I wrote about Marion Bataille’s elegantly simple pop-up book ABC3D last March (see the video showing a mock-up of the book). It’s now available from Amazon (there’s another video there too).
Category: General
That Handmade Connection
I grew up crafty — as a kid we made our own Christmas tree decorations, painted intricate patterns on blown eggs at Easter-time, and learned how to sew. In my first house as an adult, I couldn’t find shades I liked for the windows, so I made my own. When I discovered Etsy, I found a world of people like me who loved making things. And I’ve acquired art for my walls, as well as some great unique purses (my own sewing skills have always been lousy), a bit of jewelry, and, best of all, silk screened t-shirt dresses to wear over jeans. My husband has never liked store-bought soap (too waxy) so after trying a few different soapmakers, now we buy lovely fragrant handmade bars from a woman here in the bay area.
Often the connection to the maker is as important as the piece itself. At the BABA Book Jam last Saturday, I meet in person some of the people who’ve bought my books and artwork online. One woman said “I have your calendar, and I’ve been careful not to look ahead, so when I get to the next month I’ll have a surprise, a new haiku to read.” Another woman told me she’d bought my reader diary, put a gift card for Borders in the pocket along with the bookmark, and gave it to her daughter for her birthday. I could go on and on…
Getting ready for craft & book fairs can be stressful — do I have enough of this? should I take that? did I get all the labels made? — but at more and more shows I come home at the end of the day completely satisfied from meeting so many people who’ve bought my things and been excited about their handmade uniqueness.
Netflix Oragami
Don’t just toss your Netflix wrappers into the recycling bin, make Netflix Oragami.
The Sorted Book Project
Nina Katchadourian’s Sorted Books Project culls “through a collection of books, pulling particular titles, and eventually grouping the books into clusters so that the titles can be read in sequence, from top to bottom.” Here’s an example below. Made me stare at my own book shelves to see what I could come up with…
Font Conference
Simple Pleasures
simple pleasures
gathered up—
this moment, this laughter
I’ve finished printing my 2009 calendar. For me, much of what makes life great is the series of simple encounters and observations I have every day — from the smell of freshly dug dirt when I’m working in my garden to watching a formation of pelicans flying over the bay near my house to catching a glimpse of a saffron colored sky at sunset. So this year my desktop calendar has 12 unbound letterpressed cards, one for each month of 2009, celebrating those moments with a haiku poem about life’s simple pleasures.
Here’s a thumbnail of all the months (click on it to see a lot more detail). The calendar is for sale on my webite ($20 + shipping).
