Books Unbound II

I just dropped off my pieces today for the show "Books Unbound II" by members of the Binders Guild book arts group here in Milwaukee. The show will be up November 9-30, 2014 at the Marian Gallery in Caroline Hall at Mount Mary University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There will be an opening reception on Friday, November 14, 2014 from 6-8 p.m. (See also my previous blog post.) There will be quite a variety of handmade books and other book-related art. We each had to do a 12x12" canvas around the theme of story-telling so I used a quote from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice for my collage.
 
We also each did an abecedarium or alphabet book. Mine is an accordion book "A to Z Tangles" with 2" square pages, each featuring a different handdrawn tangle pattern. The back of each page has the designer's name listed for each pattern. I had a lot of fun drawing these, but some letters it was difficult to choose just one pattern!

 We also each did a piece inspired by the theme "Cabinet of Curiosities." For mine I added to an assemblage piece "Inexplicable Syncopation" that I had done in 2007 for a show at the Bay View Book Arts Gallery, because I had never felt that the piece was quite completed (and I still don't but I had a deadline).

You can see these and my other books on Flickr here.

Work in Progress for Upcoming Shows

As it has been some months since my last post, here's an update on a few things I've been working on.  You can also "Like" my Facebook page, as I am somewhat better about posting little updates and photos there. (Somewhat!)

 I'm submitting work for two shows this fall and also participating in the Crafters Marketplace again.

Opening first is "Books Unbound II," the second show by the Binders Guild book arts group. (The first show was in 2010, and you can see photos here.) This year's show will be up November 9-30, 2014 at the Marian Gallery on the Mount Mary University campus in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The book on the far left in the announcement above is one of my books, and I will try to post more photos in a future blog post. UPDATED:  Also see my Books Unbound II Flickr set here

Each participant is also doing a 12 x 12 inch canvas for the show, and this is mine:

I'm also planning to participate in the annual Warped Milwaukee fiber arts show again this year and am working on my submission this month (as the application is due October 31!), and you can see a sneak peek here:

The fiber arts exhibit will be up from November 14-30, 2014 in the Jazz Gallery, 926 E Center ST, Milwaukee, and on the last two days of the show November 29-30, 2014 (the weekend after Thanksgiving), I will also be in the Crafters Marketplace there as well. If you're interested in participating in the Warped Milwaukee show or the Crafters Marketplace, here is the overview. (You may have to click on the image to enlarge it to a more readable size.)

You can also find the info and the links for the separate applications for both the fiber art exhibit and Crafters Marketplace on the ABK Weaving Center blog and the Warped Milwaukee Facebook page or Google+ page.

So even though I have not been blogging, I have been busy!

Adventures in Paper Marbling

At the end of June, the Milwaukee ATC group had Betsy Rasmussen of Ruth Ross Designs teach us paper marbling, and if you live in the Milwaukee area, we all highly recommend taking a class from Betsy (and you can find some of her upcoming workshops listed here).
 
She had all the workstations, paper, paint and sizing set up ahead of time so we just had to show up and follow directions to get fantastic results! Here's what I made:


Don't ask me what I plan to do with these yet. I haven't been able to bring myself to cut them up!

And thank you to Darlene Hagopian and Riverwest Artist Association for use of the Jazz Gallery space.

Finishing 365 for 2010 and Starting 2011

On December 31, 2010, I completed my 365 Milwaukee 2010 project, taking a photo a day for a year. You can see the slide show below or browse the set on Flickr (in reverse chronological order):

If you see less than 365 photos, that's because a few photos are only visible to friends and family. My family's like me - we don't like having our photos taken, much less posted on the internet. So you'll see very few self-portraits in this set! And I suspect a large percentage of the photos are still-life set ups taken after 9 p.m., when I realized I needed to take a photo before I went to bed. This project served more as a documentation of my creative life (after two previous failed attempts to do Crafting 365), so there are a lot of photos of art projects and supplies. OK, there are quite a few photos of food as well. And cats.

So what's next? In 2011, I've decided to fill this book that I made in 2010:

I'm not sure how the binding & wooden cover will hold up, but there's only one way to find out. Fortunately (and not due to any foresight on my part), I chose paper that was meant for printmaking, so it's fairly thick and sturdy and will hold up to paint & markers and who knows what else!

I don't expect to do something fabulous every day. My goal is to at least make some marking once a day, even if it's only laying down a wash of color, collaging an image, or doodling in a corner. So let the New Year begin!

