7th Annual Artist Retreat, part 2

Way back during the first annual artist retreat at Pam's house, we agreed that this week would be a week of experimentation, much what if-ing and just doing it. A week to try those methods, techniques, tools and/or materials that were on our one day lists. Somewhere along the way this time, I lost sight of that and attempted to do a bit of serious tea bag work. If you read part 1, you know that that was unsuccessful and highly frustrating.

This studio radiates fun, cooperation, sharing ideas, lending a hand, etc. That's not to say serious work never happens, but it comes about as a result of giving yourself permission to play and follow an idea...even the hint of an idea. With this in mind, Pam declared the remainder of the retreat to be about play and I happily followed her directive.

We raided her stash of paper bags and 

while she painted fabric,

I set about slicing

and dicing the bags.

Pam decided to add more handles 

to her journal while waiting for the paint to dry.

Soon enough, it was time for me to sew this to that

and that to this.

Some parts of the bags seemed perfect for creating pockets.

In all, there are 3 pockets in this journal...in fact one whole page (not pictured) is a pocket.

With plenty of supplies at hand, today's question is

do I finish the black, white and red book or make more paper bag journals? What do you think?