Freaky Saturday

The booth set up with optimism and high expectations (note the cheery tulips)

Snow. Raw damp cold. And wind. On April 26. Not even life-long Minnesotans expected this.
And in an unheated building on the State Fair grounds, with the doors open all day, it made for one miserable experience for the vendors of Craftstravaganza. (A fellow blogger/crafter called it "excruciating.") There really was nothing that the organizers could do (except maybe close the doors, but then the building looks locked up). My letterpress partner and I had been delighted to find ourselves assigned a booth right in front when the map was sent to us a month earlier. But on Saturday, it just meant that we were in an 8 hour wind tunnel of damp, freezing wind. Excruciating. Exactly.


When I got home I made some toast and crawled into bed. I was so exhausted from pretending to be oblivious to the cold that I couldn't even get into a hot bath. I felt the warmth return to my toes around 9:30 that night.

My booth partner Allison pretending that she's not cold.

But the odd thing is that...except for the physical misery...I really enjoyed it. I liked the prep, arranging the display, meeting people and other crafters. I got tons of inspiration from my frozen colleagues and some great feedback from people who stopped by. I had a postcard out for the classes I'm teaching at MCBA this summer and those were all gone at the end of the day. So it's definitely something I'll do again.

Boxes waiting to be packed up

Fortunately, there is another opportunity for all the boxes I made in the last several weeks. This weekend is Art in Bloom at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, a beautiful exhibition of art and floral arrangements. Their special garden shop has taken my boxes on commission. So I'm glad not to have to pack them back into the basement quite so soon!

A pair of favorites

The Label Binding

I'll have details about Craftstravaganza in the next day or so. (Suffice it to say I'm still trying to warm up!) In the meantime, Carmencho Arregui, my favorite Spanish book artist, has posted instructions for her "label binding." This is an ingenious binding which uses the book's own label protects the sewing supports of the text block. Photos and her own charming story are on her web site.

Working alone

I've read enough and know enough artists to know that working alone for long periods of time can make you crazy. But I don't think you really know what it's like until you actually experience it. In the course of one day I go from wildly optimistic to thinking that everything I'm making is junk. In between, there are moments of high-paced gluing and skipping over important steps with poor results just hours away. But there's also moments of being in "flow" that are marvelous: when the rice paste is flowing nicely and the chiyogami wraps just right around a new box.
I'm an experiential learner, which means I like to learn while I'm doing. That's great, as long as you give yourself time or mental room to make mistakes. With Craftstravagnza, I've done neither and it's beginning to take the fun out of it all. And I really don't want the fun drained out of this work! I often take notes about new projects as I work. Last night I wrote: Start earlier and you'll enjoy it more.

Production Boxes

In preparation for next weekend's Craftstravaganza:

Materials cut and ready.


Trays in progress.


Bottom halves are done.


Finished.


And we start again.

Cigar box bounty

A deep black treasure chest

Given my love of boxes it's sort of amazing that I never developed a passion for cigar boxes...until now, of course.
I picked up one recently at an antique store to hold my embroidery threads. In the basement studio I use quite a few different plastic containers to hold my supplies and I'm content with them. But I wanted something different for my embroidery floss...maybe because the box sits out on my coffee table while I'm working and I wanted a box with character.

That simple acquisition set off a chain reaction, though, and I began to think about how one or two more cigar boxes could be used around the house. I knew a local liquor store offered them for sale once a month, but not until the end of the month. Then I was reminded by a friend that a cigar store in St. Paul has them on sale all the time. So as part of my Saturday errands yesterday, I stopped by.

A red box with a removable tray

I felt a little foolish...it was clearly a man's store, but I decided just to have fun with it. The clerk asked how he could help me and when I said I was looking for cigar boxes, he told me I'd come at the right time and pointed to a sign that said "April Special: All boxes $1 each"...and then led me back to a room with literally hundreds of boxes stacked three and four feet deep. There were more sizes, shapes and colors than I had ever seen before in my life. Many of them are handmade with beautiful hinges and clasps. But even the cardboard ones are as sturdy as you could wish and close beautifully.

Two unusual specimens

When you come across something like this, you don't just pick out one or two. I put my purse down and set to work to choose an assortment for myself. Across the room a few guys were enjoying the actual cigars and watching the Masters Tournament on TV. They began to heckle me mildly for my fascination with the boxes but I knew it was just gentle ribbing. I went to the front of the store to pay for my choices and when I came back to put them in a bag, they were gone! My cigar-smoking friends had actually gotten out of their chairs and had some fun with me by hiding my stack. (I wonder what they would think if I had hid the TV remote from them?)

