cloth.paper.string

folds and freezer paper

It's been a long time since I've made a book.  Too long.  But tonight that changed when I started on a  small book for a collaborative project.  I couldn't have been more pleased with the cutting and folding of paper, the assembly of flat into three dimensional form. 

I'll share more about this project in due time, but for now here's a little of the folds and the freshly freezer-paper-stenciled (yes, that's now a verb) book cloth.  The colors are all funky since I haven't gotten around to making that light box just yet; but rest assured, they're good.  Chartreuse and inky black-blue good.

And the leaves?  They're traced from the vintage fabric that is still in the midst of metamorphosis from skirt to bag.

on the mind

I have a tendency to over-think everything.  When it comes to making things I often spend more time in my head than I do with my hands.  Even with easy stuff.  Like the sweater that the wee one has been wearing in pieces lately because she's excited about it; meanwhile her mama can only think about actually stitching the sleeves to the body.  And there are those two simple holiday gifts I'm working on (still all in my head, mind you) for nana and great nana, which will undoubtedly be delivered into their hands well into next week.  And the solstice cards.  These are finally on paper thanks tonight's intensive gocco session, but they've morphed into a new year's greeting. 

I'm thinking seriously about resolving in the new year to not let things get stuck in the gray matter, but instead to make a practice of getting them out, of making them real.  I'm wondering if getting back to Julia Cameron's morning pages would help.  Or maybe making a trusty little notebook a constant companion, into which I could jot ideas and notions into as they came to me.  Of course I'm all still completely in my head about how to get out...  So the question for you, friends, is do you have a practice that keeps you moving from the mental to the physical realm, that helps you kick-start your ideas and bring them to fruition?

green + brown

We set out to finish painting the siding on the house this weekend, but the weather had very different ideas for us.  Precious babysitting time was instead spent hiking through a downpour on the Superior Hiking Trail.  The perfect date, actually, as it's not often these days that we can actually hike together at a good clip without stopping to examine every root and leaf and rock along the path.  Time together with real conversation; that is, conversation that isn't punctuated by a looped 'wherisit?' and 'dee' chatter about the where in the forest the deer families might be sleeping.

Along the trail, the autumnal foliage juxtaposed with wet dark bark and holding-on greenery made me wish I had a waterproof camera to hold onto the moment.  Inspired by those intense greens and deep dark browns, I spent some time later in the day with my print gocco, making chartreuse cards with a chocolate brown print of that cottonwood leaf impression. 

I'm finding that I'm learning more and more with each print run.  About the colors, the inks, the screens, the printing.  I'm finding, too, that I'm continually seeking pattern and form from the natural world to bring into printed form.  The process is lending new focus to the environment around me, grounding me in the moment that is now.  And this, is a very, very good thing.

to market

The equinox leaf impressions have made their way onto cards thanks to my trusted print gocco.  Card sets will be available in Duluth at Tinderbox - a soon-to-open shop featuring local handmade goodness - next week!

sunlight and shadow

I've been experimenting with sunlight, shadow and plants from the garden. Cyanotypes have intrigued me for years, especially the simple process and delicate detail.  Making some images this way has been on my list of things to try for ages.  Earlier this week I got my hands on some light sensitive paper and gave it a go.

I especially like the queen anne's lace.  There's an ethereal quality to the detail that I find to be almost haunting.  I'm certain that there will be more of these images to come.  I keep looking at leaves, flowers and branches imagining how their shadows would reveal themselves on blue.

ex libris

Years ago I happened upon an exhibit of an amazing collection of bookplates at the Weisman Art Museum.  Ex libris.  Miniature works of art pasted inside books to identify the owner.  I was smitten.

When Marnie, whose blog Girl Number Twenty gets its name from Dickens, sent me a fantastic package last month, I decided to make her a little something in return.  It was time to create ex libris (libri??) for some of the special books in her library.  So, I printed up some bookplates on the gocco and cranked them through a xyron sticker machine. 

In addition to thinking about making more of these personalized bookplates for others, I have to admit that I couldn't stop dreaming about how different life would have been as a eleven-year-old had I been able to make anything into a sticker -- I mean a real sticker, with the peel-off back.  I can only begin to imagine the kitschy creations that would have neighbored the stickers in my book!

gocco love

I forgot how much I love the print gocco.  A friend, who plans to make her wedding invitations, came over this weekend to see the gocco in action.  In looking for a fun sample to make, I found a long-lost leaf rubbing that I knew immediately would be perfect for a gift I'm working on.  I hadn't ever gocco-ed an image with both intricate and fuzzy detail before.  I quite like the results.  Here's a sneak peak.  

And, I just learned that the Japanese word 'gocco' is a loose translation of make-believe play used to learn common rules and knowledge.  Perfect.

brownies - found!

I work in a converted school building that houses a handful of non-profits, including a soup kitchen and 'free' store.  The free store is mainly stocked with clothing and household goods but sometimes they receive other interesting donations...  Today a stack of at least two hundred childrens books appeared -- they had been discarded from the libraries of nearby elementary schools.  I snatched a small stack which includes some titles from my childhood, others with wonderful woodcut illustrations, and more that feature characters like an unhappy green bicycle-riding cow named Pistachio and a musical gnu named Elihu. 
Two little books about brownies are by far my favorites.  Fun images of little helpful folks from the woods.  "They were dressed all in brown.  They wore little brown suits, little brown caps and little brown shoes.  Their caps were pointed, their suits had buttons down the front, and their shoes had l______ong pointed toes and looked MUCH too big for them. These queer little folk were SMILING all the time.  First they came creepity-creep, creepity-creep; then they came skippity-hop, skippity-hop, very softly and lightly, right up to the door of the little brown house." - from Brownies - Hush! by Gladys Adshead.

More than anything I'm so pleased that this 'find' has introduced me to books that I might not have stumbled upon otherwise.  Stories that resonate with me that I didn't know I was missing until I found them.  I feel this way about the crafty blogging community, too -- when I discovered SouleMama as I searched for Munki Munki fabric over a year ago it was as if I had happened upon an entire world that I was sorely missing without even realizing it. 

datebook

This fall I moved to a smaller town, a simpler life.  The week I left the city my PDA froze.  I took it as a sign.  Since it's nearly impossible to get an interesting datebook in September I converted pages a Moleskine journal into a weekly planner for the remainder of the year.  Simple, but somewhat stark.  For 2007 I have covered a calendar text block from Paper Source with marbled paper left over from a bookbinding project.  A daily reminder of the satisfaction of creating an object of both beauty and function, as well as the simpler life I seek.