Rohling Studios

After Work!

  Did you like cracker jacks…not so much for the tasty treat but for the surprise inside? Is the best part of your Chinese takeout the fortune cookie? Then these books are for you because each one is like opening a new present! No two are alike!!! I was given a handmade journal by someone very special to me. It meant so much to me that I had to sit down and play with the process of making more of them for myself. This month my sister and I spent some time making these one of a kind altered journals especially for PFATT. Now understand that we believe in coloring outside of the lines and that mistakes are a part of life so please know that each book is made with love and care; however, we accept no responsibility for tiny imperfections and will not admit as to whether they were intentional or not. We hope you enjoy our sense of humor. Journals can be used to jot down your day's highlights, write your music, draw your designs, keep your secret thoughts, or store addresses. You might even use your journal as a place to write down your favorite recipes or simply keep your grocery lists and carry them to the store in style.

Cindy made this journal for the creative soul and fun at heart. It’s vamp dancer on the front cover.  It also has Typewriter Keys below her that spell out “DANCE”. The back cover has a long red envelope to hide your innermost secret of dreams. The book is definitely for the person with an off beat sense of humor. It also contains many surprises inside.

And lastly this little pink journal is for a sweet someone special. With its vintage ephemera and feminine touches it would be perfect for anyone’s inner child. Once again we stress that these journals are all one of a kind .  All of them are available through PFATT this month only along with work from numerous other artisan's and crafters.   To see them click HERE

Vintage Halloween Collectibles

OOOOOOOOOooooooooo!  I just found the most fun book!  It is a great resource for illustrators, crafters and folks who love vintage halloween items!  Mark B. Lendenback, author and collector of all things halloween also has a wonderful website.  You can find it HERE.

 

Until you can order this book (Here) take a look at the wonderful images in it.  I am really loving this witch!  Isn't she great?

Wouldn't it be fun to make a pumpkin garland like this one with your kids?

Or maybe a banner of harvest moons

This book is fun from front cover to back!  Let me know what you think or it.

Ed Emberley

When my children were young I picked up a cute little book by Ed Emberley that taught ways of using shapes to drawing the most adorable little things.  We drew trucks, cars and boats.  Then we drew cats, dogs and people.  We got hooked on drawing the little figures!  I have to wonder how many children grew up learning how to draw because of Ed Emberley.  As you can see.....this post and the new banner was done to pay tribute to a man who has gotten people of all ages to pick up pencils, fingerpaints, and crayons.....to cut and paste and color their hearts out!  Ed Emberley has gotten parents all over the world to play with their own creativity while teaching their children to draw.  I designed my current banner using the Ed Emberley Drawing Book of Halloween.  Be sure to check it out on Amazon.  And while you are there buy one or two of his books and try drawing the Emberley way!

My Book House Series

Take a look at this great present I recently got!  It's a full set of The Book House books. There are twelve in the set and each cover is more beautiful than the next. 

Inside it just gets better!

and better....

and even better.......

I have spent hours and hours pouring over page after page of wonderul illustrations, poetry and stories.

I strongly recommend trying to locate a set to share with one of the children in your life....or just by yourself with the child inside of you!

Library Memories

Do you remember spending hours going through the card catalogs at the library?  Sometimes I lost myself in titles and words.  I remember thinking, "All these books!  How will I ever read them all?"  I'd look up an author, a topic, or a title.  Then I would take one of the small wooden pencils and the little sheet of paper from the top of the drawers and write down the numbers that would lead me to the books I wanted.  It was before Barnes and Noble...and before Amazon.  The Mead Pubic Library....a refuge at the top of marble stairs on Seventh Street.  Growing up in the city of Sheboygan, WI, I was fortunate to have a wonderful children's library to go to after school.  There were stacks and stacks of picture books.  I would get lost in the stacks.  I spent hours sitting on the floor in an aisle with a pile of books to pour over.  It was the librarian in the children's library that I innocently asked for, "a book about the birds and the bees".  She was a wonderful older woman (at least older to me and, remember, I barely looked over the counter then).  She smiled...barely concealing her amusement and distracted me by showing me how to check in books that had been returned to her.  Back then, we just signed our names to a card that was in a pocket glued to the back of the book.  For each book I printed my name (very carefully) on the card.  The librarian would stamp the date it was due to be returned next to my name.  Later, I could find books that I had checked out previously...and there...on the card was a time capsule.  There was my name...printed by me...weeks, months and in some cases a year before!  Sometimes my name was on it twice.  I'd look to see if anyone I knew had read the same book.  Once or twice I would run across a book that my brother, or uncle (he was only two years older than I) had checked out.  That was a strange and wonderful feeling to pull out that card from the pocket and trace their handwriting with my finger...It was almost magic to me that a piece of them from that day was right here in my hands.  I am now thinking I was a slightly strange kid...but those are things that made me feel connected to something bigger than myself.  Those were beginnings.  Maybe my love of books began there, sitting on the floor of the library....always in the stacks rather than at the kid's table or the rug provided in the middle of the room.  That was too far from the beloved picture books.  Remember Flicka, Ricka and Dicka,

