Saturday Creations

Reaching Out

acrylic on paper

9" x 12"

With the greening of trees here, I turned to a palette of various yellows and blues this week, making some decidedly green creations.

Yesterday morning, my third book sewing class, we tackled a very ambitious book--two-signatures sewn with two needles holding two different colored threads twisted outside the spine. Whew! I managed to complete it but my spine was a bit wide for the paste paper covers. During this class I find I’m struggling, trying to balance my logical side with my creative side. Since I have to be exact and detail-oriented 5-days a week, I am either befuddled or downright rebellious on an early Saturday morning, having to be precise measuring intricate book spine designs and calculations. This class might be too ambitious for me since I lag behind understanding and that, in turn, bothers me even more.

I’ve wanted to learn about bookmaking since I have read so many books and blogs about making your own book and really wanted hands-on instruction. Last fall, I tried taking a full-semester on bookbinding but it was full. Maybe if I had chosen a very simple class with, say, using the pamphlet stitch with variations, I’d catch on more quickly. Most of my classmates already had taken a book class with this instructor.

In the future, I’d like to translate what I’ve learned into creating my own journals, with paper and size of my own choosing since I’m out-growing spiral watercolor books that only come in cold-press paper. Seeing some wonderful books made with unstretched canvas as covers on Gina Cuff’s blog http://dogberryhill.blogspot.com/ might be the direction I’m heading.

Later in the afternoon, looking for something else in my studio, I came across a set-aside project: some small frames with matching glass. I have wanted to make a necklace with an altered photo of my great-grandmother matched with one of my Irish photos. My sister is the jewelry artist but I'm pleased with this result.