Lessons

I have been working and running around and whew! I am tired! Aside from an oddessy of a trip to Bellingham on Saturday (a 45 minute trip that morphed into a 3 hour trial of my patience) I also went to an art party birthday party on the weekend. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon and if you have a bunch of artsy friends and the space to work in, I highly recommend it. It's just nice to have an excuse to get out and commune with like minded girlfriends. It helps if you bring nibblies and some goodies to share. I think so much of what we do as artists is a solo venture. It's good to work in a group (even if it's on your own thing) just to have ideas thrown around, art supplies shared and information passed. It's inspiring.

Here's what I learned yesterday:

Several of the ladies made altered Board Books. NO THEME. They just plunked themselves down and started cutting and gluing whatever pleased them to their books. That was a reminder to me that you CAN just do that-everything does not have to have a theme. Sometimes you just need to not have a plan. At the end of it all, their books turned out lovely and now I want to do one like that!

Part of the day was supposed to be us teaching techniques to one another. I taught the group to fold papers into signatures with pockets big enough to hold ATCs. My friend Nadine, the bookbinding goddess then taught everyone how to make a cover complete with flap and sew those signatures in using a V stitch. I walked away with a very nice book indeed. I have already run down to the scrapbooking store to get more supplies. Guess what I am going to be doing?!?!

You never know what small thing you can share with friends. I love that Nadine wanted to know how to fold the pockets and then I wanted to know the stitching and together we managed to make a whole project to share with the group. The give and take of art is what keeps me wanting to do it.

What will you learn today?