Books Unbound - Milwaukee book arts show opens Halloween

As I mentioned in my previous post, the Binders Guild is having its first show, "Books Unbound." The opening reception is this Sunday, October 31, 2010, from 2-4 p.m. at the Marian Gallery, Caroline Hall, Mount Mary College. The show is up through November 27, 2010 and gallery hours are Monday -Friday, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. and weekends 1-4 p.m.

The best thing about a book arts show? You're allowed to handle some of the books! Given the opening date, there are a few Halloween-themed pieces, of course, but we have a wide range of book art from ten artists. You can see the Flickr set of my submissions here. (I don't know that they will all make it in to the show because of space limitations.)

Two Book Arts Exhibits in Milwaukee!

The Binders Guild, of which I am a member, is presenting its first show "Books Unbound" from October 31-November 27, 2010 at the Marian Gallery, Caroline Hall, Mount Mary College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The opening reception is on Sunday, October 31, 2010 from 1-4 p.m. and the gallery's regular hours are Monday-Friday 9 a.m. - 7 p.m. and Saturday-Sunday 1-4 p.m. There will be an interesting mix of book arts and more from 10 artists. Please stop by and check it out if you're in the area.


And up now through December 17, 2010 in the Fourth Floor Exhibition Gallery of the UW-Milwaukee Library is 2x2: Small Book Works, featuring 2-inch square books by members of the Milwaukee Book Arts Salon and the Bone Folders Guild of Madison (some of whom are also members of the Binders Guild or friends of mine through other local art groups).

The Edible Book Show

I have to get one last post in before the end of the month (and I won't have time tomorrow) so two posts in one day! This past Sunday, I attended the Edible Book Show at Woodland Pattern Book Center for the first time. I have several artsy friends who participate so I had heard about it for several years now but had been missing out on the fun!

All the books were made to be tasted and judged by the people attending the show. How often can you say you arrived at an art event to find the guests had already started eating the exhibits?

Fortunately there were photographs of each book displayed so late arrivals could see what each piece looked like to start. We judged the entries on creativity, difficulty and delectability. My friend Jessica Poor won a special prize for most votes over all since her Mexicali Medusa (chips embellished with food coloring, guacamole and salsa) got lots of votes spread across all three categories. Sharon Van Ruiswyk demonstrated different techniques for making your own edible book forms using everything from bologna and Wonder Bread to Pringles and spray cheese.

On the right above is Petra Press's book made with rice krispie treats and edible ink printed on rice paper. This fairy tale book below had a dangerous combination of chocolate & crispy wafers:

You can see photos of past shows here:
2008
2009
Enjoy!

Exuberant color or just really garish?

I've been so busy with non-artsy work lately that it's all I can do to write a blog post once a week! But I have been trying to get a little bit of art done every day. Right now I'm working on another Ten Two Studios design team challenge. This time I have a waterfall paper bag book and some of the new eye-wateringly colorful Day of the Dead sheets.

I LOVE 'EM! The bright color combinations inspired my backgrounds. I gessoed the paper bags pages & inserts so the lighter acrylic paints would show up more vividly and then added designs in contrasting colors with foam stamps. I don't think I've ever used orange, turquoise and lime green together before this! So far I've got the main imagery and the text laid down. Now it will probably sit for awhile until I decide what to do next!

Victorian Characters in Search of a Novel

This week, Lisa posted my book "Characters in Search of a Novel" at Ten Two Studios. This was made for a design team challenge to use manila envelopes and tabbed pages, and I wanted to incorporate the Color Me Victorians collage set.

Each manila envelope is attached to a tabbed page and contains a character bookmark. I had fun assigning themes and archetypes. Some text was from the collage set; some I printed from my computer or wrote on the tabs: Romance & Revolution, Hero & Villain - all those archetypes.

The best part, of course, was coloring all the Victorian sketches! Literary child's play?

The background text on the bookmark tags was from an old copy of Silas Marner.

All the fun of English literature without having to write a meaningful essay about it!

Bad Girls, or things I couldn't show you before :D

So remember a while back I gave a hint of a project I was working on for the Ten Two Studios design team? You can see the whole thing now here (Just don't tell my mom! ;o)

Lisa also named a kit after me "Carolyn's Artsy Medals" and they are already sold out!

