still here...

OK... So I have been MIA for a bit but what can I say... my family comes first and sometimes my life is not my own.  The rest of July is packed and August is impossible... I hope to see myself more in my studio in September.  Anyway... We just got back from a camping trip in the UP (upper peninsula).  I am originally from Michigan so it is fun to take the kids back to see the places I remember as a kid.  Being outside, unplugged and in nature really got my creative juices going.  Colors, textures, negative spaces, random groupings.... aaahhhhh.... I can't wait to get back to work.  Here are some pics... hope they inspire you too.

Tahquamenon Falls (lower)

 

hay bales on the farm

old house at the ghost town (Fayette State Park)

 

another old building at the Ghost Town

   

Letterboxing

Today we hatched as new Letterboxers and had our first find. What is Letterboxing you ask... check out the link. It is basically a treasure hunt with the prize being and exchange of rubber stamps. You get a set of clues (I believe there are several ways to obtain clues but we got ours from one of many letterboxing websites) that lead you to a box that contains a rubber stamp and a log book. Once you find a letterbox you stamp the log book within with your personal stamp and you stamp your personal log book with the stamp inside the found letterbox. Then you discretely re-hid it again for the next letterboxer to find. It combines hiking, nature, clues, art (as many of the stamps are handmade vs store bought), map reading and a basic sense of direction. We are very new and I had no idea how popular it is and really surprised to find that there are letterboxes stashed everywhere... really everywhere. Today, as a family we found our first box. Our collective trail name is Collins 5, but I think we will all come up with individual trail names too (Andrew is getting really creative). It was really a lot of fun. Besides all the local letterboxes we plan on making some side trips when we travel back and forth to Michigan and may even plant one of our own...what a nice way to let the kids stretch their legs after being in the car for several hours or to just burn some energy.

Think you want to try Letterboxing too... check out these sites

www.atlasquest.com

www.letterboxing.org

BOX SALE!!!

I am having a box sale in my Etsy shop. It is about time to clear out some my current stuff to make room for some new boxes in the works. So stop by and check them out. Enjoy!  For now the kids and I are off to the pool. Hope you are all having a happy and healthy summer.

I am also curious what you use boxes for.  To hold treasures, gifts, to just look pretty on a shelf... to keep old love letters or just to store junk in your basement ???? Do you like boxes for function or for aesthetic reasons or both??? Personally I like to make them and I find that the process of constructing them is the most rewarding for me.... from an artistic stand point.  I construct the boxes from scratch using book/binders board and then cover them with beautiful papers and bookcloths.  

stolen time

I was able to steal a bit of time and play around in my studio a bit.  My life is not my own these days with all the games, practices, doctor appointments .... well you get the idea.  And then the weather... who ordered that!  Our area has been hit hard with rain, thunderstorms, tornados, flooding and other random acts of God that have otherwise disrupted our normal flow.  As if the construction traffic was not bad enough already... I find it disturbing that it takes me 30 minutes to drive the 2 miles commute to soccer practice.  So needless to say I was thrilled to get a bit of time to myself, to work with my hands, to complete a task, to just think...  slowly these little books are becoming somewhat like therapy for me... it is like a mini vacation.

 

more red...

I Saw Red...

So I joined in on the I SEE RED game over at Sadie Olive.  Sounded like fun and perhaps a creative boost.  I am always taking pictures so I thought I could spy with my little eye something red... here is some of the RED I saw...

so this is where I have been....

I just finished teaching 2 workshops... so to speak... at DePaul University and Columbia College. Previously I was going to teach a drop spine box making class at Columbia but due to low enrollment the class was canceled.  However, I was contacted by the head of the Special Collections at the Richardson Library at DePaul and they wondered if I would consider teaching 2 of their staff members at DePaul.  Well of course I would!  I spent the past 3 Wednesdays in wonderful company teaching the ins and outs of constructing drop spine boxes.  I forgot how much I enjoyed the career I had in a previous life (book conservator/conservation tech in the Ryerson Library at the Art Institute)... but sometimes life just happens.  

Then Saturday I was off to Columbia College Center for Book and Paper Arts (where I got my MFA).   I have been teaching workshops there since roughly 2000.  This time I taught a How to Make Your Own Book Cloth class.  I will admit I felt a bit unprepared... I usually teach box making.  I am very confident in my technique  (it is quite simple actually to make your own book cloth) but I have never taught it as a class... originally someone else was supposed to teach it but something came up and I offered to fill in.  When I got there in the morning some of the supplies I requested were not there and then we ended up running out of some supplies half way through.... but in the end it all worked out and everyone left with some nice handmade bookcloth.  Next time I would do a few things differently but over all I things went pretty well.  

Today was also my oldest last day of kindergarten and next week my middle son (with special needs) begins a 2 week break before starting summer school.  Summer puts a whole new twist on things.  Our family schedule has literally been packed for the past month but I am hoping that things will start to slow down a bit.  On Saturday we have a soccer game and a cub scout fishing derby, I need to do some grocery shopping and laundry and well that is our day.  Sunday is mine!  After church, I already told my husband that I NEED to get some work done in my studio.  I have several "almost finished" commissions that I want to complete and a few projects that I am itching to start.  I seriously don't think I have spent more than 5 minutes in my studio doing anything productive in the past 3 weeks... (except my work on the Convergence Project, but that was done mostly at my kitchen table where I could drop it at a moments notice and finger swipe some small foreign object from the baby's mouth, set Sam up-right after he tips over in his chair for the tenth time and help Andrew with his homework)... it is sad really.  So I have started my WISH LIST of things to accomplish on Sunday.