This Sat. Aug. 2 from 1-4 I’ll be demoing at Jerry’s Artarama. Come by and say howdy.

I’ve listed my next class on the class page. We’ll be creating travel journals.

If anyone locally is interested in a “yard sale” item I’d be happy to bring to Jerry’s on Sat. Items picked up locally will be discounted since no shipping is required.

I have a few upcoming classes at the CAC this fall so watch the class page for more info.

I hope to see some of you soon!

Good morning readers.

It has been one heck of a job mucking out 6 years worth of crap art supplies and paper stuff in my studio. Thanks to all those that have bought items from my virtual yard sale. There’s still lots of good stuff to be had. I will be posting some grab bag type items later today so keep checking.

Of note…

One of the blogs that I read on a regular basis is Layer Upon Layers. Cyndi Lavin offers lots of arty mixed media goodness and artist interviews with tidbits of bookbinding thrown in every once in a while. It’s definitely worth a read.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Good morning readers.

I’ve been out of the studio for the past week. I’ve been spending time with the parental units helping out with things while my Mom recovered from a small surgery. Needless to say, even though I had Internet access, I didn’t get much accomplished while I was there.

Since returning I have been attempting to muck out my studio. I have alot of items that I no longer use/need and will be offering them for sale at a very reasonable price. I have set up a page where I will be listing what I have. You can find it here. Check back often over the next couple of days as I’ll be adding things as I come upon them.

All the money I make from my “yard sale” will be going into my art education fund  so not only will you be getting some good deals but you’ll also be helping a girl out.

Of note…

There’s an interview with Rhonda of the My Handbound Books blog over on the Etsy Bookbinding Street Team site.

Since the fall show season is almost upon us I thought it might be fitting to mention this book again. For those of you doing or considering doing shows this year, printmaker Maria Arango has written a guide to selling at festivals called Art Festival Guide: The Artist’s Guide to Selling in Art Festivals From the site…”Making a living as an artist, the brave way! Entertaining and thorough account on how to launch a career as an art festival artist. A book for brave artists who embark on the treacherous and most wonderful adventure of selling artful creations in art festivals and generally directly to the public. What you will need, how to choose shows, sales at the booth, marketing and promotion, setting goals for continued success, display tips, tricks of the trade, staying healthy and much more.”

She used to have alot of this information posted on her site and it was really informative so if you’re thinking about doing shows I highly reccommend getting her book.

I hope everyone has a great day.

Good morning readers.

The other day I recieved a RAC (random act of kindness) in the mail from an Internet friend. It was a little book and was so unexpected. I was having one of “those days” and it really lifted my spirits.

Of note…

Another Moleskine hack. This one has given me some ideas for making Chameleon accessories.

Ok…is it just me? I love the idea of a Moleskine but I don’t like the paper that is in them. Paper choice is just one of the reasons that I make my own journals. That doesn’t keep me from looking at them every time I go to Borders. It’s a sickness.

I also don’t care much for small sketchbooks. I like BIG sketchbooks but they can be cumbersome to carry around. I’ve settled on a 9″x12″ as my carry around size as it fits in my canvas sack.

I am having big book envy at the moment. I watched the (not very good… but I love the painting scenes) movie Basquiat the other night (yet again) and became enamoured of the sketchbook that was being passed around the table in the restaurant scene. Anyone have a clue to the size? I’m thinking 11″x14″ or there abouts. You only get a few quick glances at it but it has a thick paper with torn/deckled edges. I cringe every time I watch it and the one character tears a page out of it. It’s hard to look away…kind of like a train wreck.

I also love the idea of passing a book around and having your friends create something in your book.

I’m also enamoured of the “round table” idea. Remember Dorthy Parker and her friends? {Sigh}

I hope everyone has a lovely day.

Good morning readers.

Sorry it’s been so quiet around here. Like everyone else, I’m in summer mode which means frantically trying to get lots of stuff done before fall. Though most of the time I feel like I’m chasing my tail.

Some exciting news…I won a small scholarship from my art school for next year. It’s def. enough to help pay for art supplies and makes me feel good about the art that I have been doing.

Being a marketers dream, I have my eye on one of these in the near future. It’s the coolest little device from Polaroid that will allow you to print photos from your camera phone or P&S digital camera while you’re out and about. The photos are the perfect size for even a small journal like the Moleskine so there is no more waiting until you get home to add photos to your journal. Another cool feature is that the photos have adhesve on the back so you don’t need to carry tape or glue.

Of note…

Rhonda, of My Handbound Books, has made this really cool coptic bound book that has a picture on the spine. This would be really neat to do with a photo also.

I’ve added a few new links to the tutorials around the web page.

I hope everyone has a great day.. 

Good morning readers.

Summer is in full swing here in the southland. Baby ducklings are everywhere, the Gardenias are in full bloom and the AC is blasting.

I don’t know about you all but It seems like the summer is just flying by. I had so many projects that I wanted to work on before the start of the new school semester. Which, by the way, is just 7 short weeks away. (Ack!) Next semester I’ll be at the art center full time for my classes. I’ll be taking drawing, pottery, computer graphics and water color painting. Sounds like I’m going to art camp instead of college doesn’t it?

Besides battling fleas on the critters, I’ve been taking drawing lessons and preparing for teaching an upcoming class in digital photography as well as kids art camp classes at the Contemporary Art Center. I’ve been wanting to teach a digital photography class for a while and just lucked into the opportunity.

I got this awesome piece of lime green cowhide  with an Ostrich skin texture off of Ebay recently. I’m planning on making a few limited edition Chameleons with it as well as using it on a few book projects.

Everything seems to have settled down nicely after the server upgrade. You may have noticed that there are some odd characters in some of the older posts. This is due to the upgrade of Wordpress. I was running a very old version and when it upgraded in the new database it added the funky characters that you see. I have no idea why but they are there. I will be cleaning them out of the pages but will probably leave them in the older posts as it would take forever to clean them out of over 500 posts. 

Of note…

If you’re a member of the forum, check out the upcoming ATC swap hosted by forum member Cathryn in the swap section. Members will be swaping cards with a picture of some of their work and information about themselves. It’s a good way to get to know each other. Signups end on July 9th and you’ve got plenty of time to work on them before they are due.

I hope everyone has a great day!

Our domain was migrated to a new server this morning and I hit a little snag trying to update Wordpress to the latest version this evening.

Everything should be working fine now. Here and over on the forum. Unfortunately we lost a few posts on the forum during the migration but thankfully that was all that went awry.

Thanks for your patience!

My hosting service is migrating to a new server and there seems to be some issue with the database and my posts.

Thanks!

Jackie