It's always hard for me to put new treasures away right away, so I have a nice collection of cigar boxes on my coffee table this morning. The house smells like my Uncle Joe (who loved his stogey)...a nice mix of cedar and tobacco. I now have more boxes than even I think I could possibly need....except I actually do want to go back for more.

Garden glove season

Ok, maybe not quite yet.
We've had some pretty dramatic weather this April. 6 or 7 inches of snow last week and threats of another significant snowfall for today. (Parts of Minnesota did get 6-12" overnight.) Last night the sound of icy snow hitting the windows was so loud it made me wonder if there was a window or door open somewhere. Then for good measure, lightning would flash followed by a good April thunder-crack.
Nonetheless the gardening stores are gearing up. While at Home Depot this week I couldn't resist this pair of gloves to add to my collection. They are chartreuse leather with a rather 60's type paisley print cuff. And yes, another collection. I adore garden gloves. If I could, I would buy 4 or 5 pair at a time. I love the prints used in the cotton ones that remind me of old fashioned quilts, the range of materials (I have a pair with rubber fingers) and the colors (my fuschia suede pair). I have a pair from Hable Construction in New York that are too cute to use, but the others all have their day in the yard.
And the weather people are all promising 60 degrees next week.

Summer classes at MCBA

MCBA has posted their summer class schedule and I'm excited to be teaching three workshops. Two are on the same weekend: Jacob's Ladder: The Book, and Jacob's Ladder: the Box (June 14 and 15). I love the whimsy of this structure and the surprise element. I have seen some serious books that use this structure, but mine always seem to be fairly light-hearted. Perhaps it's the fact that the book is really a toy. (See "Pies" above.)
Later in the summer, I'll do a repeat session on The Outer Layer (August 9) which includes 3 elegant structures for wrapping your books without a lot of fuss.
There is still room in the April 19 class for the Accordion Storage book (below). I'm going to work on some class examples this week and will post pictures here. This is such a fun structure and the results are really only limited by your own imagination!

Discipline

A while back I wrote about a feeling of personal disarray I named "Art Distraction Disorder." Very cute, but I'm now seriously considering the fact that this disorder is truly holding me back from my goals. Or even holding me back from creating and committing to my goals.

In my old life, learning new bindings, surface techniques, etc was a real joy...and distraction. Who could argue that learning how to do shibori or make book cloth was anything but positive? Classes often brought that awesome feeling of flow...where you are lost in the moment, completely focused and engaged on the problem in front of you. And if you are having a tough time in any other part of your life (and who isn't?), aren't those moments of flow a gift? As a good friend once said to me, there is a reason we embrace distractions.

I still love to learn new techniques and try out new materials, but the new skills may now be more of a hindrance than anything else. I have to admit that they are keeping me back from going deep in any one thing. For so long, that sense of discovery was labeled "fun" and even "healthy"....and it is. But like any good thing, there may be a time when you have to introduce some discipline or balance. In my case, it's the d-word. It does feel like a bit of a downer...do I have to skip the classes at MCBA this summer on working with metals? Or like my other experiences with purging and letting go, does it bring freedom and a deeper joy in the end? And, as they say, is admitting you have a problem the first step to recovery?

Dancing with the tax guys

No, I mean it.
I have always done my own taxes, and been sort of proud of the fact that they're generally done by mid-February. Of course, in my old life it was one job, some charitable deductions, some interest statements, a mortgage deduction and that was about it. This year was different and I knew I needed to invest in some help. I heard over and over again about Fox Tax and how well they worked with artists so I signed up for an appointment.
They're located in a wonderful section of Minneapolis bustling with artist studios and coffee shops and...as a demonstration of their commitment to their clients...have a small gallery in the front space of their offices. How cool is that? My meeting with them was really a good one: Not only am I getting a nice refund, but I learned how to keep on top of things this year (transition year #2). So I walked away very happy.
But yesterday, I get a note from them inviting me to celebrate "Accountant's New Year" with them...listing three different events to celebrate their favorite holiday, all of them involving art, music, and the threat of accountants dancing. No wonder their clients are so loyal to them!