I am in the Idaho mountains... cool days, cooler nights. After the first couple of days dealing with some sort of stomach malfunction I have climbed back in the saddle. I brought more in the way of art and book making supplies than I did clothing (I know from experience I wear the same thing day in and day out).

I have a card table facing the deck and look out onto a mountainside covered with pine trees... I watch the hummingbirds fight over the bird feeder, I sip tea, pop my ipod in, and play with color and texture.

I brought a couple art journals I have in the process... here is a page I've been working on since I got here... see the cyclists on the ridge line? I had gone to a mountain bike race the second day I was here... This shot doesn't show what I've done to it in the last day of two...
I did make a book : ( it is a dud.

And finally I was feeling well enough to take to the trails and along with me I brought a small water color journal. First hike was Adams Gulch... and area where the trails loop around and back all over the place, and also a place I can walk to... goal: to refill the tank when I'm on my way out of the valley in September.

This is a creek crossing that had a nice shady place to sit and a view of the trail ahead.

And here is my watercolor sketch. I've told myself I'm going to try for one a day... develop my observational skills and my color mixing.

Today, because I walked early and did a Nia class... and it was threatening rain... I chose this spot which is an easy stroll from the apartment... I even had a picnic table to sit on... this is a wood bridge over Warm Springs Creek.

And here is the water color sketch... rain drops made me pack up and run. Better, I think than the day before.

And here is the never ending scarf.... yes, roo, I am knitting... it is loooong! right now I can wrap it around my neck 3x and have the tails hang to my waist... but I will not stop until I'm out of yarn. Hopefully that will be by the weekend, since I've ordered The Sweater Workshop, and want to start the sample so by the time I make it back to Phoenix I have the nerve to start a sweater from that beautiful yarn I purchased a month ago.

FYI... Payne gray sky and rolling thunder... pure heaven for a desert rat. sheets of rain!!!!

july 20

It is Tuesday already... and time is stretching and contracting leaving me wondering if I have gotten anything accomplished at all... but here, I've finished this watercolor book and taken some quicky pictures out on the patio (rained last night, not enough, but grayish day for AZ)
The book has a soft cover, made from a heavy hand-made paper I had. I'd seen something similar to it at Creative Quest... and couldn't be stopped until I'd made my own version. I visited the shop daily for a bit, asking questions, examining the book... and this is the result. The book in the shop was about a 6x9, this one is 11x13... quite a bit bigger. Plus I used really nice 140 lb. watercolor paper for the signatures... the book in the shop used lined writing paper...

I worried that, because this book was so much bigger and the interior paper was so much meatier, that I needed to make the cover sturdier too. I began cutting and reassembling the cover paper and sewing the spine part to the front and back cover part, adding a strip of 3" wide Tyvec to the spine, gluing a sturdy piece of brown paper inside the entire area, front to back. I stamped and sprayed to give it a nice texture and then used stencils and layered on more pattern, ending with the same stencil but making the flowers turquoise blue(I love turquoise blue and red).

Once the cover was painted up to the point that I began to worry I'd gone overboard, I dug through my bead stash and found some turquoise chunks, hand made paper beads and glass beads, chose a turquoise waxed linen I 'd had and began sewing the book together... and here it is...

Sturdy enough, though I think the book would have looked better if it had been a bit smaller.

I'm really happy with how the texture on the cover came out... I wanted to write a line of something from the back to the front, but nothing profound or suitable crossed my mind... so the book remains wordless.

As you see there are not a lot of pages. Five signatures of three pages each, and the first and last page I glued to the cover to give it more rigidity and to help hold the whole thing together.

And here is a close-up of the front cover... I'm still pulled between having done too much or not enough... but time and fear made me stop.

I think as I begin to use the book... paint, draw and handle it... the interior pages will soften up and really compliment the soft pliable cover. I think it is also sturdy enough to withstand some rough treatment.

