New Spirit Book's Cradle

Here's the cradle for the new Spirit Book. I found it last spring while walking at Maudslay State Park. When I saw it on the ground, it was turned over.

I tend to like cradles that give places for books to nestle in and assumed I would use it as I found it. It just didn't seem to work. The problem was not so much with the shape and sizeof the book but finding the right color of paper to work with. There is a lot of gray in the wood but the grays were either too blue or too green and all the various shades of brown and tan had too much yellow. On a whim, I turned it over, placed an already made book on top as a test, and immediately knew I had found my solution. I think the sense that the book will rise from the cradle is appropriate for the St. Brigid's crosses and their suggestion of the coming of spring.

I look forward to showing you the completed book on Sunday.

New Spirit Book Pages

Here's a two-page spread of the new Spirit Book. The St. Brigid's cross is made from Yucatan paper (natural patched) from Hiromi Paper. It is mounted on Lokta paper from Nepal from Paper Connection International. The pages are made from Tasho Natural paper from Bhutan from New York Central.

Make a Paper St. Brigid's Cross

This is a very simplified version of St. Brigid's (or St. Bridget's) cross. The traditional one is made of rushes and has many more layers. This is just the first round but it contains the core of the pattern.

I used four strips of bagasse paper from India. They have deckled and uneven edges as they are the edges I trimmed off before cutting the paper for shipping The Spirit Books book.

MAKE THE CROSS:

1. FOLD THE STRIPS OF PAPER:

Fold each strip of paper in half.

2. FIRST STRIP:

Hold the first strip vertically with the fold on the top.

3. SECOND STRIP:

Hold the second strip horizontally with the fold on the left.

Open it and and enclose the first strip by placing one layer on either side.

4. THIRD STRIP:

Hold the third strip vertically with the fold on the bottom.

Open it and and enclose the second strip by placing one layer on either side.

5. FOURTH STRIP:

Hold the fourth strip horizontally with the fold on the right.

Open it and enclose the third strip.

Bring the layers together and thread them inside the layers of the first strip.

6. TIGHTEN:

Gently tighten the weave and make the cross.

Somehow the cross just asked for some lettering. I turned the cross over to the side where the paper strips were more even and wrote with a Akashiya Corporation Thin Line marker from Jet Pens.

In the center: spring and imbolc.

On the sides going clockwise:

Let us nurture the spirit of renewal and embrace the light of the coming days. (from last year's first day of Celtic spring message)
and
Let us hold the fire of St. Brigid in our hearts and be warmed by its flames.

Here's a link to video for making a traditional St. Brigid's cross.

Book Arts Tuesday-Starting a New Spirit Book

I've started a new Spirit Book. The design of the pages is inspired by the approaching season in the Celtic calendar—spring—and the custom of making and hanging a St. Bridget's cross on the door for twelve month's luck. I've always been interested in folk customs, particularly those that connect with the season and form a bridge between the outside world and the one within our homes. I think there is a link between that interest and the Spirit Books.

Here are some of the miniature St. Bridget's crosses I've made for the pages of the book. It's a simplified version made with paper. Traditional ones are made from rushes. I think I have mentioned how faulty my math can be. I am planning for 6 sections in the book with 8 pages in each. My first round of math led me to say that I needed to make 48 crosses. For some strange reason, I decided that was wrong and redid the math to come up with the number 256 (24 x 8) for who knows what reason. Thankfully I realized my original calculation was correct before I continued on past 48.

Upcoming posts this week will feature progress on the book and directions for how to make your own simplified St. Bridget's cross out of paper.

St. Bridget's Cross

Next Sunday, February first, is the first day of Celtic spring and is celebrated with a St. Bridget's cross made of rushes. I'll be celebrating the week with St. Bridget and her goddess counterpart Brigid with a series of posts this week. I'm using miniature St. Bridget's crosses in the Spirit Book I'm working on now. I'll show glimpses of the work in progress through the week and if all goes well, the completed book for Studio Sunday.

Here's the text from the above print that I created in 1988 which is considered a "vintage handmade item" on etsy.

It is the first of February, the first day of old spring. It is still cold, but the light is changing. For twelvemonth's good luck, I hang St. Bridget's cross on my door. There are connections between St. Bridget, the sun, and its earthly counterpart fire. St. Bridget’s cross is sunlike with its woven center and extending rays. She was born at sunrise. When she took the veil, a pillar of fire rose from her head. A sacred flame burned continuously at her altar. St Bridget owed much to her forerunner, the Celtic goddess Brigid. She is the one who fascinates me. Brigid lived long as a goddess and is sometimes referred to as a trinity of sisters. She was in her earliest form a fertility goddess, then a fire goddess and as such associated with hearth and home. She was also the Celtic version of Athena, goddess of wisdom and learning, poetry, craftsmanship, and healing. In this time of the growing sun, as the longer days renew my energy, I look to Brigid as an example and inspiration, who merged hearth and home with poetry and learning. I ask Brigid to bring me luck.

