Blog Tour

Amy Tavern
http://amytavern.blogspot.com/

My friend Amy Tavern, a jeweler and artist, tagged me to participate in a Blog Tour and to tag three blogs that I like to read. Amy is one of the reasons I started keeping a blog. I was inspired by her commitment to her blog, and the way she posted about her process and artists that inspired her work. I've been keeping this blog since 2009 and if you go back to the first posts, you will see what feels like a completely different person to me now. That's what's so fascinating about these things, they're records of our transformations as people and artists.

I love reading artist's blogs, I subscribe to dozens of them and read them every day like a morning paper. These three blogs, I selected because they combine images of process and work with insightful musings on daily life and all the highs and lows of being an artist. They all also happen to be people I have known at some point through Penland School of Crafts.

Millions of People Happy - Michelle Moode
http://millionsofpeoplehappy.blogspot.com/

Michelle Moode is a printmaker and bookbinder who lives in Spruce Pine, NC. Her work feels like an ongoing collection of ephemeral visual experiences and thoughts. I recently spent two weeks with Michelle at the Paper Book Intensive, making paper, books, and generally having an incredible time. Her blog is a mix of process and personal reflections.

Sawdust and Tomatoes - Christina Boy
http://sawdustandtomatoes.blogspot.com/

Christina is makes gorgeous furniture and sculpture, primarily in wood. I got to know her when we were roommates for two years at Penland as Core Fellowship students. She is originally from Germany and lives in rural Virginia with her husband. Her blog includes images of her process and wood shop, and also lots of envy inducing images of things on the farm that she and her husband grow, can, and eat.

Jean Fitz's Weblog
http://heartjean.blogspot.com/

Jean is an artist and educator who lives in Chicago. I met her in a class at Penland six years ago. She makes graphic novels, which are funny, honest, and truly unique, and somehow coaxes the most amazing Photoshop work out of middle schoolers I have ever seen. She is also a fearless traveler, and those experiences are recorded in her blog.

Magical Notebooks and Clamshell Time Trials

This week, I made some books and boxes for myself, something I don't do that often. It's fun and good practice, I often make things for myself to try out something I don't normally do or brush up on techniques. I made myself a notebook with a "magical symbols" print I made while at Paper Book Intensive for end papers. 

:: egyptian inspired symbols, relief printed end papers ::

:: rounded spine with cloth headband, the cover boards are beveled to fit the curve ::

:: embossed leather, it was one of my samples from Paper Book Intensive ::

In order to solve my problem of not enough flatfile storage space, I've also been practicing my clamshell boxes, in various sizes and shapes, and seeing how fast I can make them. It's like doing time trials to qualify for the imaginary Bookbinding Olympics. 

:: Deep clamshell box for storage ::

:: ephemera storage problem solved ::

When I'm in between projects or not feeling the thunderbolt of inspiration, getting my hands moving clears my head and reboots the thinking process, and if not, I have a new notebook and some fancy clamshell boxes!

Paper Book Intensive : Part Two

Part two of my time at PBI...

I took a Relief Printing class with Ryan O'Malley, where we learned to carve MDF boards, and a hand papermaking class with Ann Marie Kennedy. The theme of that class was "Paper and Place" and we experimented with fibers found around the area and adding inclusions to the paper.

 :: relief print on japanese paper ::

 :: handmade abaca paper with thread, newsprint, and deer fur ::

 :: handmade hemp paper with thread and elk bone ::

  :: handmade hemp paper with thread and elk bone ::

:: handmade flax paper with brazilwood and walnut dye ::

Paper Book Intensive: Part One

I just got back from the Paper Book Intensive, a two-week series of workshops in book arts, printmaking, and papermaking. It was amazing. Here are a few images of the books I made in one of the workshops, Leather Embossing with Bonnie Stahlecker.

 :: two books debossed with plastic cordage I brought back from Iceland ::

 :: front cover of book with symbols ::

  :: back cover of book with symbols ::

:: spine with tacket binding ::

:: close up of back cover ::