While I do love the raggedy beat-up appearance, there are some things I've learned and will change as the next book begins. Tonight I take a book class and Kathy from CQ will lead me through a process again that will end in a very nice little book. Then I need to clean this poor house, pack my gear and get ready to head to Idaho and the mountains. I'm taking book projects, paint and yarn for knitting and hoping the lure of the outside and the trail will leave me some time for this art.

slightest bit mad

I am finding I cannot stop... one book is barely finished and I am thinking about another... Most of the books I've made so far have been formula driven... trying to figure out what I can do, how to do it better... like book school. Practice, practice... but I'm in the process of a more, out-there book... with a soft cover and rather big... too big, I wonder... but what the heck...

and this is a portion of the cover. Painted, stamped, sprayed, sewn together on my grandmother's ancient Singer... stenciled once, then twice... added to, rubbed out. Done? Not done? I don't know... and I have not begun to sew the pages in yet... 140 lb watercolor, torn into 10x11" pages... crazy beautiful. There will be beads on the spine... I'll show you when I've finished... hand made paper beads and chunks of turquoise... I'm trying not to rush, and anyway, the cover might not be done yet... I thinking of writing something... a line, from the back cover to the front. Maybe about going crazy ...
I've also been working at taking better pictures... Lordie! This is hard, and while I read the tutorials and my camera user guide, I still feel like I am just dancing in the dark. However, I did use a large piece of white watercolor paper and my daylight fluorescent and got these...

I like how they turned out... even though the entire time my camera was flashing a warning at me and kept saying I needed to change setting... plus, I kept getting a snowman... the camera thought I was taking pictures in the snow!

This one didn't get cropped quite close enough and the end of the white paper shows... I still have shadows, but I don't know if shadows are a bad thing...

The color is actually pretty true... this is a big book... and simply done

And look, the copper clad book looks good too... I had some trouble with shine... but overall pretty happy

This one is a little dark... the refection of the white paper at the bottom threw the light off, I think.

I love how rich the colors look on this one... not washed out like before

The white paper background looks blue here... but again the color of the book looks really good.

The background is white but looks blue again... I played with different angles... fun

The shots are so much crisper (I put my camera on a book and then on a little bean bag I have... no wiggle!)

Again, playing with angles

And look how well you can see the whitewashed print... I love how this came out.

Yikes! Gotta go

July 16

My mind is in a jumble... I've been up since about 3:30 am... hot, but also thinking about this book I started yesterday... can I sew it? On the machine? Will the sensitive Singer handle hand made paper... is this the cover I want anyway, can I use a Whole Foods paper bag as reinforcement (Whole Foods has nicely textured, ultra-sturdy brown bags)... once I paint on the paper cover, will it become stiffer... will I allow my book binding stitches to show on the spine... how do you add beads? ... the size of the needle for waxed linen and the bead hole being the problem.

Plus, I need to think about packing and what I'm taking with... art supplies for certain... and I'd like to have about 10 books in the ready to put together stage... too much to ask? yes, if I continue to start a new book the minute I finish one... so. Today Zumba early to get my mind off the book thing, then off to my knit group for three hours of sanity, later I'll tackle this new book... made with 140 lb. watercolor paper... this one is for me... would like to get it done by end of day, Saturday... then I will shout STOP! and take three deep breaths and focus only on what I need to do to get out the door by next Thursday.

note to self: you can use a beanbag in place of a tripod

learning to take a picture

I made a new little book yesterday... 31/4x41/2 inches. Covered in black paper, decorated with a stamped copper piece, stitched and beaded.

I've been reading some photo tips on Etsy... heaven knows I need photo tips.
This photo used a manual setting where I set the f-stop and used a flash, finally because everything was coming out too dark. Next time I will take the time to really set up a light box situation, with no background noise.

This is a shot from the top-down... The papers inside are recycled from a discard book that looked as if it had been chewed by Fido... or maybe baby brother. I gave each page a coat of gesso to blur the writing and make it ready for pencil and paint.

The book is an open spine construction. Black waxed linen was used to sew it all together... this shot is too dark, and once again the background sucks the form into oblivion. I might, gulp! have to read the directions to get this camera to do what I want. And I need a tripod. That was one of the tips on etsy... tripod or set it on the table.

this pic was taken before I read the etsy photo article... on my cutting board. I kind of like the background and it is easy to see that the book is made of recycled printed material... but it is too dark and grainy....

last is this view... which I like, although I know it is too grainy and the back light from the window, the end of the cutting board detract.

Problem. This is a beautiful little book. The black paper has an incredibly soft, almost fabric-like feel. The copper bird and the beaded stitching look great on the black ground. The pages inside have a nice texture. It is a book that does so much better in person... but in-person is not the way I get to show it off.

More practice is needed.

July 13

Look, two more.

I sold the first books a couple days after I made it... the first time I took it out and showed it around... and I got orders for two more.

I don't really like making the same thing over and over... it loses it freshness for me and I think I try to make them as close to the same and that adds a bit of stress to something that should be just joy. But these two turned out well and I learned a couple more things about book making that I'll use as I go along.