Some other things I couldn't show you. You can see the pile of bottle caps I made for the Art For All Goody Bag here.

I can now also reveal the photos I submitted to the "Are You Your Artspace?" contest at Art For All where people were supposed to identify whose work area was whose. Yes, my work areas are very messy....

I think only 2 or 3 people guessed mine correctly (OK only about 10-11 people were hardy enough to submit their guesses - it was a tough contest) and a couple of people thought my space was Muppin's because of the fabric stuff. Nutty Nanner guessed mine correctly because I had lent her my hand-drill not realizing it was visible in the bottom corner of the right hand photo!

I'm a little afraid of what sort of traffic this post's title will attract....

Envelope Epergne Altered Book Spread

A bit late in the day, I know, but I'm on the front page of Ten Two Studios today (May 7) for the Mother's Day countdown. Leave a comment over there about my Envelope Epergne (that's a fancy name for a multi-tubed flower vase) by the end of the day today, and you could win the drawing for a free six-month subscription to the Monthly Muse e-zine.

The Manly Book of Men

So here's what I've been working on this month. Lisa gave the Ten Two Studios design team the challenge of using one of her paper bag books with a themed collection of collage materials. I used the brown piano-hinge book, which is deceptively simple in appearance but has a surprising number of surfaces to decorate! The open ends of the paper bags come with six cardstock inserts (approx. 5" square) and there are also six tags. I cut slits in the bottoms flaps of the paper bags to make pockets for the tags.

My theme was Men, which for me is a challenge because I tend to use mostly female images in my art work, so I went a bit over the top with The Manly Book of Men, full of masculine words! I let my husband chose the initial paint colors, and I applied acrylic paint directly to the paper bags without any gesso. Things got a bit messy but the brown paper was surprisingly sturdy, and although it did get a wee bit wrinkly, it took on a more leathery texture with the layers of paint and application of gel medium for the collage.

I also had to find manly looking designs in my scrapbook paper stash, which generally favors flowers and pretty colors. I found some browns and blues and geometric shapes. The hardest part was coming up with a list of Manly Words (that wouldn't destroy my "safe" rating on Flickr ;o). You can tell I read and watch too many things set in 19th & early 20th-century Britain.

And this is probably the first time I've done book pages on golf, fishing or baseball!



You can see the whole book in my Manly Flickr set.

Crafting 365, numerous days!

Pretending it's almost spring

Crafting 365, Days 14 & 15
Yesterday's high was below zero with windchills -30 to -40 degrees Fahrenheit, today's high was zero, so I was obviously fantasizing about spring when I made some of my samples for my Muskego classes in February and March. In February I'm teaching "Mini-Accordion Books" and in March "Easy Pop-Up Cards." In the card sample above, when you pull the sides of the card, a butterfly pops out, using the colorful butterfly faux postage from Ten Two Studios. The paper is Amy Butler double-sided scrapbook paper and the dreamy flapper is from the Ten Two Studios green collage set.

For the book class, I'm teaching a very basic accordion book like the one pictured above, as well as these little book ornaments or pendants (below), which were inspired by the mini-accordion book trade we did in the Mount Mary Book Arts Group last year and the "booklace" project featured in the September 2008 issue of the Monthly Muse.

For the pop-up class I'm focusing on basic designs that anyone can do (I hope!).

Something Hidden

I finally finished 4 pages for the "Something Hidden" page swap in the Mount Mary Book Arts Group! (Click on the thumbnails to see larger images in my Flickr photostream.)


Yesterday I got the hidden images and text glued into place under the tags, and today I rubber stamped the text, adding "Secret Music" to the angel page and the clear-embossed word "HIDDEN" on the back of the other three pages. Then I stitched around three sides of each page just to make sure the front and back sheets hold together.

As was mentioned earlier, these are each 5.5 x 8.5 inches and will be bound on the left side. The large floral images were torn from an old calendar to match the scrapbook paper backgrounds, and I used Dear Dolly and Fashionable Flapper tags and Little Children and Little Women collage images from Ten Two Studios for the three pages not already mentioned.

Earlier this month, I also finished assembling the copies of my page for the group's other book project inspired by The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman.

This is a 6x11" sheet folded in half and collaged on both sides to make four 6 x 5.5" pages. At our May meeting we're going to be deciding how to bind all our pages together, which should be interesting since one member did a pop-up in the middle of her spread!

Crafting 365, Days 157-159, 171, 174-175