I am totally overwhelmed with the books I’ve bought in the last few weeks. It’s like a book fiend has taken over my body. Yesterday Sandy and I did a big purge of books to take to Ed McKay’s today, so I could get my new stacks of books off the floor and onto shelves.

Some of these new stacks are of old books. For example, when I visited Mama a few weeks ago, I snagged the 1952 set of World Book encyclopedias, which I’m sure made me the geography trivia whiz that I am today. If today was in 1952. I always had my nose in these encyclopedias, and they meant nothing to anyone but me.

I also brought back my much beloved copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, spine well creased from obsessive re-reading, and a copy of Treasure Island, which I never read but I found a piece of paper in it where I had made as many words as I could out of the words Treasure Island. I made up a lot of word games as a child out of these books and encyclopedias. I found my old stamp collection and a list I had made of “My Library,” which included such diversity as Huckleberry Finn, Flip Wilson Close-up, Steppenwolf, How to Write Codes and Send Secret Messages, and Gardening Indoors Under Lights. I doubt that I actually read Steppenwolf, but I may have given it a try. The librarians on the county bookmobile had a very hard time keeping up with me - I’d have finished my stack of books they picked out for me long before they came back in two weeks.

There was a real treasure trove of old books in the free section of Ed McKay’s for a few weeks. I’ve picked up a lot of old school books and other interesting books from the turn of the century up through the fifties. I have enough novels from the free section to last me two years. And, believe it or not, I had been hitting the library on a regular basis, but I’m going to give it a rest until I read some of what I have at home. I started reading Wendell Berry’s novels from the beginning, and that felt like going back in time to talk to relatives long gone.

Yesterday, Sandy and I went to Empire Books, where I never made it past the cookbook and arts and crafts section. Sandy found a perfect copy of my favorite artist Andy Goldsworthy’s Time for $18. I picked up a $4 copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, three wonderful craft books: Art Stamping Workshop, Beaded Crazy Quilting, and Paper into Pots, and a 1950 half autobiography/half cookbook called Love and Dishes, by Niccolo de Quattrociocchi, an Italian restauranteur in New York City. It has recipes from all the famous NYC restaurants of the time. I’m really looking forward to digging into this one.

It is a good thing that I don’t live closer to Empire Books. I might go broke. I really, really need new clothes but I spend all my money on books, art supplies, and good food. My priorities are pretty good but I might need to get a little more practical.

So, what started this post was a question from Moomin Light: What creativity books have I been reading? I mentioned Living the Creative Life, by Ricë Freeman-Zachery. I’m also reading her book Stamp Artistry.

I was already into The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron, which I like but I’m going to wait until summer if I do the lessons.

Danny Gregory’s The Creative License is so incredible that I nearly have a panic attack each time I open it, but it’s next. I read his Everyday Matters last year, and I’m a lurker in the Everyday Matters Yahoo group.

In addition, I’m feeding my inner child and dreamer with Dan Price’s illustrated journal Radical Simplicity: Creating an Authentic Life. Because I spent a good part of my childhood winters building hide-outs and lean-tos and treehouses to read my books in.

I have Amazon links to these books in my pretend bookstore, if you’re interested in learning more or buying them. I’ll update it with my newest books later today.

Yes, I’ve been a book hound since I graduated. It is delicious.

My goal today was to complete a woven artist trading card, and I achieved that goal! Well, almost. I have to put a backing on it, but I think that I’m going to wait until I get about half a dozen woven and back all of them at the same time.

Earlier this month, I wove two other little tapestries which I meant to be artist trading cards, but the size was not quite right. The only two restrictions for an artist trading card is that it can’t be sold and it must be 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. Think baseball card. So those two will be pins. When I hit the size right, it will be an ATC, and when I don’t, it will be a pin.

The theme of Art & Soul is “By the Sea.” From what I understand, most of the attendees carry with them lots of little handcrafted goodies to trade. I’m weaving these tapesties on little cardboard squares, and they are doing double duty - they will be trades and they are studies for my next tapestry bag.

Weaving these little tapestries is one of the most relaxing things I’ve done for a long time, and it is so easy. Taking photos of the little weavings, not!!!!! Also, I planned to do a lot of beading on my collages and art quilts and fabric journals and weavings. I might need to get my bifocals first - it is definitely ten times harder than it used to be to thread a needle and poke it through those tiny little holes. So, to recap, weaving = fun! Photography and beading = frustration.

Substitute any dream for the word “artist”…

“Give yourself permission to be a beginner. By being willing to be a bad artist, you have a chance to be an artist, and perhaps, over time, a very good one.

“When I make this point in teaching, I am met by instant, defensive hostility: ‘But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really play the piano/act/paint/write a decent play?’

“Yes . . . the same age you will be if you don’t.

“So let’s start.”

~Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way

I started a project that’s been on my mind ever since I received the book Artist Trading Card Workshop. I want to make my ATCs out of fiber and recycled materials when possible. The section that appealed to me most made nests of fibers on the card and melted them together with embossing powders and fusible webbing tape.

So I have been weaving tapestries from thrums and discarded warps and dyeing mistakes, and now I have a way to re-use the thrums from the thrums. It feels like, I don’t know, like I just found the last piece to a jigsaw puzzle. Ahhhh. It drove me crazy to throw those thrums away. Usually I give them to the birds or toss them in the compost heap when there gets to be too many.

Anyway, here’s what I came up with. Backgrounds for four sets of two cards each.