Last night I started another little book. No pictures of it yet, but that's what I'll work on today.

July 8

In the last few days I've been busy... setting up an etsy account... having business cards made... cleaning off my kitchen counter again and again and then loading it right back up... but mainly I've been here... thinking about media, playing with media, and trying over and over again to take decent pictures of what I've done.

This blank journal I finished a few days ago. I call it my 'look out for me" journal... I stamped that on the border area of the cover... the little girl looking through the viewfinder inspired the title. She looks so brave, looking into another world...
I started the cover for this book from a piece of crumpled, painted brown paper I've saved from a past art project. I started by fiddling with a black pen doodle, and when I didn't care for that I doodled and played with pearlized acrylic inks. Then I glimmer misted it (I love glimmer mist). After that I went back in with India ink using a both wide and pointed nib. With the fine nib I wrote thoughts and words about adventure, bravery and faith... with the wide nib I played with changing line. After tearing the paper in half I collaged on the girl, the side paper (dyed/painted newspaper) and stamped the phrase, look out for me.

The next dilemma was how to seal the collage. I mulled that problem over for a day or so, looking at all my options and finally settled on encaustic. Maybe a risky solution for a journal, but I'd covered another book with wax and had been pleased. The tackiness lasts a couple days, but as the wax cures and as you hand buff the surface it becomes luminous and I wanted this effect for the cover... but before the wax was laid on, I stamped a couple dragon flies in the front cover. For me there is something magical about dragon flies.

What I hadn't expected was how difficult it would be to take a photo of a waxed surface without too much glare. I tried taking a picture outside with no direct light, I tried a picture like the one above, in my living room where the light is too low... I tried taking a few shots on a little table in my entry where there is south light, but not too much of it(below)

Every one of these venues had some challenge. The book color is richer than the photos show. The waxed surface creates a dimensional quality that cannot be seen.

The paper stock is a rich cocoa brown with a nice tooth... would be nice for pastels.


The next project was this one. I had this copper... I've had it for 25 years or so, salvaged from my Dad's garage in Illinois. It was left over from a new roof project... copper on a tar paper... and I knew that one day I would find a use for it.

After I cut the copper to the desired size I pulled the tar paper backing off, leaving it with a rough enough surface to take to the glue. Once the copper was glued to the book board, I stamped and heat set this pattern on and then tooled around the stamp a bit to raise the surface a bit.

A border design was added, then I searched through my leather stash until I found a suitable piece for the spine. I wanted the spine to be more than glued on - I was a bit afraid about the glue adhering to the copper surface, and while I first thought I'd use waxed linen to tack it down, I soon realized I'd have to get into the car to get a linen that would would work. The getting into the car thing made me look a little farther and I remembered I had quite a bit of copper wire left over from my jewelry making days.

And here is the result (picture taken near the south window)... the spine is glued and wired onto the book cover. A copper bead sits at the top of both the front and back or the spine. I added a leather lace to tie the book closed... and the time had come to sew the book together and the final assembly process to begin.

Cut-off view of the spine... how to get close enough without cutting off part of the picture? And like the encaustic cover, the color is washed out...

When I put the signatures together I sprinkled the book with five colorized sheets. These become happy little surprises throughout this 158 page book.

I've told myself no more books until Monday... already I'm feeling withdrawal symptoms.

book

I struggled with this journal. I had all the materials laid out, cut ready... gold colored rice paper with leaves and things embedded, a lace doily for the spine, papers, waxed linen... The six signatures went together easily...but once I started on the cover I ran into difficulties... the paper glued on well enough, but trying to get the lace on properly proved difficult. I had decided beforehand that I would not put in a board to give the spine form... I stitched and glued the lace into place... and even though the lace didn't fit the cover board quite perfect I kept on. I chose a paper to use as end papers... and began to glue the signatures to the cover. It did not look good. the spine, which was supposed to curve softly around the book, pulled to one side and looked tighter on the bottom than on the top. The ribbon that had been glued onto the signature piece didn't want to stay tucked in... I stood and stewed. What to do? Toss it away, keep it as a reminder of where you can go wrong, use it for myself because I could not give it, sell it to anyone....

