1000 Artists' Books, supposedly

We never realized how skeptical we were until our kids pointed out that we begin every story that we have not witnessed personally or heard from many different sources with the word "supposedly." So despite emails from the editor and publisher, I was "supposedly" in 1000 Artists' Books until I could see the images of my work with my own eyes. Knowing that I would get an author's copy, I was holding off on a trip to the bookstore. Yesterday I stopped into the Jabberwocky Bookshop. Since I purchase most of my books there, I only felt a little guilty looking through the book and not buying it. As usual, I started at the back of the book so I got to see most of the pages before I found Spirit Book #37 near the front. It is truly a wonderful collection and I am honored to be included. I'm looking forward to spending much more time with it when my copy arrives. Thanks to Sandra Salamony and Peter and Donna Thomas for putting together such a great collection and the Jabberwocky for being a great resource to the community.

Book Arts Tuesday-Illuminated Cookies

Thanks to Jules Siegel's posting on the Book Arts List for an alert to this post about making Medieval Illuminated Letter Cookies on the Luminarium blog. Anniina writes:

I wanted to share with you some Medieval manuscript cookies I made for my friend and colleague, Risa Bear, creator of Renascence Editions. I chose historiated initials from several manuscripts, printed them on edible paper with edible ink, attached them to square cookies and gave them gold edges. Who says love of literature and art can't fill a belly?!

While you're there, you'll find other blog entries of interest and Luminarium: An Anthology of English Literature, a website which covers the Medieval, Renaissance, 17th Century, and Restoration periods. For Chaucer, there are complete texts of the Canterbury Tales and other works as well as audio readings by Anniina, quotes, a biography, essays and articles about his works, and links to other sites. One could spend hours and hours, no day and days, on all the rich resources here.

Studio Sunday-Stewartia

I'm having a great weekend working in the garden. We added a new tree to our front, Stewartia pseudocamellia. It was planted on Friday and this morning there were a few blossoms. I brought one in to sit by my computer.

South Common Haiku Binding Kit

When Paul Marion and I first talked about putting his South Common Haiku in print, I thought it was a perfect opportunity for me to combine my commitment to involving as many people in the creative process as possible and decided to design a DIY binding. We knew we were going to have a launch event. I designed a binding that needed minimal tools (scissors and hole punch) and that could be easily assembled in the correct order. It worked. We had about fifty people of all ages and abilities at the Edith Nourse Rogers School in Lowell on Earth Day 2012 and everyone left with his or her own copy of South Common Haiku.

We now offer it to you as a Binding Kit which contains detailed step-by-step directions illustrated with photographs and everything you need except a pair of scissors and a hole punch. You can purchase one for $20. postpaid at my etsy site. You can read more about the project here.

Book Arts Tuesday-Fan Books Workshop

On a rainy day in May, I'm enjoying remembering a bright Saturday morning Gathering of Gifts Fan Book Workshop at the Center for Creative Wholeness in April. Here are a few photos of the space set up and ready for the workshop.

We used old postcards, cereal boxes, buttons, and twist ties. We started by making a book from strips cut from leftover exhibit postcards to learn the simple construction. This book was made from that original structure and adding images from a garden catalog and hand lettered words that I had provided.

Then we all played with different shapes—petals

and circles—the last one uses one of my favorites from the collage box, patterns from the insides of security envelopes.

We're off for the summer but there will be more workshops and new books to make at the Center for Creative Wholeness in the fall.

My new bike

The saga of the scooter has had a happy ending. In a previous post, I described my conflicted relationship with my Fly scooter as I was putting it by the road with a For Sale sign. That very day I got a call from Kate Redgate, a singer/songwriter who lives a few blocks away. I had heard about her but never met her. She now owns the scooter and I am so happy it went to a fellow artist who will use it much more than I did. Please visit her website and check out her music. She's great!

Even better, I now have a bicycle. I went all out and purchased a new Schwinn. Schwinn named this particular model a Jenny and mine is named Jenny Jo. I was looking for a one syllable second name and decided on Jo for my childhood heroine, Jo March from Little Women. She is perfect! She has seven speeds which means she doesn't go terrifically fast which suits me just right. I use her for trips to the post office, library, and farm stand and then extend my trips with rides along the sea wall and into the more open spaces of Newbury. Riding Jenny Jo is both physical—I'm so happy to be getting exercise as I move along— and emotional—I am both completely in the present and deeply connected to the childhood me who rode around the streets of Rahway, New Jersey.

Studio Sunday-Starts and Finishes

My desk shows projects beginning and ending—the application and map for Outdoor Sculpture at Maudslay proposal which is due tomorrow, the white envelope which I am preparing to ship binding kits for the South Common Haiku Project, the Journal we used for comments for All Our Voices : the Lowell Women's Week Public Art Project some of which will be included in the final documentary material about the project for the LWW Archives at the Center for Lowell History, my notebook with notes for my workshop for The Educational Service Center of Cuyahoga County in Cleveland in October, and a piece of sea glass with a hole and wire that I made in a class with Lisa Scala through Newburyport Adult Education. And my computer glasses on the top.