Smoke & Aces

Well mostly smoke and not a lot of aces around here. We have two major fires burning in the Southern Willamette Valley and unfortunately I'm very sensitive to smoke- killer headaches and super nausea has been the story of my week. It's rather amazing in the 8 years that I've been here I've never seen anything like this, every morning I get up and brush a layer of ash off my windshields.

I feel like a total slacker but all I've gotten done lately is a few pair of earrings and for the life of me I can't seem to get any good photo's of them. I'm blaming the smoke, maybe the camera....

I got my ATC's off this week for the Book Arts Forum Swap this week, they are titled
"A Tale of Two Fishes" I will share pictures once I get my packages back as I don't want to spoil the surprise for those of you who also participated. ATC's were an interesting challenge for me, as a bookbinder I don't consider my self an artist. I struggled for awhile but finally came up with something I was proud enough to send off.
I've also been working on some new silk screen designs. I have one design with flowers I sketched up in illustrator that I'll be burning as soon as we get some sunlight again. I haven't decided if it's going to be books, bags, or both!

Crafty Overload

This week has been good for nourishing my crafty side. It was the last week of classes here and while I'm totally stressed out for my finals next week I've managed to get a lot done that isn't related to school.

Ok so the first project is kind of related to school- The fabric pieces are a tote bag, and a tote bag in progress! I finally ahead of the game in silk screening for once and I got to play around with fabric for the first time. The bag with the cassettes is finished while the bag with the reels still needs to be sewn together. I screened the fabric during our last class on Thursday and everyone was really envious, I think mostly because I was done and could play around, might also be because I bought shiny purple ink to play with.

As you can see in the second picture I have lots and lots of ink to start playing with. I also bought myself a photo emulsion kit, but that will have to wait until I get a scooper and a bigger squeegee.

In other exciting news this week our local crafty materials exchange MECCA sent out a news letter this week saying they had gotten in some upholstery leather scraps so I ran in as soon as they opened the next day and took a large pile to start playing with leather again.
The topic came up of why I want large scraps of leather and I told Mija I was a book binder. She got really excited and we started talking about me teaching classes there over the summer! I think I'll be teaching in late July/early August, I'll keep you posted as I come up with more of the details! I'm really excited to have the opportunity I just need to come up with what classes I want to teach and how I want to structure them....

Earth Week

Eugene is an eco-minded town and there were all kinds of Earth Week festivities going on around town. Susan of Seh What! on my local street team works for Levi and they put out a call for handmade items from the team that were recycled. I admit that most of what I do isn't recycled but the cute little book earrings fit the bill perfectly! I sent the 4 pairs above and I hope they got warm welcomes!
I have had a busy week with school, work, and the like. I got my first project back from grading and am plugging away on my second. Silk screening is turning out to be much harder than I had expected it to be. Not sure why I though it was going to be easy, but I did. I'm WAY behind on my second project because I can't get my beaker to turn out... yes I'm a geek, I'm doing an art project involving chemistry. I promise to share a picture of one of the prints when I'm done.
Today is a nice day after a week of snow, rain, & hail so we are enjoying the fading sunshine and waiting for a few friends to arrive for the weekly Saturday dinner. We are setting up the ball game in the "back yard" which is really the grass we share in the back with the rest of the apartments that no one but us seems to use.
My prints are due Thursday so if I remember to pack my camera as I finish them this week I'll share by the weekend. If not I'm not sure when I'll get them back from grading.