I tore it apart. I ripped/cut the signature pages from the cover, ripped and cut off the lace spine and began again. This time I gave myself permission to just do anything. To over decorate, to paint and add to the cover. I chose a piece of quilt fabric for the spine, this time using a board to give the spine some form. I trimmed the spine with rub-on copper. I added the stamp, as planned, but after spraying the cover with glimmer mist and using a stencil to add more texture, I painted the stencil using pearly and metallic paints. The spine was too bright now, so I sprayed it with walnut ink... and this is the result -


This picture was taken around 7 a.m. before the sun made it into my patio. Notice the stencil pattern sprayed onto the cover. I have not completed painting the stamp yet.

A view of the spine. It lays correctly now and seems to go with the rest of the book.

Here you can see into the pages. The signatures do not seem as tight as other books I've done... I wonder if this is because I ripped them out? Plus the paper is curling a bit... not 100% dry... I think that will correct itself.

Here is the cover with the stamp painted to my satisfaction. With the sunlight on the book I think you can see the glimmer the spray added.

Inside, I misted the end pages and stamped them up with a handful of hand-made leaf stamps... helps to hide the lumps and bumps created by the ripping and tearing I did the night before.

The book is not perfect. I look through it and see mistakes. You can see some evidence of the re-do, but I do not think this harms the integrity of the book. I'm still not completely happy with the sheer tie I've added. I don't know yet how to change it to make it more to my liking (glimmer mist????)... maybe it will just have to remain.

And yes, I think I will still give it to my sister. Somehow all this trauma has softened the edges, and made the journal a little bit earthier than it was at the beginning. I think it will make a great gardening journal.

cutting boards tables lighting grumble

I have this big cutting board. The old fashioned kind that will take an arm off if you are not careful. I've always know that it was not quite true... that I wouldn't necessarily get a true square, but more of a rhomboid. Frustrating, but I have a pretty good eye, when I have enough light(next paragraph) so most of my cuts are square enough for my purposes.... but today I realized that 12 inches on the cutting board is really more like eleven and three quarters... I need 12" to be 12" and 6" to be 6.... can I tape a piece of graph paper to the board to correct this or do I have to get yet another piece of equipment?

I would like two 36" by 6' tables to work on... the fact that I have no room for these kind of tables is irrelevant. I have bits of project spread about this house right now... maybe two big tables in one room would not cure this... maybe I am the kind of person that wanders about and creates little piles of project... a needle here, a bit of paper there, some ribbon and a stamp pad in a different location....

But if I had a room with really great lighting... I do, really, my kitchen, where there is no room for two tables, one holding the antique cutting board and the new, really measures 12" one... with two large tables and enough room to stand back a bit and view my work... well maybe then I could keep the rest of the clutter to one spot.

When the weather cools enough to work outside, my patio will become a perfect work area... until then I'll test the graph paper theory and just keep making books and knitting here and there about the house, in the dark.

erupting

I did clean my kitchen this morning... the whole counter, cleaned off every paper, every scrap, wiped it down... now? Full again. I've made two little books today and planned another. Yesterday, the day before, full, full with family and appointments, no time for books... but I have been thinking about them... I'm on fire... that, and it is just too darned hot to go outside.... 89 was the low today. UGH! But, never mind, look at this...
I realize as I post this picture that I've done a couple other things to the book... like add a teeny bit of gold leaf to the beetles and a black ribbon along the blue spine cover. The book is smaller than my others, 41/2 by 6 with nicely textures gray paper inside.

I added end sheets to the front and the back, with four signatures of 5 sheets each... sooo the book is 80??? pages long. Honestly the math is beyond me... one of these days I need to just count the pages.

The next book I made today was this one. Smaller still, it measures 31/2 x41/2. I struggled a bit with the cover, not knowing what to do and finally settled for this simple dot-line stamp that works well with the cover paper. The spine is fabric with black ribbon trim.

This book has lots of pages.... 4 signatures of 8 papers each, some of the paper is creamy white, some is minty green... all of it has a nice tooth. It would make a nice mini-journal to tuck inside your bag.

The back view.

AND this is my next project... my sister called today and when I told her I was making books (and explained what "making books" meant) she told me she wanted a journal to keep track of her garden and herbs.

As I went through my various stashes of paper and texture this is what I came up with... Creamy paper with little organic flecks in it, golden hued rice paper filled with straw and grasses for the cover, this stained little lace doily for the spine and the funky bird-angel... ooo, I can't wait to get started. Will probably put the pages together tonight... tomorrow I may get nothing done here, as it is a full day again... but by the end of the day on Saturday this journal will be done.

Oh, and I sold a journal yesterday! So I am no longer retired... I'm a working artist.

okay, enough of this... I am getting hungry and need to clean my kitchen counter off again so I can eat.