to fit your boat into your assigned spot by the dock. Ask me, I know...

It may not be a beauty in the boat world, but it´s safe and I don´t feel worried driving it by myself, so I love it.

12.5 x 15 cm, Lamy Safaris with Lexington grey and Noodler´s Black ink on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Kalmarn

Another "cliffs-in-the-sun-painting". Can´t help it. It´s just so lovely. :)

Hus 42

On the island where we have our summer house, everyone introduces themselves to new people with the house number: "Hi, my name is this´n´that, house 42". That´s funny, it´s as if that number is part of one´s identity there. I´d never introduce myself that way at home, with my name and address. The house number is almost like a membership id, and if someone else too introduces himself with a house number, you know that oh, he´s one of us. No further explanations needed. Sort of like a secret hand shake.

A day by the sea

Spent a few hours by the sea, and brought my pen and watercolours with me. Don´t you just love lying on the cliffs by the sea on a sunny day? It must be one of the best things you can do on a day like this...

21 x 16 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray ink and watercolours on Canson Montval paper in a handbound sketchbook.

Lund

After the marbling class (see previous post) I got a few hours in a nearby city called Lund before catching a train. It´s a beautiful old town, with lots to see. I took a break from walking in a little café called Ariman, where this was part of the view outside the window.

12.5 x 15 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington gray and watercolours on Fabriano Artistico hot press paper.

Paper class

Last weekend I and my two friends Anne and Christina took a paper technique class with this wonderful couple, Per and Kerstin Nilsson, just outside of Lund in southern Sweden. This post is (although it´s long) a short summary of the incredibly inspiring class we took. If you are interested in marbling, or in the classes Per and Kerstin give, check towards the end of this post for more info.

I don´t remember the last time I learned so much in just two days - Per and Kerstin are fantastic teachers. The class included a lot - three different marbling techniques, building paper folders and portfolios, the history behind marbled papers, printing titles on books, and some more.

Kerstin took care of the marbling techniques. We tried our hand at suminagashi (a Japanese technique with ink on water), oil colours on water and oil colours on Tylose ground. She taught us how to mix colours to the right consistency to make them work well on the ground, and how to make marbled patterns with different combs and sticks.
We marbled everything from papers to textiles to shoes, we were so into it that when the evening came, our dear teachers had to tear us away from the marbling trays. Once you get started on marbling, you just can´t stop...

There is an endless amount of knowledge to pick up around marbling. The Tylose ground was a new acquaintance to me, and the four different trays we used behaved a little differently depending on temperature, colours used, the consistency of the colours... The reactions of the colours change depending on in what order you drip them into the tray. Every little change you make in the process gives a new result on the paper (or textile). Once you´ve tried one thing, you discover something new that you want to try next, which is why this is so addictive. There is a lot of experimenting involved in these techniques, and the possibilities are never ending.

Per taught us how to make a big portfolio to hold our large sheets of marbled papers, and A4 size folders dressed with marbled paper.

He showed us a lot of useful tips and tricks about paper folding, gluing and how to make your work flow more effective, a lot of which I will use next time I bind a new sketchbook. I finally learned how to make those professional-looking beautiful corners on books - my next sketchbook will be sooo purty! ;)

Per also showed us how to print letters and patterns on book cloth (for example on book spines), so we all tried our hand at printing our names in gold on the A4 folders. I never knew how that was done, it was a bit tricky to learn how to do it right, but it turned out well in the end.

During the whole weekend, Per and Kerstin shared their vast knowledge about the history of paper and marbling with us, along with anecdotes from all their journeys and exhibitions. We got to see samples of papers from all over the world. An incredibly inspiring weekend for a paper freak like me.

If you want to know more about Per and Kerstin´s classes, don´t hesitate to call them: 046-24 93 10. (If you don´t speak Swedish, I think French or English would do just fine.)
For those of you who read Swedish, Per and Kerstin Nilsson are the authors of Sweden´s best book about marbling, "Marmorera och dekorera med papper och färg" (ISBN 91-7136-460-9). If you have any interest whatsoever in marbling, get the book!