Projects – Page 5

Maybe rain makes me productive

May 1, 2014 by Jes

Yesterday was pretty amazing. There were bumpy spots, and the camera accessories I ordered didn’t work out like I wanted. But overall, I managed to accomplish a lot of what I was hoping to.

My new book project is starting to move forward.

I managed to get guides set up on my little Platen press for the pages of this book, and I finished two press runs. I use the type drawers in my type cabinets as drying racks when I am printing. They work quite well! No single use items in this studio! Of course I did manage to screw up a few pages, but nothing major. I can still fix it.

I’ve had a few people ask me how many runs this book will take. I honestly don’t know. I’m scared to count ahead. But, perhaps the above pile of photopolymer plates will give you an idea. Each plate is a separate run…most in different colors. This will take me awhile.

I’m planning on working on this book more today. My goal is to get at least one more print run done each day. Considering that most of the hard set up work is already done, that isn’t a bad goal to have! First though, my day will include yoga, some photopolymer photograveur printing at MCBA (hopefully I’ll actually get some results worth showing this time!) and a bit of hanging out with friends.

New on Etsy:

Just listed in our pottery Etsy shop: a small grey berry bowl colander made by my dad

Just listed in my photography Etsy shop: Autumn print by me.

Wishing you a creative day!

~Peace~

Re-newing studio days

April 30, 2014 by Jes

Often my weekly schedule changes based on photo jobs, art work projects, and where I spend my studio days when I have them. This spring has been no different in that way. My long studio days re-new me. The days when I can focus on making, creating, and put most of the maintenance work of being a working artist aside for a bit. In many ways I live for the days were I can just create. Today is one of those days for me.

What I’m working on:

The first task today is to finish printing pages for the new book I’m working on. This is the ink jet printing run for this book, and I’m starting out with three copies. The final edition will be somewhere around 40 copies of this little book, but I am starting with only three to work out the glitches with. There are 28 pages to print 3 times over….each page has to be hand loaded in my printer….you can imagine that this task takes up a lot of time!

Of course there are two bunnies at my house that are very willing to help with any paper that just happens to fall where they can reach…

After the ink jet printing is done, each page will have various layers that will get letterpress printed on it. I’m hoping to get to some of that today. This is the linoleum block I carved to give some of the paper for this book a water texture. The letterpress step will involve many test runs, and a lot of press set-up time.

My last task for today is getting materials measured and cut for making more journals. This is one I made recently for myself. I enjoy blogging and posting online, but I find I need to write by hand somewhere as well. I know I’m not the only one out there that keeps a journal or a sketchbook. I plan to get a few more made similar to this one that I can offer for sale at some of the upcoming festivals. Maybe I will meet a fellow journaler that way!

I have also been working hard on keeping up with my Etsy shops!

Newly listed today:

‘Spring’ print in my photography Etsy shop and a blue colander bowl in the pottery Etsy shop I work on with my dad.

Wherever you are, and whatever you are working on today, I hope you have a lovely and creative one.

~Peace~

May days

April 28, 2014 by Jes

May is almost here, and there are so many fun things going on! Between new jobs, art festivals, new shops with my artwork, and gallery shows, this may be one of the most exciting months of the summer!

First up: Saturday, May 10th, is Craftstravaganza! Once again Jes Lee Studios and Dad and Kiddo Pottery will be sharing a booth. The festival runs from 10am-5pm. Come early and get a grab bag! The first 100 people in the door get a bag full of goodies. There is a coupon from us in there as well! I have heard there is always a line up at the door to get one of these bags, so keep that in mind! We will be at booth #89. Stop by!

Art-a-Whirl is the very next weekend, May 16-18. Once again I will be hanging out at FK Art Glass gallery again this year. I plan to have a few new items for their gallery space, and I’m working on preparing some new demos as well. Details on demo times to come soon. Just like last year, there will be many other great artists hanging out there with me as well. And did I mention glass blowing demos? There will be glass blowing demos! I could watch them all day… Hope you can make it one of the three days! You won’t regret it!

May 31st is Johnstock! I adore this outdoor festival! Jes Lee Studios and Dad and Kiddo Pottery will as usual be sharing a booth, with many new things, and a few older favorite items. The festival runs 10am-5pm. Hope to see you there!

The Minnesota Center for Book Arts Artist Co-op will be having a group show in the binder gallery in May. Details on dates and a reception time coming soon!