The 8.5" x 11" offset print is available at my etsy shop.

Studio Sunday-New Mug

to brighten the winter days

What It Means To Be an Artist

This is my As I See It column in today's Newburyport Daily News:

It’s small—a framed print just over five by seven inches. There’s a sticker on the back: “GREEN BRIDGE (Built 1902) between Newburyport and Salisbury, Mass. from original watercolor by MILDRED G. HARTSON. It’s signed with the artist’s signature on the mat and on the back. I recently purchased it at Flukes and Finds. I had to buy it, not for the image but for its creator. In a roundabout way, I had unfinished business with Millie Hartson. If the name sounds familiar, it is because the upstairs gallery at the Newburyport Art Association bears her name.

When I moved to Newburyport in 1985, I was a new mother in my early thirties. As an artist, my work was primarily calligraphy but I was in a time of creative transition. One of the first things I did after my arrival was to join the Newburyport Art Association. As I had prior experience with a non-profit art group in Lowell, I was quickly recruited to serve on the board. The NAA was also in a time of transition. Its current building had been purchased in 1969 and the needs of the building were a strain on the organization. Drawing visitors beyond the immediate downtown was more difficult in the days before the Tannery. There was a recognition that changes needed to be made. However, any suggestion at a board meeting would always be followed by “What will Millie say?”

I never had much personal contact with Millie, but I had opinions about her. Millie was old (in her early 80s at the time) and traditional (paintings of local scenes). I think because my own work was in flux, I was hard on everyone, looking at their work with the same critical eye I was casting on my own. I didn’t know where I was going but I wanted it to be someplace new. I was looking for what I considered to be an expression of the deepest part of me and I couldn’t understand how a painting of a bridge could ever fulfill that role.

I began to get an inkling that I was wrong when I was a peripheral participant in a conversation at the art association. Millie was saying that she was destroying the original plates that were used to print her cards. She had stopped painting and wanted to maintain the value of her work. She wanted to honor those who had supported her by purchasing even an inexpensive card. I was taken aback by her words then and they have lingered in my mind for almost 30 years. She spoke with such conviction and clarity. There was no doubt that her work was in fact coming from the deepest part of her being.

Over the years I have been continually redefining what it means to be an artist. For me now there is only one word that that distinguishes someone who is an artist from someone who is not. The word is commitment and the commitment is to the work itself. Whether our work is traditional or avant-garde, painting or photography, sculpture or installation, we are all on a personal journey which requires belief, strength, and fortitude. I now see Millie Hartson as a kindred spirit and am honored to have this symbol of our shared passion.

Here is link to the column online: http://bit.ly/159BJOm

Book Arts Tuesday-Medieval Books at Khan Academy

A wonderful new discovery thanks to the Turning Over a New Leaf facebook page:

Books and the Dissemination of Knowledge in Medieval Europe at Khan Academy. It's full of great details and images. There are two sections: Making the Medieval Book and Using the Medieval Book. I especially like the first chapter: Listening to the Medieval book where Dr. Erik Kwakkel and Dr. Beth Harris look at two books and listen to the different sounds of the turning parchment pages.

Here's the introduction to the chapter: Words, words, words: medieval handwriting:

The hard work of the scribe

"The fingers write, but the whole body suffers," (medieval saying)

Parchment makers prepared skins, scribes cut their pens and filled their ink pots, and binders packed their workshops with leather and wood. All these activities would be in vain were it not for the single event that sparked them: copying words.
Writing a medieval text with a quill is hard work. The pen could only make a more or less downward movement because of how the nib was cut. It meant that letters had to be broken up into multiple pen strokes. This made writing a very slow process: a Bible could easily take a year to complete. A scribe's handwriting—script—can tell us where and when he was trained to write. Script tells us these things because the shape of letters was constantly changing—script is thus an important historical tool that helps to place stories and information into their proper cultural-historical setting.

Studio Sunday-Forcing the Issue & Then Letting Go

It's like when you buy that dress that you knew deep down you shouldn't. You spent a lot of time in the dressing room. You wanted it to be the perfect dress for you. And it was—almost. And then you got it home, went to put it on to go out, and realized that it just wasn't. Or maybe you did wear it that one time and came home and knew it had to go.

