Happy New Year!

Wishing you a creative 2013!

I made this small CD case calendar using my favorite photographs. This month is from Ballynahinch Castle. Our 2010 tour group ate lunch here and later walked the grounds.

Book Closures and Jewelry-Making

While going through paintings to create a 2010 CD calendar, I realize I did not create many new ones this year. My focus has zig-zagged from taking two bookmaking classes and making different book forms, to sketching a fake journal, to my current interest in book closures and embellishments, which has extended to metal and jewelry making.

Recently making this journal for my sister (below), I considered using red lace, a red leather dog collar, or an Art Nouveau button for the closure. After using my New Mexico journal, I learned the closure is best when it is out of the way of the pages! I’ve had to un-screw the conch while working in the book. This got me thinking about the many ways a simple leather book could be adorned. I’ve begun sketching the possibilities as they pop into my mind.

Like other things, jewelry-making seemed mysterious to me. Of course, painting once did too, before I actually began playing with paint. After sketching various ways to close leather books, I got interested in using charms and symbols.

Having just received “Wire & Bead Celtic Jewelry” by Linda Jones, with many lovely Celtic spirals, makes me realize I can make my own charms that have more meaning than anything I could buy. “The things I want to know are in books,” Abraham Lincoln said and I have been reading several that can teach me much. The once-mysterious ways of jewelry-making is becoming something I can actually do!

Isn’t it interesting how the Muse can pull you in certain directions? Often, my logical mind resists and does not wish to venture into a new art field. But, wire and metal have been calling and I have no choice but to follow.

Where has your Muse led you lately? Did you listen or did you hesitate? What were the results?

Almost Time

With a new calendar year approaching, my fancy turns to calendars. I love to buy them, I love to make them. After hot summer months I begin thinking about them in the fall, wondering what kind to make. This year, I am way behind.

Here’s the last month of my recycled art calendar (profiled here (http://mymindisinablog.blogspot.com/2008/05/hand-made-calendar.html). Its pages of hot press watercolor held up pretty good. Yes, that’s a rubber band holding the previous months together--the nail hole did get overwhelmed by all the collage and the thickness of 8 folded pages and, of course, 12 months on the job!

In addition to the one mentioned above, I also created my first 2008 CD calendars. You flip a thicker CD holder and it becomes the calendar holder. I matched 12 of my photos with moon-phase months. It’s a neat design idea but a crazy size. For printing, I could only fit 2 months on regular size paper.

The easiest ones I’ve made are printed out on white card stock. It’s thick enough to be sturdy and not too thick to fold and hang on a wall.

This year ought to be easier since I now have Microsoft Publisher where before I used a really, really old program called Print Shop. I had to figure out how to lay it out for printing on both sides. And, I just can’t use ordinary pre-made calendar software programs provide, either. Oh, no, I have to fiddle around and change elements and put my own art or photos in it and alter or abandon their color scheme. But, it all seems worth it when you can look at it 365 days and really enjoy your little handmade work.

How about you? What are your ideas? Have you ever made your own calendar?