April, 2023
I don’t have to go far back at all for this month’s Thankful Thursday Artist. I’m just finishing off the series I worked on during Cat Rains’ Collage Joy on-line course – some final finishing to do, and some good advice to follow as I decide how to mount.
So many things kept me moving through this course when so many others I have signed up for are still waiting. . .
I really appreciated the combination of making papers and making pieces. I really appreciated the “color palette first” approach – color is almost always my spark – and the focus and coherence that comes from finishing the palette.
I’ll take titles more seriously and keep a notebook of marks. I’ll make small studies. I’ll think more about warm and cool.
At least I hope I will!
April, 2023
The Handmade Book Club asked me (!) to present on a Meet the Member call this month, and I’m really excited. And, at the same time, have you ever gone back to something you’ve made and been really confused about exactly how you did it? I’ll be showing a book I made some time ago with a cut-out in the cover that has an iris-folded initial. The pattern comes from Pretty In Paper by B (Etsy store with the same name), but it was written to be used as the front of a card. Not so different, really, from what I did, but I sure am glad I practiced a bit with a new mock-up before the call at the end of this week, or I’d probably be stumped by any questions.
I’ve been so impressed by seeing the work that other members have shown. I wonder if all of them felt like it wasn’t nearly as special as the rest of us thought. The beauty of a supportive community.
April, 2023
What good is mindfulness meditation, which is focused on what’s happening right now, when what’s happening right now isn’t so great? What if right now you’re stuck waiting – waiting for test results, waiting in line, waiting for the tornado warning to expire or the airplane turbulence to pass? Distraction is one strategy, but my worry voices are pretty good at multi-talking. So, I close my eyes, breathe, and fake it til I make it. Follow the breaths, fail, follow them again, fail again . . . . all things must pass . .
April, 2023
Way back in 2018 I had an idea that I wanted to repurpose some holiday card boxes that were really too nice to just throw away. At the time I was sending out over 400 hand-addressed cards for my business, so I was invested!
I had figured out most of the project, but need some help understanding how to manage those pesky corners after I had de-constructed and re-constructed the shells and I was fortunate to find Nicolette Ross @rosspressandbindery
She walked me through this clamshell to get my skills up to speed. That introduction sent me off on not only the original project that continues to this day. Beyond that, she guided and inspired me on to further adventures in box making and bookmaking and created some fantastic custom pieces to showcase some of my husband’s writing work as well.
On her feed you’ll find some great collaborations and creative ways to make events memorable. I’m forever #thankful
March, 2023
I haven’t been on Instagram for that long, and I do my best to keep my feed art and art-only, so it was inevitable that I would come across the 100 Day Project, which starts every year for the past several in mid to late March. It’s kind of an intention project, but with few rules. My intention this calendar year anyway was to engage in resolution – either finish things up to decide to be finished with them.
So, my 2023 100 Day Project will be to use a bunch of my leftover fabric scraps – the stuff that is 5×5 or less – couple it with a bunch of seed beads leftover from who knows what – and to make these little sachets stuffed with cedar. Or are they pincushions? In any case, they smell good and they serve my intention. So that’s part one. Part two will begin when I run out of steam doing this handwork (which will happen long before I run out of scraps or beads).
Part Two will involve going back to my stack of disassembled chipboard boxes – they were salvaged from the boxes that holiday cards came in that I send out to a business and personal list. They are sturdy, and have magnetic closures, so of course I couldn’t throw them away. I’ve been rebuilding and recovering them for a while now, and I think they make the perfect presentation container for some of these beaded beauties!
