List of book arts suppliers

I've just posted the list of local and online suppliers that I created for my class on my Riverlark Studio web site. It's a bit eclectic, but there may be some information that is new to you. If you've visited the site before, please click your "refresh" button to see the new link. (I'm working on that that technical issue and hope that it's solved soon!)

Back up, oh please back up!

Since I'm in an Apple state of mind, let me post my favorite advice of the new year: Back up!
This fall a good friend lost all of her email due to a computer glitch and on Christmas day my neighbor's computer crashed with only a few family photos able to be retrieved from the fried hard drive. I had been sort of thinking "well, I don't really have a lot of valuable information on my computer," but of course, I do: email, music, photos, documents, etc. And since I had upgraded to Apple's new OS, Leopard, I knew that I had a system that would back-up automatically once I connected it to an external hard drive (a very cool feature called "Time Machine"). So I finally got the back up drive I needed...a task that is on the same spot on the "fun" meter with paying for car insurance.
Last week I spent a lot of time working on instructions for my book arts class at MCBA. I'm still learning quite a lot about combining text with scanned images and there were two times when somehow my images disappeared completely from my document and once when 1/2 of the text vanished. But because of Time Machine, I could literally go back to the document from hours earlier and retrieve my work. I have to admit it was just amazing.
When you open Time Machine the graphics look exactly like the image above. There's a grid along the side that shows you all the dates you can take your file or document back to...just like a real time machine! So now I'm a bit of a preacher on the subject of backing up your files...but really, you have no idea when you're going to hit the wrong key or something just goes wrong.
So even if you don't have a Mac, please just pick up one of those little USB drives at Target and spend 10 minutes backing up your most important files.
End of sermon! ;-)

Thinnest of them all?

Sunday morning waffles

Self-closing wrapper (left) and slipcase (right) from "The Outer Layer" class

As a treat on Sunday mornings, I like to have a couple of waffles with my coffee. I eat them with Gedney's State Fair "Doubleberry" jam (blueberry and raspberry combined). They're the multi-grain kind, so it's really not too indulgent...except for the butter...but it's different than my weekday fare and feels special.

Each student's workspace is ready for them.

Today is a catch-up day for me. I taught my first class at MCBA yesterday (called "The Outer Layer") and I've been preoccupied all week with creating the structure for the class, writing hand-outs and preparing materials. I went into the studio two hours early yesterday to set everything up, and I'm glad I did. If you were in my class, thanks so much for your patience with me!

An "Outer Layer" student

The Center was a lively place yesterday. In addition to my class, Lin Lacy was teaching an intro to marbling next door and my Craftsravaganza partner was teaching letterpress in the press room. And, they were getting ready for the opening last night of the new exhibition Situations.

Gluing up the multi-use box (the slipcase is in the foreground)

I have no commitments today, so I can luxuriate between activities. Somehow a full list of things to do and no pressure to get them done is my favorite way to greet the day.

Beautiful marbled paper hanging to dry.

I nearly completed a hat-trick of appliance malfunction last week. First my dishwasher had to have major surgery, but survived. Then my dryer gave up the ghost...permanently. But it was when my sweet little iPod (vintage 2004) started to skip around its playlist without finishing a song that I really got worried. I love that little thing. Compared to the current iPods, it's quite dainty. It has no color screen, much less video. But buying it was something of a turning point in my own understanding of the evolution of technology. It was when I got my iPod and started to understand the concept of creating your own playlist and downloading just one tune (and not an entire record) that I really understood how the music world had changed, virtually overnight. It had a huge impact on my professional work and still affects how I understand and watch new technology. Fortunately, however, the skipping was only a scary moment for my iPod and it now seems to be working fine. (I did spend more than a few moments online looking at the Apple iTouch and iPhone...just in case.)

Marianne spatters color.

