by Linda | Feb 4, 2010 | my creative journal
Happy Thursday to everyone! I am working on an artsy baby journal for a friend of mine and wanted to share a bit of my novice bookbinding learnings through the process. At times I feel like a kindergartner, because I’ve managed to make everything a bit sticky from the glue magically invading and spreading all over my creative workspace! Other notable learnings?
- Choose sturdy material – board for the covers and heavier weight paper for the pages
- Use a glue brush and wash it out before it hardens
- Glue spread onto the heavier surface seems to work better, less bubbles
- Precut, prepunch, pre-everything to size before moving to the glue phase…ooops
- Don’t try to punch through 12 heavy pages at the same time
- Measure out more than enough string for sewing, so you don’t have to add more mid-sewing
I also realized how much precision really matters for certain details of the finished project. For example, cut too close or too far and you get imperfect corners for the covers. Maybe I shouldn’t eyeball it!
The photo above also shows my experiment of using regular cardboard for the cover material, which is cool for the thickness, but very porous and seemingly easy to puncture and damage. It also didn’t help that my recycled shopping bag was totally wrinkled for this cover, but I liked the colors and pattern a lot. I created a bunch of different covers to experiment with the materials I have lying around the house. The itty bitty one you see below in the center is leather wrapped around a board and threaded together. That little prototype is really sparking ideas!
I’m not really that picky when it comes to creating art journals, but for a gift I want it to be as nice as possible. I did my best and here is the final product and inner pages. It’s a bit loose because I stitched each page separately to keep it flat and easy to spread out and draw on. Although I initially didn’t want super girly colors, it ended up sort of strawberry shortcake themed and I think it’s great for a baby girl!
Off to finish off my experiments and make more journals…for what I’m not sure yet…
by Linda | Feb 2, 2010 | my creative journal
I’m so thankful for the great community out there because the lovely BobbiLewin has featured me in a treasury! It’s pretty cool that Etsy enables folks to curate a mini show, although I’ve seriously never been able to catch a time when treasury creation is open…it’s like Ebay auctioning, you have to wait and strike fast! I happened upon this feature, I wonder how sellers can be automatically notified if there in a treasury? I always want to thank the creators after all!
In other news, I am feeling a lot better now and trying to get back into the swing of things with more energy. I continued onward with my series of graphic art prints and also starting to work on binding a journal with some printed words. It’s an artsy baby journal for a friend who is expecting. If you haven’t noticed already, I jump from project to project, letting my energy and excitement drive me forward. We must follow our muse and be ready whenever, right?
by Linda | Feb 1, 2010 | my creative journal
A while back, I signed up an online workshop called Color Beyond The Basics taught by Julie Prichard and Chris Cozen. Although I’m starting out a bit late, I’m so happy to be a part of the 125+ people learning together online and discussing explorations in color. I’ve never had formal training in color theory and have always found it all a bit intimidating. I seem to naturally have very different preferences in color, super bright as you can tell from the yellow scheme of my blog or perhaps unsuspectingly combinations that look good to me anyway…but I don’t really understand the whys of it all. We are starting from zero in the class, so it’s really been eye opening for me to just stop and notice the color all around.
I’ve also gone ahead and done some research online, trying to read up about color inspiration and color combinations from the masters. There’s definitely great resources online, but having Julie and Chris available to ask whatever silly question I might have really really helps. Online workshops are the next best thing to real life workshops, which don’t come by often here in Italy! Although at some point I would love to be an apprentice for some of the craftsmen here, talk about cool…one day! I started taking a lot of pictures around the house of color combinations that inspire me…also playing around with going RAW with my camera as well…
That little cute cactus is from my 4-year old niece who wanted to cheer me up when I arrived home from the hospital. I had two other succulent plants that sadly died this winter – it’s been so humid here in Tuscany and it seems root rot got them! Perhaps full fledged cacti will be able to live through my black thumb skills!? Either way, I just love the styling of the plant in the wooden bucket with the complimentary purple flower decoration…all so country chic to me.
Now I’m off to finish off my color swatch library, painting squares in an old grammar book, hehe…it’s pretty amazing to see the differences in the various paints I own and how mixes change the transparency and quality. I wonder how far I can go with the mixing, so many to do! I just started doing some simple skintones, but the possibilities are endless. Hope you have a great Monday and don’t forget to stop and notice the color around you and take it in as inspiration!
by Linda | Jan 25, 2010 | my creative journal
An American abstract expressionist artist born in Rotterdam, Willem de Kooning is considered one of the most important artists in 20th century. There’s a Pulitzer prize winning book about his personal and professional life, de Kooning: An American Master (affiliate link to Amazon)
, which is the next book on my reading list. I was intrigued to read the book after learning that de Kooning was always in doubt with his work. What? A great master in doubt? I find it very humanizing and started thinking perhaps it’s necessary for artists to doubt…otherwise we would never experiment and push ourselves to the limit in order to grow – always seeking that something…that feeling when you know a work is complete and the excitement that surges inside of you.
Willem de Kooning, Elegy, 1939
De Kooning’s work also came to mind as I’m experimenting with more freedom in painting and techniques that stem from spontaneity. Abstract expressionism is sometimes called action painting – perhaps they aren’t the same thing really – but the idea is to spontaneously drip, splash or smear paint onto the canvas to emphasize the physical act of painting itself rather than the finished work. De Kooning actually destroyed some of his ‘bad’ paintings, which is so weird if he was supposed to be concerned more with the action rather than result of painting. It was mentioned that he regretted destroying works later in life, more interesting stories compelling me to read the book and find out more! I’m just so attracted to the idea of not having to plan – sort of stream of consciousness painting and seeing what happy surprises pop up. Perhaps this is an opposite reaction to my past job as a project manager? Of course, this style of painting is also really messy and fun…maybe it’s just regression, going back to finger painting! As I ponder my thoughts, I keep looking at de Kooning’s work, taking in the energy and visual inspiration.
Willem de Kooning, Pink Angels, 1945
Hope you can draw some energy from the idea of action painting as well. Thanks for stopping by, now go splatter some paint somewhere…feels good, doesn’t it?
Willem de Kooning, Gotham News, 1955
by Linda | Jan 18, 2010 | my creative journal
This lovely Monday morning, I am looking through the work of illustrator and graphic designer, Lara Brehm. I have to say wow, wow and wow again because I love her work in illustration and pattern making immensely! Lara’s blog provides a lot of visual inspiration for any artist or crafter, just for sheer beauty of her color palettes and cute whimsical illustrations. I love how her look is so clean, yet full of vibrance and color at the same time. She is another artist I look up to and aspire to be…hehe…hope I’m not sounding too geeky and starry eyed at this point.
via Lara’s blog
I also really enjoy seeing her mockups for various products and the variety of which she creates with her designs, really showing how versatile illustration work can be. From patterns to scrapbooking pages to printables and tactile products…all the things I would like to work on realizing myself as an artist.
via Lara’s blog
Not to mention her work is always joyful to me, something that really picks me up no matter how crummy a day might be. How can you not smile at these uber cute illustrations? I hope they can brighten you day as well. It’s nice to know there is so much positivity and goodness in the world.
via Lara’s blog
