Commissions

I've had a few commissions lately that resulted in some very interesting books. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, commissions are really fun. I love working with other people's visions. It's challenging and I always learn a thing or two.

"P" Book: 10x12 coptic bound with collaged P.

Wish Book for the Clay Coyote Gallery: I used a screw posts for this one, so the pages will be refillable. It's a new binding style. It worked well and I well use it again. The pages are lettered in the upper corner. I used "carbon" paper with the Papyrus font (there logo uses that font) and prismacolor pencils.

5x7 Wedding Album: A sweet little guest book for a wedding. I used watercolor pencils for the names on the first page.

10x12 Swirl and Star Album: This one was sent off this morning. It was a fun project. I love the heft of the 10x12 books, I use two boards for each cover. Thanks, customers!

Carnival

It's soon Carnival! (Mardi Gras). To celebrate this festive occasion the Bookbinding Team of Etsy (BEST) is hosting an online exhibition/contest much like we did for Halloween. I joined the fun and entered an accordion-style artist book. An artist book differs from my usual books because it has content of some sort. My book is best displayed opened up as a sculpture with the pages being a mixed-media expression of the colors - and feathers - of this festive day. You can visit the BEST blog and vote for your favorite book (mine is called "mixed media" on the ballot).

I have never been to Mardi Gras, I did however have the good fortune to visit Carnival in Malta when I was there. It was CRAZY. No, not crazy in a girls-showing-boobs-for-beads-while-being-really-drunk sort of way. It was very much like being plopped into another culture's very specific holiday celebration and feeling very very much like a tourist. There was a big show with costumed dancers and characters, sort of like a marching band type of show. There was a parade with huge floats that people were carrying. I remember at one point the parade stopped for a short while and a guy starting peeing from under one of the floats. How awkward. Later that night everyone was costumed and there was much ado about food vendors, music, and fun.

Perhaps we'll have a little mardi gras celebration in our house since we missed out on Valentines Day because of a bad case of stomach flu (Peter). We were in the ER all day Saturday (IVs and ultrasounds) and Sunday was a day of recuperating. No heart shaped pancakes...wonk wonk wooonk.

XXOOXOXOX

I couldn't handle splitting this little book duo up, so I listed them in my shop as a set. How darling for you and your valentine to each have one! They started out as paintings, black gesso on BFK rives with watercolors, gouache, and colored pencils. Being the book person that I am, they ended up torn into squares and affixed to book board. You never quite know what you're going to end up with sometimes. I just love them as a set, the icy blue on the left and the fiery one on the right. That's all the commentary on that, no need to go into depth since I was working more from my gut than brain so I don't really know that they mean anything. That's the fun of art, I guess.

We do have some plans for the weekend, nothing too romantic. Out for a little shopping trip tomorrow sans child, and a dinner and movie double date on Saturday...we're opting for the mexican food + margaritas and beers over a more romantic steaks + wine. Since the double date is with my sister and bro-in-law, romance just feels, well, creepy.

As for gifts, I need to make a trip to St. Paul's best food destination, The Golden Fig. I bought some of their aged balsamic with dill for Peter for Christmas and we quickly drained it. They have quite an assortment of balsamics, decadent chocolates, artisanal local cheeses and meats, and such splendors that I do not have the time to list. It's worth a stop. We're not big on gift giving since we're near broke, but it seems ok to spend a little extra on good food now and then, plus, it's local and all that good stuff.

I guess the other item on the agenda is making valentines with fgh. I think holidays are still a little over his head, being 23.5 months old, but we'll try to do something pink and heart-shaped.

Maybe heart-shape pancakes with strawberries???

Weddings

The frigid weather and lack of light and endorphins of this season has been met with vigorous wedding album construction around my studio. Nothing brightens the mood like spring colors, googling wedding color trends (more flower photos) and dealing with the young-and-in-love. Well, an occasional bridezilla is always something to be feared, but luckily the etsy crowd seems to be filled mostly with happy people.

I have revamped my wedding album from last fall to focus on colors. All the books will have similar features, book cloth covers, long stitch binding through the spine, complimentary wedding colors on the inside of each cover which are the same lotka paper as the damask cut-out on the front and back. The text block will remain the same. I would like to limit the amount of hours I spend at Kinkos/FedEx. It is not pleasant there. I would very much like to go in, print 30 text blocks, and never go back.

That said about making everything the same, I'll start the photos off with a variation I just did for our great etsy customer. They are having a red and black "steampunk" wedding on Valentine's Day. I designed the patterned paper to look steampunked (think gears, industry, etc). The same paper is in a damask shape on the front with a vintage mirror bead and their stamped initials. I also had this one printed with their names (obviously) which looks great, but again, kinkos, hard to deal with. I need to find a different printer.