So my list includes going out to look at dryers today but no Apple products. I also want to get started on some boxes in red and pink for the shop at MCBA. They already have a fabulous collection of unusual items for Valentine's Day, including some wonderful new posters by Amos Paul Kennedy.

Cardinals for luck

I think that there are two pair of cardinals who visit my feeder, so it's really not surprising that I usually see one during the day, but I always consider it a sign of good luck when I spot one. Especially on gray Minnesota days like today, the red feathers of the male brighten up the branches outside my window. They seem especially loyal to their mates: if you see one, usually the other is close by.
I was able to take some pictures today of the male and wondering where his partner was. Turns out she was just inches away but had completely blended in with her perch. If they look a little fatter than usual, it's not from my good food. They puff themselves up to stay warm. Sort of like the way we look in our down jackets right now in Minnesota.

FOJ: Friends of Jody

My email had a double dip of good news this afternoon. Together with MCBA, the St. Paul Library's Minnesota Book Awards has inaugurated an award for a Minnesota Book Artist. Minnesota has such a rich book culture and a lively book arts community that this new award makes great sense.
The best-est news however (a favored adjective of my niece, which is sometimes highly appropriate) is that well-loved and talented artist Jody Williams has been given the inaugural award.
To say that Jody works in miniature is a gross understatement. "Two Hundred Specimens" (above) measures 10" x 10" x 3" (that's inches) and contains over 200 specimens from a residency in Ireland. It also includes a lovely book of her poems and botanical drawings from the trip. Take a moment to look at the drawers and shelves in this cabinet. Somewhere along my own journey of understanding good book art, I realized that success comes when you can integrate text, visual imagery and structure. Jody is one of the few artists who always meets that criteria.
You might have a tendency to believe that someone who works that small is all wound up and not much fun. Jody's work is certainly detailed and beautifully done, but she is also a wonderful person to share a mid-summer gin & tonic with or vent to on some minor but irritating flaw in the universe.
Her sense of humor shows up in her work as well. "Condensed Creatures" (above) is an accordion book (sized at 1.5"x 1.5"x 1.5") that lays out the unusual characteristics of an imaginary set of animals...in alphabetical order, of course. For a few years, she published "The Diminutive Digest," a compendium of all things small. The boxed set of 10 is a treasure.
As much as I admire Jody's art, I also love what a generous teacher she is. On the faculty at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, she has a loyal and devoted following of students. At MCBA, her following is just as devoted, if not a bit older. I'm only sorry that I've taken all of her classes ("Box-making made simple," "Box-making made hard" and "Extreme box-making") as they always pushed me to the next level in my own work.
I'm so happy that she's been chosen for this award. I know no one who deserves it more!

Gratitude

I like my sweet mixed with a little laughter:

At last! Introducing Riverlark Studio

For many years, I worked with musicians and music organizations on various media. And at one point or another, I always tried to encourage them to build their own web site...one that would communicate who they were, what they were up to and that would invite the curious to engage in their work.
Late last year I decided it was time to heed my own advice. I was teaching at MCBA, starting to sell some of my work and ready to talk about my studio in general. And so I'm happy to present to you Riverlark Studio. Browse around and you'll find the classes I'm teaching, where to find my work for sale, some miscellaneous advice on book arts and a little bit more about the story of Riverlark. This blog is also available on the site. And if you'd like some occasional emails from me with updates, please sign up on my email list.
I have to say a big "thank you" to my web guy, Geoff Myers. The process of defining the site took longer than either of us expected, I think, but he was so patient with me. I highly recommend him!