Snip Snap and Snur,   

    

          

       

The Happy Hollisters, Nancy Drew,

   

and, Mike Mulligan And His Steam Shovel? 

And one of my very favorites has returned!!!  Curious George!!!! 

Do you remember being able to go up the stairs and entering the adult library for the first time?  It was so BIG!  The first time I was in there alone I walked up and down the stacks just looking at all the book covers.  They were new and old....and some so old they barely had a cover on them.  I learned how books were bound by seeing the bared pages.  I learned the smell of the library.  I learned that I would never....ever read them all.  I remember touching the bindings as I walked up and down, looking from the top to the bottom of each stack of books.  I even stopped to look at the ones sitting in the cart to be put away again....and again....and again.   Some how I had to at least SEE all of the titles.  I think I grew up in the library.  Images and words are powerful things.  I could have never imagined things such as blogs, ISBN numbers....or my very own illustrated books.  It is fun to find them on the shelves of libraries and bookstores.  I could never have dreamed that would come true.

My daughter is taking her children to library story hour.  I remember taking my own children to story hours.  Three generations...I wonder...what do their little minds think of it all?

If you would like to make your own library card catalog go HERE.  Just for old times sake.

James Bond and Philosohy~Jacob M. Held

The first time I saw James Bond in action I was a young teenage girl!  I loved his comebacks....I loved his cool, calm attitude....I fell in love with this man who oozed sophistication and sexuality!!!  The world was intrigued with James Bond and longed for a hero that could save us all from the end at the hands of a maniacal bad guy! We were children that were raised with the threat of the atom bomb.  The Cold War was reality and so was the war in Vietnam.  James Bond represented hope...both on the world wide front and on the personal level that someday we would actually grow out of being just a teenager, know how to talk to the opposite sex, (*ahem*) and do our part to save the world.  I started by buying a pair of hip huggers and growing my hair long!  That was my outward manifestation.  Inwardly I began to think about these films.  What where James Bondisms?  What kind of a man was this?  And the Morality of his actions....what was that all about?  Now we can read about the philosophy behind the man and his character.  THE MOST EXCITING PART OF ALL OF THIS IS IT WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY MY SON-IN-LAW, JACOB M. HELD AND THIS IS THE BOOK TO PROVE IT!  Yes, I am proud of him!  Mostly I am proud of him for being a good husband and father (and son-in-law).  But this is not a book review (which you can find on the back cover below).  This happens to be MY Blog! And this is the book he has edited.  I have read it cover to cover and it has made me continue to wonder.....about the man that we call "Bond, James Bond"!

The book can be ordered through Amazon, Barnes and Noble , Open Court and book sellers near you.  If the cover looks different, it is!  The booksellers just had the prototype.  This the real thing.  The content is the same.  Happy reading!  Congratulations, Jake!

Change~Illustration Friday

This is my pick for Illustration Friday's theme this week.  The topic was change.  I picked this from an illustration I did for We Can Get Along published by Free Spirit.  The boy decided to change his words and actions (and his sign).  The book based on making positive choices so I felt this illustration was really appropriate to the theme this week. 

Palmer Cox and The Brownies

I promised to show you a little bit about  Palmer Cox  (who is one of my very favorite illustrators).  I fell in love with his drawings sitting on the floor of the children's library when I was in grade school.  I loved going to the library after school.  School ended at 3:15 p.m.  The bell rang and I couldn't wait to get to the cloak room.  There I would grab my little plaid coat and be off to the library.  It was only a block from the school.  That meant I had almost an hour and a half before I walked to where my father worked to catch a ride home.  I sat in the tall stacks and poured over a new stack of books every day.  I loved the picture books the best!  I fell in love with the Brownies in the Palmer Cox books! 