New Shop

My etsy shop was getting a little messy with the prints and notecards intermixed with all of my various books, so I decided to create a second etsy shop for these very non-book items.

Introducing: Swirling Tree People!

Check it out! Here's the link.

In other news...Sundays are my designated work day around here. Peter and FGH have a solid day together while I putz in my studio. Today I did more than putz, I finished 5 books (almost 6). They are much more organic and daring, so I'm excited to get them in my shop in a couple of weeks after the next show is finished (unless they sell, of course).

Art shows. I guess you win some and you lose some. It seems pretty risky with the time and money that usually go into them. My first show went pretty well, especially for the ST People prints. The second was a dud, I only sold two things. Most vendors had a bad day, so I didn't feel like a total loser. A million excuses come out of my mouth when I talk about it; the recession, the wrong type of customer, the weather... but it doesn't really matter. I'm just going to look forward to the Roseville show that starts next weekend (at the Roseville Skating Center for you locals!) and continue building my etsy shop.

Stay posted for more book photos in the near future.

Zombie Award...Vote!

I entered one of my hand bound journals in the "BEST Zombie Award 2009" contest. Go to the link and vote for which journal you like best (mine!).

I used one of my prints to cover this book. The whimsy is carried out with an assortment of beads sewn to the front cover as I stitched the book together.

Thanks for voting!

Carrot Boy

Here's my little guy proudly standing next to his carrot-kill. I should have more prints in my shop next week.

What should I name these characters? I'm leaning towards something Old Norse such as Groa for the girl (meaning gardener) and Osten (meaning happy) or Blyn (strong) for the boy. I'm taking suggestions so leave some in a comment if you dare.

I have one more day at the art show in Dassel. I've had some good sales so far so thanks to everyone that has supported my budding business! I've made some good connections, met some new kindred spirits, and maybe even landed a spot at an art show taking place next Friday at a large accounting firm. I've never heard of this, being a country-bumpkin and all, but some big companies have their own pre-holiday arts and crafts fairs featuring work from employees or friends of employees. Employees are the main customers. Great idea! I'm a little intimidated by galleries with large commissions at this point, so these casual sales sound just right.

Well, off to tend to a huge pot of cabbage potato soup, switch the laundry, and crash into bed- exhausted.

Custom (or not) Wedding Books

Phew.

It took quite a few months to check this one off the to-do list.

Wedding Books!

I designed the innards of my customizable books with my newly acquired Adobe skills. Custom or not, each page has a title and sections for wedding documentation and/or spots for photographs. Of course, there are guest pages, but there are also pages devoted to the families of the bride and groom, courting and engagement information, bridal showers, the honeymoon, and more.

The custom part comes in play with colors, design, general style based on "vibe" of wedding, and also the couples' names, date, etc.

They're in the shop.

Uber Eco Casual Journals

New in the shop!

What I have named, "Uber Eco-Friendly Casual Books".

I found this 100% post-consumer waste, chemical free, completely biodegradable, heavyweight- meant for sketching paper. Phew.

I didn't realize it was BROWN when I ordered it, but when I bound a few books I decided I LOVED the brownness. I attached a hemp and bead bookmark to the back cover of each book. Most of the papers I used to cover the book board are new, too.

I decided to keep one for myself to use as a list book. I write lists upon lists every day. Grocery lists (which needs a subcategory of farmers' market or co-op or costco or super target or newly found awesome Greek market...), and also, lists of Swirling Tree work to-do, IKEA wants, movies to watch... So now I have a bound list book with a book mark to keep my place so I can flip out my fashionable book in a store right to the page desired.

Likin' it.

Cheers!

For no real event, just a general need for wine, we cracked open a bottle the other night and we introduced FGH to drinking from a wine glass. Even though I say it's wine in the movie, it's juice. Of course. I really know how to make a kid look cool with knee-high socks and no pants!

Peter's interviews have been going well. He has had one naysayer and one call back out of the deal thus far with six more to hear from. We're both trying to jump to some conclusions about what's going to happen but that's just not how it works. There are many hoops to jump through before than can happen. Hoops. Not fun. And so taking-up-of-time. To top it off he just got a subpoena to appear in court as a witness regarding our car wreck in July. What a pain. He has a respect for the legal system so he's not going to try to get out of it. He's such a romantic.

Speaking of romance, we actually look half decent for once AND posed for a picture. It was taken after a wedding we attended last weekend in Hutchinson. I made a guest book for the bride and groom:

I hope to get more in my shop soon. I'm awaiting the arrival of some generic wedding-colored book cloth in the mail from Paper Source. Yes, they have a store in Minneapolis, but my time is too valuable to sit in traffic for 1/2 hour each way to pick up book cloth. It's worth $7 to get it shipped. Really. Plus, toddler-man is not a fan of any store that does not sell food or toys.

