Category Archives: Book Arts

working in my studio

goccoin' twiggy papergoccoin' twiggy paper

goccoin' twiggy papergoccoin' twiggy paper

Printing paper for journal covers.  I’m way excited about how my all over pattern repeat turned out.

  tearing pages

…tearing journal pages…

waitning on a shelf

…setting the nature girl jewelry on a shelf …

sewing journals

…sewing pocket journals together.

The grand reopening of the seedpod shop will be this Friday, November 14th!  I’ll start getting things posted after I feed my kids lunch, so there will be postcards from the still life project, those little necklaces up there, and a whole slew of pocket journals with hand printed covers sometime Friday afternoon.

Come join my party!!

shop update!!

Once upon a time I started an etsy shop. Anyone remember? I never even got around to stocking it for the holidays, though I did make some handprinted paper for covers.

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Well, I finally turned all that handprinted paper into books.

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I think I’ve got my second wind here. It seems that I start to feel good the last month of each pregnancy. I have energy, don’t need a nap every day, feel full of ideas… And let me tell you, I am SO thankful for that! I’ve had horrible hip and sciatic nerve pain since I started showing. A month ago I was seriously afraid that I was not going to survive until March, or at least have to get a walker or a wheelchair. That was the worst of it, and it has been uphill since the second week of January or so. Now I’ve even had the energy to swim laps a couple of times a week. Oh– the freedom of swimming while pregnant! There isn’t anything as liberating, that I can think of, except laying on your stomach right after the baby is born.

So, now I need to order newborn diapers, buy some onsies and a few clothes, and find a blankie (or mi-mi, as my kids call them). Each of my kids sleeps with a receiving blanket from Gymboree. They are sooo soft and snuggly. I think this time I will be shopping from right here instead of braving the mall. I think I’ll take a look right now…

Print shop

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Oh yeah, I’m a printmaker! I spent my last 2 years of college in the printmaking lab. Sometimes nearly 24 hours a day. I love printing things. I love making one thing to make something else a whole bunch of times. I like to have an extra to give to my mom. I like to plan and retrace and perfect my drawings before they become something. I like to print things. I am a printmaker!

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Welcome to my birthday party. We went to the art store this morning. I got some screens, bulbs, and ink, came home, drew and planned, and once Logan was down for a nap I got to work! It was so cool how fast the screen was made. Flash–just like that. I went the low tech route to make my master by just drawing with the Riso pen (that came with the press) and filled in an area with Sharpie. Over all I was pleased as punch, though the part I had planned on being a flat color didn’t burn completely and had some texture. I actually like that in the finished print though. Want to see it? Well, here it is:

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I drew the tulip tree pod hanging on my mobile.

It is the same screen printed twice with two different colors of ink. The paper is Rives BFK becuase I have tons of scraps. It has some texture, but not too much. The ink sits beautifully on it. I learned that when I mix an ink color I need to make more than I think I need so that I get adequate coverage. I didn’t make quite enough of the bluish color and the line drawing pod is splotchy in the middle. I used Simple Green (thanks to all the awesome info over at the Gocco flickr group) to clean my screen in between colors and it worked like a charm without any toxic chemicals. On the brown run I used the ink blocking foam to guard the solid seedpod from getting printed and that worked just perfectly. So, all in all I call my first printing a success :)

Here it is on Rives Lightweight in a creamy color. Oh, and without the blue ink…

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Now, how could a birthday get any better? I have the BEST husband this world has ever seen.

(Well, I did get a light blue fleece jacket from my inlaws, which I really needed. It’s cute and feminine and warm. THANKS!!)