What I loved the most about the Brownies is that they always stuck together. They got into a fair share of trouble but you always saw them pitch in and try to work things out.  I studied their little faces and the way they ran to help each other.  (I was on the school safety patrol and I liked helping!  I took it very seriously.)

It always seemed that through thick and thin they were there for each other.

They worked together...and.....

They knew how to play together!

They shared my love for fireworks!  (Ooooooooooo I loved sparklers and I still do.)

 

I was finally able to find some of The Palmer Cox books on Ebay.  I was thrilled to get this one.  The binding is torn so that the covers don't hold together.  The copyright simply reads, "Copyright 1887, by The Century Co.  I take good care of it and I love having all the brownies sitting on my shelf in my art/computer room.  Now, I don't have to sit cross legged on the hard library floor...and....I don't even have to wear a skirt because I am not squeezing in time after school to read it!  Here's the cover of my book.

I have been lucky to get several of Palmer Cox's books since then.  A few of these pictures were taken from Another Brownie Book by Palmer Cox.  This book was originally published by the Centrury Company in 1890.  My book is Published by Dover Publications, Inc. in 1966.  The first hardcover publication of the Dover Edition is by McGraw-Hill Book Company in 1967. 

It is really late!  I did get this out to you tonight as I promised.  I hope you enjoy meeting or getting to know Palmer Cox and his Brownies a lot better.  You can read about the Brownie Castle here. Imagine that!  He did what he loved and he got to build a castle too!  You can get downloadable images here.

Bye for now!

John Martin Magazine~1918

OOOOOOOOOOOOO!  Look what I found at an antique store! 

I wasn't able to find much information about these books.  Does anyone know much about John Martin?  As you can see these came from 1918.  I had to share just a couple of the illustrations with you!  They are so fun!  Each one deserves a frame of it's own, don't you agree? 

Aren't they just the sweetest little illustrations? 

The stories are adorable too.  This one kind of reminds me of my Palmer Cox books.  I will share a few of those later tonight with you.  He is one of my favorite illustrators.  So....anyhow....does anyone know anything about these John Martin Books.  If so be sure to let me know.  Hope you enjoy these pics as much as I do.  Have a really nice day!

Claudia

Me...Eloise!

   

In a corner of my studio, with a little cap I bought her for fishing and the sun sits ELOISE!  For those of you that don't know Eloise She is six and she lives at the Plaza" in New York. When I was in fourth grade I received the first Eloise Book for Christmas. 

    

I was fascinated with this little character and didn't realize it then but I was very influenced by the illustrator, Hillary Knight throughout my life.  He was very skilled at making Eloise skibble up the stairs and with his pen he made her dog Weenie come to life! 

 

I was a good little girl and I wanted to be more like ELOISE (who didn't mean to make poor choices but always seemed to and this made her so endearing).  For years I lived vicariously through this little character.  I drew Eloise pictures all the time.  Hilary Knight also drew the pictures for Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.  I could pick his illustrations out anywhere!  He is my number one favorite illustrator.  Shortly after I got the book my mother took us to Chicago and I saw an Eloise doll there at Marshall Fields.  I begged my mother for that doll.  I had never liked dolls before so my mother eagerly bought the doll due to my interest.  I loved that doll and lugged her around everywhere tucked under my arm. She even went with me for a scarey stay in the hospital!   She sat in my bedroom through my teen years.  When I went to college my mother insisted I pack her up and put her in the basement.  Years later when I went to retrieve her she was ruined!  My heart fell as I disposed of my Eloise....(a SOB! is appropriate here).  Any way, Eloise has turned FIFTY!  (Which makes me feel very dated).  Are you are wondering how does Eloise sit in the corner of my studio now?...Life is funny and full of surprises.  About four years ago my friend Angela, gave me a Christmas Present.  I opened it to find a brand new version of Eloise with her quirky little smirk smiling back at me!  Of course I burst into happy tears!  "The absolutely first thing I had to do was" give her a big hug.  Ooooooooooooooo  I absolutely love love love Eloise.  If you haven't read the books they are delightful and thank you, Hillary Knight for starting me on the path of illustration!  Time to go, I have much to do today.  And "Oh, my Lord I am absolutely so busy I don't know how I can possibly get everything done."  I absolutely Love Eloise.