Gold dust in the air! — The quiet park lost in reverie,
The roses heavy, drunk on their own fragrance,
And every blade of grass edged with white light …
I myself dreaming, my eyes heavy with sun,
It floods over me in sultry waves,
A blue butterfly circles around me …
— Hedwig Dransfeld
“(A loose translation — German poetry doesn’t always travel well, but you’ll get the feeling of it.)”
This poem has been sitting in my Trash to Treasure drawer for years — a page torn from a magazine, too beautiful to throw away. When I pulled out my July moodboard and saw the word Gold, I knew exactly where it belonged.
Everything on this art journal page was already there, waiting. The painted face came from a collaboration I did two or three years ago with Marie from Sweden and Eleni from Greece. Each month we sent each other painted backgrounds and drew faces in our own styles — this card was mine to keep, and it finally found its place.
What went into the page:
Lutrador — I printed on this synthetic fabric using my inkjet printer with a paper from my Cute Grunge collage collection.
Tip: always tape your Lutrador to a regular sheet of printer paper before feeding it through the machine. The fabric is not only translucent — it also has tiny holes, and the paper underneath catches any stray ink. Your printer will thank you.
Teabag with embroidery — a small piece of teabag, hand-stitched with red buttonhole silk from my grandmother’s sewing box. I chose it to match the red dress on the postcard. Those little connections matter. The page lives in my Golden Thread Journal — a hand-bound book I made myself. If you’d like to make your own, the online class is on my website: 👉 https://beagrob.com/product-category/onlineclasses/ What’s hiding in your own Trash to Treasure drawer right now?
Watch the video with the whole process here:
