Musical Dust

Hello and happy Sunday everyone!  I hope you're enjoying some sunshine, some lovely company, some crafting time, some music - or whatever else makes your Sunday a day of joy and rest...

I'm here to share some journal pages with you - from what is fast becoming a journal of pages inspired by music... so far music is at the root of every page spread.  These were fired by coming across a beautiful quote by Bertholdt Auerbach, a 19th century German novelist:  Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.  I couldn't agree more!

Except as I was stamping the words, it shifted in my brain and I'm afraid I slightly misquoted the end of it... though of course it's in translation, so who knows?  

I've yet to track down the original German, but I'm actually very happy with my variation!

The words are stamped on torn Kraft Glassine paper, which gives a lovely textural effect at the edges.


Yes, I stamped the words - I'm sorry, I couldn't bring myself to use handwriting after I so hated the result last time.  

But there is some of my own hand in here in the musical doodles.  I've always doodled music notation, especially treble clefs.  I love the shapes and variations.

I used the fine end of a Tim Holtz Distress Marker in Black Soot to doodle them.

One of the glorious things to me about music is that it mixes discipline and creativity, rigour and imagination.  The notes fly around the five very disciplined lines of the stave.

The mathematical structures of note distances create melodies, and the physics of sound vibration create unearthly and profoundly moving harmonies.  

You have to have both the technique and the inspiration to create music, the mathematical and the musical.  So there are both organized and random elements in the pages.

The collaging in the background is fairly random, torn pages from an old music book - both notation and a title page with beautiful swirly flourishes and text.  

I've also used one of the Pink Paislee stamps from the London Market collection of a concert advertisement, also with lots of flourishes.

Then I painted a layer of gesso over the pages to unify the elements, and to send them into the background.

The words and doodles are random element in pages which I've deliberately otherwise kept very ordered and in straight lines and right angles.

Where I've stamped the music notation (PP, London Market again) and the beautiful hard edged, but internally flowing, diamonds from one of the recent Stampers Anonymous Classic releases, it's always in straight lines and at right angles.

I stamped the diamonds several times, and in places it's double-stamped, almost overlapping.  The first stamping was done using the TH Metallic Distress Stains in Tarnished Brass and Antique Brass, and then stamped over in Coffee Archival. 

This way you get the lovely metallic sheen and the glorious sharp detail of the stamp.

I've also used one of my lovely new bits of stash, won so luckily last week from Crafty Individuals during the Tando Creative Blog Hop.  

This lovely stencil is by CI, and it's got both straight lines and delicious flourishes - perfect to complement the architecture of the music.  

I'm listening to what I think of as "Sunday morning music" as I write this... always something choral, usually something very early - Byrd or Tallis - something on which I can float away from the cares of the world.  

Which is, of course, exactly the thing the quote is talking about... and the thing that I also found during the making of these pages, and often find in the hours spent at the craft table.  I'm so grateful to have found another way to wash away the dust!

I hope you find a way to let the cares of the world be washed away from you this Sunday.  In the meantime, thank you so much for spending some of your time here with me, and I look forward to your company again soon.

Music is a moral law.  It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

Plato

I'm entering this in the Art Journal Café challenge which is Music
And in the current Anything Goes challenge over at the Crafty Bloggers Network 
And at the brand new challenge blog Eclectic Ellapu, who are kicking off with an Anything Goes