The MCBA Artist Co-op will also have artwork up at the MacRostie Art Center June 1-30! There will be an opening reception and community art walk on Friday, June 6th from 4-8pm.

I am working hard on a new photo book. I am hoping it will be ready for all the above shows, but it will for sure be ready for the show at MacRostie. Here is a sneak peek:

Last week I finished making the photopolymer plates for the text in this book, as well as one linoleum block. Most of the paper I had to order for this book has been delivered and cut to size. The size of this project is sinking in!

May also happens to be the month of our very last 10th wedding anniversary. When you have two wedding anniversaries, you get to celebrate so much! Each and every anniversary is special, and a reason to celebrate…but with all the changes over the past year, this one seems a little extra special. This weekend we decided that we were going to celebrate our anniversary quieter than we had originally planned, and I’m truly looking forward to that.

A very good friend is coming to visit this May for a long weekend before moving over-seas with her family. That weekend will probably be the last time I see her in the US for at least 3 years. I’m looking forward to that time to hang out, and super excited about the chance to travel to visit her. This girl is ready for some new adventures!

I’m stunned that April is almost over already. Last year I was nearing the end of the National Poetry Writing Month poem-a-day challenge. I’m glad that I didn’t try to tackle that challenge this year. However, I am looking at ways to get writing back into my daily routine, either through journaling or poetry or both. I haven’t written for a while now due to a list of excuses. I know it helps me cope with the day-to-day better, and I need to get back into that habit. I’m hoping in May to make it to the MCBA Visual Journal Collective meeting. Perhaps that will help kick-start my writing habit again.

Until next time,

~Peace~

Instant change

April 14, 2014 by Jes

It has been quite awhile since John and I hiked the ice caves along the south shore of Lake Superior. Almost two months, to the day in fact. Though in my mind it seems like just a couple of weekends ago.

This was our first adventure of 2014. I know it is far from being our last.

Seeing what nature can do and create is quite humbling at times. Realizing how fast she can change the landscape is even more so. Walking out on a frozen lake to see these ice caves itself is amazing, and a bit scary…I have never been fond of trusting an ice-covered lake. Knowing that a strong wind can change how the icicles hang, how the ice sheets cover the water on the walk out to the cliffs, is all a bit mind-boggling.

I could go into all the inspirational stuff about how if you don’t let go of your fears you could miss something great, about how important it is to have adventures, about how things can change so fast, blah blah blah. If you know where to look, you will find meaning like that every day. What I find I need more often, is a particular event that not only reminds me, but makes me listen. The hike to the ice caves is that event for me.

There are more photos from that hike on my Flickr page. You can click this link to get there, or click on one of the photos above.

There is a lot coming up in May for Jes Lee Studios! Most of the events and dates are now up on my ‘Announcement’ page. There are many more to come that I don’t have all the details on yet, so please check back there again soon!

I have still been going with my film 365 project. Someday soon I’ll post all the photos….and get caught up on developing the film. In the mean time, it has been amazing having my cameras with me constantly.

Books and plates and instant film

March 12, 2014 by Jes

I had hoped by this time to have my film 365 posts going again. I’m still taking the photos! But this year has kicked my butt in a few ways I wasn’t expecting, and some things that I just haven’t had enough time for. Posting a photo every day here has been one of them. I still really enjoy having my favorite cameras with me every day, and this project really has helped me to get back in touch with my cameras again, so I have no regrets of doing it. There are many days that I take more than one photo, just as I had hoped there would be. I imagine there will be a big ‘catch-up’ type post on that project sometime soon, or I will create a gallery here or on Flickr to keep all the photos. But that will come later.

I have been enrolled in two very amazing classes at MCBA this month.

The first is called ‘Guided Book Projects’ and it is taught by Chip Schilling. I admire his work, and his style of teaching and knowing what you need as a student to get to the next stage. The book I am working on for this class is pretty epic compared to the other books I have made. I’m not bragging. There is more to this book technically than I have usually taken on with my projects. I started out with one plan, and have moved in a complete other direction. My book will involve making polymer plates (which I normally avoid), printing on one of the Vandercooks at MCBA (which I also normally avoid), teaching myself a new binding, and working instant film photos into the covers.

The Impossible Project released their first “camera” awhile back called the Instant Lab. What this allows you to do is put your cell phone on top of an instant camera-like base and make an instant film image of any photo on your cell phone. This opens up worlds of being able to take photos with other cameras, manipulate them, make collages and multiple layered images, and by finding a way to get those images on your cell phone (not hard) be able to make instant photo prints of them. For artists that work in multiples and editions (like many book artists, like myself currently) this means that it is now possible to make multiples of the very same image with quite a large amount of control. I am an extremely lucky girl to have gotten one of these Instant Lab image makers! I have played with it quite a bit, working out how exposure works and experimenting with some of my compilation images.

