This knitted wall calendar, designed by patrick frey, counts down the year as you unwinding it stitch by stitch. There’s a video showing the year go by… (First seen here.)
Month: March 2010
New Mexico Skies
In California, at least where I lived, the temperature and weather today was, with high probability, the same as yesterday. Not so here in New Mexico. We seem to have all 4 seasons in one week: Sunday, the high was about 45. Monday up to the low 60s. Today, the prediction is 70, Wednesday 61 again, Thursday 52 with a chance of snow showers in the evening… It is quite beautiful here, especially the sky. The picture for this post is a spread from Phil Zimmermann’s new book Sanctus Sonorensis. Like me, Phil is new to the southwest — he’s lived in upstate New York for many years and moved to Arizona in 2008. On his blog he says
I had the idea for the book, and did some little sketches for it, during my sabbatical in 2003-2004. I was in a year-long residency at the Border Art Residency in La Union, New Mexico. I was taking a lot of photos of the incredible skies in New Mexico and Arizona while there, and they made their way into a lot of the work that I made during my year there.
You can read more about the book here and see more spreads of that beautiful sky here. There’s also lots more on Phil’s blog.
A Story of Character
The Tipoteca Italiana is a private museum devoted to letterpress printing in Italy. To celebrate their 10th anniversary, they produced a picture book called A story of character. Ten Years of Tipoteca Italiana that is now available in English. Print has a review of the book showing lots of book spreads — with photographs of printing equipment, type, and printers — and also talks a bit about the museum. Information about obtaining a copy of the book is here.
Paper Weavings
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve made a few paper weavings. I’ve been looking at what others have done on Flickr and somehow stumbled on Ehren Reed’s website. She says she “relies upon books, maps and other found materials as I blend together traditional craft, contemporary media and remnants of consumer culture.” That’s one of her pieces below. You can see more of her weavings with maps here. She also does altered books — using lots of sewing, threads, and more weaving.
Arranging the Scraps
Bookbinder Rhonda Miller has a nice post on her blog about the “patchwork-covered” books she’s made using the large pile of leather scraps she’s amassed. Must have been fun to figure out how to arrange all the odd shapes and mix & match the colors…
Pod Post Inteview
Nanette Wylde has a nice interview with Pod Post (Jennie Hinchcliff and Carolee Gilligan Wheeler) on her blog Whirligig. (Pod Post wrote the book Good Mail Day and sell merit badges for letterpress and the book arts.)