Craftstravaganza

Pronounced: Craft-stra-va-gan-za
Craftstravaganza is an annual alt- (as in alternative) art and craft sale held on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul each spring. My friend Allison, who does beautiful letterpress printing and her own books through Igloo Press, and I put together an application for the one-day sale and last night we were notified that we were accepted!
The alt-craft current is having so much fun with craft. Many of the crafters seem to be in their 20's and 30s and are having way more fun with craft than I've seen in a long time. Vintage styles are favorites, images are as diverse as flowers or skulls, and everything, really, is fair-game for someone's imagination. Crafters use the web to promote much of their work, find great central locations for sales and fairs and don't invest in much of an all year 'round presence. It's sort of dive-bombing for craft sales. The New York Times took notice in December and looked at the unique business models of these artists.
I visited this sale last year. For 355 days of the year our beautiful fairgrounds are mostly quiet. There are weekend shows in a few buildings, but nothing like the madhouse of our State Fair in August. Craftsravaganza holds its sale in the Fine Arts building on the fairground campus and allow just 75 exhibitors. Arranged in two rings to make it easy to wander through, you see everything without feeling overwhelmed. Last year, there were beautiful felted rugs, patchwork diaper covers, great dresses and skirts, silk-screened T's with fabulous graphics and of course, lots and lots of jewelry.
Allison and I will be having coffee soon to discuss the specifics of our table: banners? twinkle lights? It's all very fun. If you live in the Twin City area, put April 26 on your calendar!

5 or 7 Continents?

I've started volunteer tutoring at my local MLC Learning Center. I'm doing it for a number of reasons, but one in particular is that I wanted my own world-view shook up a bit. I read the papers and have progressive friends who travel all over, so I know (in theory) that things are quite different in many places than they are in my own quiet South Minneapolis neighborhood. But that isn't quite enough. I have long believed in the power of words and communication and felt that helping learners with English as a second language (or third or fourth, as I've come to find out) might be a good way for me to learn as well.
It's only been a few weeks and I am already looking forward to Monday morning's class. During MLC's training they told us that adult-learners are highly motivated and my group is a great example of that. They give me the compliment of trusting that I know the difference between a noun and a pronoun. (I do, but I have to dredge up the information from the grade-school part of my brain.)
This morning we were talking about sizes of communities and places: towns, cities, states, countries, continents. Someone said that there were 5 continents and I was ready to jump in with a correction that there were 7: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, Antartica, and Africa. But while we talked, I learned that many cultures don't include Antartica as a continent and consider North and South America as one continent called America. So already I've had my world view altered: are there 5 continents or 7? The grade school answer of which I was so proud doesn't seem all that important anymore, except, perhaps, to some penguins in Antartica.

Winter greys

I really don't mind the temps and snows of Minnesota winters, but the grey days are hard to take and we seem to be in a string of them. I loved hearing how Eero keeps an orchid garden going up in dark Alaska. So, here's my personal list for fighting the "winter greys":
* wash the car - the outside will be a crusty shell of salt and snow again within 24 hours, but it's nice to have a clean interior
* keep a couple of green plants alive - my plant nurturing skills are mixed, but this is a good time of year to tend to them
* keep Bruce* on your iPod and rock out while you're making breakfast
* try something new, even if it's going to the grocery store a different way
* drink as much water as you can
* bring home flowers

Ok, so I'm really writing these notes to myself (ie, I need to drink as much water as I can; I need to keep a green plant watered and tended), but maybe posting them here will keep me from giving into the "greys" another day!
*as in Springsteen

Necessity is the mother of invention

I really haven't forgotten about my dear blog...in fact, I'm looking forward to telling you about something fun (well, fun for me) in a few days.
In the meantime, I've been working on several projects, one of which really pushed me to get some decent photos of my work. I had been asking friends about this subject for a few months and someone pointed me to the directions for a homemade light box online. I talked to my handy brother about rigging up something but for the moment we couldn't decide if it was overkill or not. Nonetheless, I needed to take some pictures....looked around my basement...and made my own, um, light contraption (box is too elegant a word).
It's made from the scaffolding of my Target laundry hamper laid on its side, 2 sheets of paper and 2 clip-on lamps with GE's "Reveal" floodlights. Taa-dah!
And the picture is not bad:
But I don't like to leave my laundry in a cloth bag on the dryer, so I think I'm still going to look into something less improvisational.