Making recycled paper

Making and writing and painting and drawing and glueing in journals - some are altered books

Yes, I already spilled something on the “Sticks and Stones” journal, made with pizza box covers and my handmade paper.

Here’s the first handbound book, covers made from a Kandinsky poster book, paper made by Susanne Martin.

I used these sunflower petals in some handmade paper and saved the stalks to make paper with later. The sunflowers are from a Handance Farm CSA. The echinaecea is from the Back Forty.

Another studio shot - I picked the drawer out of someone’s trash to use for a shelf. The oil paintings are mine, and I’m proud of them, but apparently not enough to let go of the money to frame them.

Squirt and Mama Kitty rest on the studio windowsill.

I spent a good few hours in the studio tonight, so I feel like I’m back on track. Especially because I began my artist’s journal - FINALLY. This is a smallish spiral-bound handbook that came from work and is now out-of-date, so instead of sending it to the landfill (I try not to say “throw away” anymore), I’m reusing it as a journal. I paint over the pages with gesso as I go. Because it is nothing special, I’m not tempted to hang on to it for that “perfect” time to use it. And I’m not showing it to anybody, so I’m free to screw up and experiment all I want without fear. In fact, I’m going to TRY to screw up.

Because I’ve discovered something - artist’s block is fear, plain and simple. And there’s one more thing - you’re an artist too. That’s right, YOU. You may have had the desire or the courage for art criticized out of you, but you could make art. You really could. And here’s the last thing that I’ll say on the subject today - don’t limit art. That’s how you kill it. I believe that gardening and painting and cooking and weaving and decorating and ceramics and dancing and knitting and music and raising children and writing is art. As well as anything else that requires you to put some of your soul into it.

I also wove about a foot on the fabulously ugly scarf III, but I found that my upper back hurt after about 10 minutes of weaving. So it was fortunate that I’ve got so many projects and ideas in motion. This was part of my strategy. Since I tend to have a lot of little aches and pains, if one thing bothers me, I can switch off to another.

Also this week, other than carving stamps, I finished backing and photographing the ATCs. I took a heavy watercolor sketchpad that I wasn’t using and made signatures for a 48 page book, cutting the heavy cardboard back in two pieces to use for covers. When I showed it to my co-worker who is getting married in August, musing over what I might make out of it, she said that she needed a guest book. So I’ll do a test run on this one, since it’s my first book not made from a kit, and then I’ll take her to a local art supply store that has some wonderful handmade papers and I’ll make her a nice wedding present. I’m thrilled about this. It’s good to have a focus. For me, anyway!

The only real problem that I’m having at the moment with my art is that I’m fantasizing a little too much about if only I could attend this school or make art full time or go to this retreat or conference. I’m much happier in the present moment, but not having much to do at work right time is a blessing and a curse sometimes.

Oh yeah - there will be much of this kind of talk this summer. Apparently I can’t cook and do housework and garden and do art at the same time. So the cooking and housework obviously have to go.

As you can tell, I’ve dropped out of the 365 Crafting project.  Life intervened.  I’m still working in my studio though. 

Saturday and Sunday last week I spent a lot of time in my studio.  One thing I worked on was painting over sheet music to be recycled in a interactive peace journal for a class group project.  You can still see the music underneath and there are places that I left unpainted that I thought had words that might make good prompts.  The other pages are from a beautiful old children’s book about birds.  The pages in the journal are all recycled from books and paper I found on the free shelf at Edward McKay’s.  Of course, now I’m worried about our choices - is this old paper going to hold up?  I guess that the way to look at it is that it just needs to at least hold up through the end of this class!

Today I’m going to paint a few more and join pages into pairs by gluing strips of construction paper down the middle where they will be folded.  I made a couple of pockets from a old CD package and I’m going to make tags from card stock that we’ll attach raffia ribbons to.  The tags will have prompts on them and be put in the pockets.

Anybody that has a favorite quote or idea for a prompt about peace is invited to leave it in the comments!

The four of us are all working on different aspects of the book, so others are doing the cover and binding it and putting together a creativity kit for people to add their own thoughts in many ways.

I also finished the first “fabulously ugly” scarf and I think that it will be quite pretty, although I’m afraid that it might be too thick and stiff.  The yarn packed down a lot more than I thought it would even though I was not beating it, just pushing it into place.  I’ll see when I take it off and wash it.  It took a long time, but that was fine, because I needed the comfort of the steady rhythm this week and last.  I’ll begin the second one today, and weave it more loosely from the beginning.

So, I finished weaving this hatband last night, and twisted the fringe, and I just happened to toss it down on this sketchbook that I bought in San Gimignano last year, and thought, “Hmm. That looks good together. I could sew stuff all over this cover really easily.”

I found some boarding passes that I had stuck inside the book, with the idea that I’d make it into a scrapbook about our trip one day. And I wondered, why haven’t I done this?

I had picked up the book to show some classmates how easily we could construct a book for a class project. See, the linen strings just wrap around the spine.

Groups of pages are folded and inserted behind the strings. They are easily added and removed and changed around. What was I afraid of?

The butterbeans are in this picture just because I love butterbeans. Intensely.

I sat down right there and did a sketch of a photo of some cypresses at Spannocchia. I loved the way the shadows crossed the road. It parallels a lot with the inner work I am doing now with my shadow self.

I think that this is going to be my next tapestry. I haven’t woven a tapestry in years!

Oh, and have I mentioned that I am currently insanely obsessed with the idea of book-making? That I’ve bought a book about altered books and two issues of Cloth Paper Scissors? That I brought home a slew of sheet music and other books to recycle from the free section of Ed McKays? That I’ve bought basic quilting and sewing supplies?

Uh-huh.

(Crafting 365, Day 12)

From the Spannocchia blog, here’s a post about the class that I am saving money to participate in next summer: Organic Bookmaking. After reading about the fires in central and southern Italy causing tourist evacuations, I was glad to see this post!

Also, they link to a great article, Siena and Sustainability at Terrain.org - don’t miss the co-article about Spannocchia in the sidebar.