Here's my work bench tonight:

5 new 5x7 albums, 4 books in the press, 2 more needing to be glued, 1 needing to be sewn. The books in the press are exciting to me. Eco-friendly casual case-bound journals with recycled blah blah blah paper of the brown variety and hemp and bead book marks. I can't wait to uncrank the press tomorrow morning and see if they look as good as I hope.

I applied for a show in Mpls-the No-Coast Craft-o-Rama (is that the title? too lazy to double check) for Dec. I HOPE to get in, it looks very etsy-ish. Hip crafts and the like. I'm also going to be at Jena's show in Dassel next month. Any other shows coming up that anyone knows about? I even applied for a tax number so I guess I'm really going to try to do this (oh, the confidence oozes out of my typed words).

Tonight I'm finishing a logo for Summit ECO, a green electrician company specializing in solar and energy efficiency. Cool company. I will share the logo when it is all said and done.

The elf girl prints still are not pleasing me. I've tried different photo papers, heavy sketch papers, and some linen paper. My next tries are canvas paper and textured card stock. Anyone know what the best printer setting to use? It seems like there should be some way to google this, but everything is dependent upon printer model, ink type, paper, and file format. There are too many variables. It seems this is the hard part of selling prints. Any who, if anyone has any tips please send them my way.

Back to School

It's back to school season. The air is a little cooler in the morning and evening, yet there's still some humidity in the air that keeps us from getting the sweaters out. The big-box stores are full of students loading there carts high, buying those plastic cubes that stack on top of each other and waste baskets and other storage bins. I'm nearing 30 years old and we're back to that school schedule in our house, too. The summer was quick and I enjoyed the extra time I had with Peter around more often. I filled every minute I could with classes, book binding, and messing around with Adobe. That is, the time that I wasn't at the lake, helping with friends' farms and gardens, and playing in our yard (and park, and zoo...) with FGH. I didn't realize that I could still fill each day to the brim much like I did when we were on the farm.

Peter is already into his third week of his second year at Mitchell. He'll be in school for three years total and starts on-campus interviews already this week. He's has 6 or 7 firms with which he's interviewing. These are highly sought after positions, so he may or may not get one, and the position he gets if he does get one is for the summer only with the hopes that it may turn into a full time position after graduation. The interviewing process is like a crazy labyrinth; he has to make his way through all sorts of steps to get through the different levels. He even attended an informational session that tipped them off about what to order if you have a lunch interview among other things. Still, I like the idea that we could have an inkling of a slight clue about where we will end up. Minneapolis? St. Cloud? New Ulm? Winona? Stillwater? River Falls? So, good luck Peter!

Since Peter is up to his eyeballs in law right now, the schedule around the house is a little wonky. I am hoping we get into a routine soon because the last couple of weeks have been a little less than organized and FGH suffers from weird nap and meal schedules. Stockers, Busca. We did have a smashing time at the big State Fair yesterday, we have to squeeze it all in.

Swirling Tree is a little out of sorts too, with more going on than time allows. I have ADD tendencies and having too many pots cooking on the stove is my #1 problem.

A logo job has come my way and it's a lot of fun, yet, like all creative work, frustrating to do at the end of the day with little of my brain remaining awake at 10:30 PM. Then, we've got the BEST -Book binding Etsy Street Team Back to School Sale starting today. Click here to get to the BEST website where all vendors are listed. I was hoping to a get a few more books in the shop before the sale started and they may or may not find their way in during the week. My third big project as of late is my little elf persona, who needs a name by the way and I'll take suggestions. I sketched my little elf girl with vegetables and I think she'll make great 8x10 prints in a little girl's room and also great for little notecards. HOPEFULLY I get to a printer this week to she how she prints. I've got a black and white laser printer here that doesn't do her justice (obviously). So, busy. Yes.

I will leave you now with some photos of summer and my new projects. (The house is growing messier and more disorganized instead of the other way around, but I still hope to get some more house pics up this week too. ADD ADD ADD!!!)

The elf print didn't upload correctly. I got some crazy weird colors, so I'll try to get that figured out, too.

Teeny Pocket Journals/Albums

I just sent a set of five pocket journals into my shop. They are teeny, 2.5x3. I used the long-stitch and a wrap around bead closure. I'm thinking I may have to keep one for myself for pictures of FGH. I never have pictures when someone asks me while out and about.

These were a bit of a precursor for a Christmas tree ornament idea I have. Yes, I'm already thinking about Christmas.

I have a Hollanders parcel waiting to be opened on the couch so I'm off to sort my wares.

Four New Mismatched Books in the Shop

More pics in my shop.