Well, this time it wasn't a dress, it was the pages for a new Spirit Book. There were early signs that it wasn't going to work but I liked the page design (3 tiny twigs with buds from our Cornus Kousa) so much I didn't want to let it go.

If I had been able to make a hole in each twig to stitch the twig onto the paper, it would have worked. Unfortunately the twigs were too thin. I did what seemed like the next best thing and sewed around each twig but I couldn't get the stitching tight enough so I had to add some glue under each one. I should have given up when I had to re-glue a few twigs but I continued, stitching on all the twigs and beads and adding the chain-stitch borders to about half the pages. When one of the buds snapped off its twig, I had to admit that this was an idea to abandon.

I'm pleased to say that I did so with a twinge of sadness but no sense of frustration or wasted time. I loved those hours stitching whether they resulted in a final product or not. It's always nice to be able to take your own advice to heart. In Art Lessons, I wrote:

We need to acknowledge that no time spent in creative activity is ever wasted. Sometimes we see it in specific ways. Bits and pieces of the past have a way of creeping into the work of the present. What was left behind as a tangent can become the basis of new work five years later. Sometimes the value is purely in the time spent with intention. Every time we become deeply immersed in our work, we break through the barrier of time into a sacred space where we lose ourselves in the creative process and gain strength, resilience, and patience.

Welcoming the New Year

I always put off taking down the Christmas tree and greens. I enjoy the light and the companionship and think how sad I will be when they are gone. My husband will say, "How about today?" and I'll answer, "Maybe tomorrow." And then one morning, I wake up and know it's the day.

What amazes me every year is how much I love the newly open house. I don't miss the tree and its trimmings. I rejoice in the feeling of a fresh start. I celebrated by getting a few hydrangea from the florist. I wanted something white to reflect the purity and promise of this mid-January with its dusting of white snow and clear crispness.

Book Arts Tuesday-Video on Making a Book

ibookbinding, a great informational website that I have mentioned before, has a link to this video called The Art of Making a Book by Kraftsman Sheng. Here's what Paul Thomson of ibookbining says about it:

A fantastically filmed short video (3:40) on the methods of making a traditional book from setting the printing plates to adding the leather covering. One of the best short video documentaries I’ve seen on bookbinding, well worth a watch.

I agree.



Link to Video

New Year Wishes

As I go into the new year with the ongoing intention of not planning ahead in my work, I let the tools, the materials, and what I was feeling guide me in my lettering as I wrote this greeting with a Speedball C-4 nib and Higgins Eternal Ink on everyday paper. After several variations on a numerical 2015, I decided to go with the year written out in words. I usually write things out from 5 to twenty times (5 here) and choose the one I like best to scan into Photoshop. I may have known it once but couldn't remember how to turn black lettering on white into the reverse. My visting son gave me the simple key command: command I (or image-adjustments-invert). Magic!

January Talks in Massachusetts

I will be giving a new version of my Art Lessons talk twice in my local area in January. I’ve changed the title to Art Lessons: Learning from our Creative Experiences, and thinking that it may change again. Where the talks I had been giving involved me sharing my work chronologically with reflections along the way, this one is designed around themes represented by quotes. Here’s the blurb:

Join Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord for a talk about art and creativity. Susan believes that everyone is creative and that exercising our creativity makes us happier and more fully human. In this illustrated talk she shares her 35 year history in the arts (calligraphy, book-making, digital compositions) and the hard-won truths she has learned: the importance of patience, the development of the critical eye, making peace with the desire for perfection, and the idea that an artist's best teacher is the work itself. Her goal is to put the audience in touch with their own creative experiences whether they be art, crafts, music, writing, cooking, gardening, fashion, or home decorating.

Tuesday, January 13, 6:30 PM
Amesbury Public Library, Amesbury, MA
Contact: Kim Butler 978-388-8148 kbutler@mvlc.org

Wednesday, January 28, 7 PM
Nevins Memorial Library, Methuen, MA
For more information contact Beth Safford at 978-686-4080 x 12

Both libraries ask that people register in advance.

If you are in the area, please join me. If you’ve heard/seen my talk before, there will some familiar things and some new. Please feel free to pass this along to those who might be interested in attending the talks or booking a talk at their organization or group.

Twelfth Day of Christmas-Joy

Eleventh Day of Christmas-Hark!

Tenth Day of Christmas-Snowflake

Eighth Day of Christmas-Greetings

Ninth Day of Christmas-Light

Seventh Day of Christmas-Promise