I had no freakin idee whut I wuz doing. I just played. If you were around in September when I began to have my meltdown, you know that this was a major goal for me. I’m a planner. It’s my personality. Weavers generally have to be. I needed to learn how to play. Squirt had a lot to teach me about that in his last year. He became more playful than he ever had been in his middle age.

I was so afraid that I had lost my mojo for good. Now I’m in the middle of four projects! Whee!

3.5 x 2.5″
cotton yarn, cardboard, brown paper, shipping label, ink

See this post for the story behind it.

I jammed up my printer playing with this brown paper and I think that I killed it! But I do like the effect it made on the words. The “prettier” side is actually the back of the card. It is supposed to have my contact information on it and I have to figure that out. I have a blue gel pen at work that might do the trick.

This is my first artist trading card. There are only two rules for ATCs - they must be 2.5 x 3.5 inches (baseball card size) and they must be traded or given away, never sold.

This was a lot of fun and I think that I’ll keep it up. Hopefully I’ll have plenty to trade when I go to Art & Soul in early May.

I finished the tapestry bag on Sunday afternoon. The closure is a drilled pebble button, and there is a piece of cardboard in the bottom to hold its shape between the lining and the bag.

Don’t…ask…how I did the lining. Dumb luck with much cursing and sticking pins in my fingers. It was a lesson in persistence and pain, and I finally resorted to an iron and Stitch Witchery.

Next time, I will make the lining darker, although it does help me find things in my bag. Also will make the inner pockets bigger. The straps are perfect!

Tapestry - in terms of time, it may be the ultimate “slow” cloth. Especially for artists who raise their sheep, shear and spin the wool, dye it, and weave it.

There’s a wonderful interview on the latest podcast of Weavecast with my very favorite artist, Sarah Swett, she of the instructions for the tapestry box below and many, many exquisite tapestries. When you visit Sarah’s virtual gallery, and really you must, be sure to move your mouse around the tapestries and click on any spot where your cursor changes. It will take you to a close-up of the spot. Every tapestry is a glimpse into a different world.

So much of what Sarah said in this interview resonated with me. Tapestry is one of the most mindful arts there is - it is plain weave, simple stuff but so complex. You do not undertake tapestry if you are in a hurry to finish, but if tapestry undertakes you, you will live in every place that you lay the weft.

I just read a little book called “Craft to Heal.” The author talks about flow, the state you find yourself in when you are so totally absorbed in the present moment that time disappears. That is what I often experience when I am weaving a tapestry.

Listen to the podcast even if you are not a weaver. If you are a creative soul, it will speak to you.

Here’s the latest progress on my tapestry box! Whee!

The Take It Further February Challenge is up. I’m not officially on the list, but I decided to crash the party by joining the Flickr group and doing it anyway!

The color option can be found at the February challenge page. My, those colors look familiar! I can use my stash. That’s nice.

The concept option is “What are you old enough to remember?”

This is going to be a fun month.

In a Minute Ago (the mother ship)
Take It Further Challenge Blog
Take It Further Challenge Flickr Group

I swear, this was not my intention of what to do with my unhatched chickens from the guvmint. But I couldn’t help myself. I was sucked in by forces way beyond my control. I am hypnotised. My jaw has dropped, and I am drooling. I feel quite faint.

This is the danger of the combination of the Internet, a paid off credit card, and a long period of denial.

I’ve been bopping around some fantastic web sites lately. Quite frankly, the only reason I haven’t spent more time on the art internet is because I find it completely overwhelming, as if I am looking into infinity. One of my earliest toddler memories is a cup with a picture of a cow drinking from the same cup with a picture of a cow drinking from the same cup with a picture of a cow drinking from the same cup… This has brought that feeling back to me.

Yesterday, I was farting around with my Sitemeter referrals when I found a blog called Joyce Makes Art by way of a Google search page in Russian for images of “Squirt.” Turns out that Joyce also has a cat named Squirt, and it turns out that she is a multimedia collage and fiber artist. So I was looking through her site when I clicked on this button and fell down the rabbit hole:

It didn’t take much to convince me to register for Keith Lo Bue’s Precious Little: the Poetics of Found Object Jewelry two-day workshop. Then I meandered my way to his virtual gallery and web site.

Holy crap. I feel like a stray dog and someone has offered me a cheeseburger and a warm place to stay.

So that I don’t follow Keith home wagging my tail, I am taking Sandy with me and he’ll explore the nearby museums while I am in class all day Saturday and Sunday. We’ll stay in a very nice hotel and enjoy Friday and our two evenings together.

I’m going to learn how to use tools and make art out of all the junk I have trash-picked, picked up off the pavement, cut out of magazines, and stored in little jars and bowls all over the house, all in the anticipation that one day, this time would come.

Not only that, it’s already February 1 in Australia, and so the February Take It Further Challenge has begun. Next post.

The bottom is almost finished! I’m only stopping because it’s bedtime and I’ve sat in the same spot too long.

Since this is weaving in the round, like a basket with spokes, you need to put in an extra warp so that you have an odd number of warp ends. Here I ran it down through the edge of the woven part, turned it around, and pulled it back up through the cloth so that it would hold the tension and not pull out later under stress.

Those bottom corners are going to be tough. The top corners are already taking a beating because they were already worn before I started. I’ll put some T-pins in them and hope that will help. Next time I’ll be a little more careful when I choose my box.