As well as some of my other cell phone images, just for fun.

This all fits into my book project better than I ever thought it would. The book itself contains a series of cell phone photos I took last year. My plan is to use the Instant Lab to create instant prints of some of these photos that will serve as the covers for the book. This all may be a bit hard to imagine for some of you, but I think it will be awesome. There will be more photos of this project coming soon, as well as a dedicated post.

My second class at MCBA is also being taught by Chip Schilling. This class focuses on making photopolymer plates. We are almost half way through the class. So far I have already learned many things about turning photographic images into polymer plate negatives, as well as a few more ways to get plate negatives made (a few of them being much more affordable).

I am also still working on getting going on photopolymer photogravure. That process is moving a long slowly, but it is coming. We have the facilities at MCBA to do this process, and I am working on making sure it happens. It involves a lot of time, and a lot of experimenting, but I am really enjoying the challenge, and of course really enjoying working there. Hopefully I will have more on this to share soon.

So all of that, coupled with some ‘life-in-general’ issues, I have been running around a lot more lately than I expected to be. And of course, this little blog has been neglected in the mean time. Honestly, when things are getting to me, I turn more to my journal than my blog or social media. That’s just part of who I am. And I have come to peace with that. Really, it gives me a good excuse to keep up on my book making skills, so I can make a new journal when I fill one up! I do have a lot of projects, and many great photo shoots that I hope to share with you here soon. This blog won’t stay quiet for long.

Film 365 – Day 1: December 22, 2014

December 26, 2013 by Jes

Taken with a Hasselblad 501 c/m 80mm lens

Kodak Trix 400 film pushed to 1600

f16, 1 second.

Developed in Ilfosol 3.

Home. And the start of a new 365. This year’s photo-a-day project will be on film, taken mostly with my Hasselblad 501c/m. In college, that camera felt like an extension of my body. I have realized that over the last few years it hasn’t. I plan to get back to it though.

I’m taking cell phone photos of what I’m photographing each day to help collect metadata in my journaling app so I can keep track of film, camera settings, weather, location, etc. We’ll see how long all of that tracking lasts! So why start a project on December 22nd? On this day, 10 years ago, my love came back from being overseas in Iraq. Christmas is always a special holiday for me, but the 22nd is the tops. This is my little way of celebrating it.

Big day!

June 25, 2013 by Jes

It is a big day around here! Today is the reception for my latest solo show Digital dreams of where you are! I have been busy last night and this morning getting food and refreshments made. In a little while I’m heading out to my studio to stamp titles on a few extra book copies.

I’m leaving as soon as I finish my last cup of coffee…

Yeah, I’m back on the coffee band wagon, at least for now. I do love tea though! That will definitely stay on my drink list (especially in iced form this summer), but I caved this weekend and started drinking coffee again. My downfall? Finding myself next door to a coffee shop I always wanted to try that does pretty little things with your latté.

A relief

June 25, 2013June 19, 2013 by Jes

It has been a crazy spring. But I am finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and may even get back to blogging soon!
I have been in crunch mode for quite awhile getting the work done for this show, and it has finally paid off. My work is now on display at Minnesota Center for Book Arts in the Lerner Bindery Gallery through August 4th. My reception will be Tuesday, June 25th from 5-8pm. Please stop by if you can! Much of this work has taken me in a new direction artistically and I would love feedback! For my long distance friends, I promise to post photos of the exhibit and work soon.
I know this post is quite short, but I will be back soon!

The final day of national poetry month

April 30, 2013 by Jes

Once again I find myself at Tuesday with another studio day ahead of me (plus a bit of work to do on my car with my dad). I can’t complain!

Wow, National Poetry Month and the 30 poems in 30 days challenge is done! I wrote my last poem this morning. I’m a little shocked that I actually completed this challenge! I am contemplating what is next. I think I will keep going with this, though I won’t keep posting them here (you all have graciously read enough raw unedited poetry for a year!!) but I do plan to keep them up in my journal. I think it will be a good journal practice exercise. Also: Editing!!! Lots and lots of editing!! I am very grateful for all the writing prompts that were posted on various websites along the way. They helped immensely!

Today I will be hanging out in my studio, working on my little platen press. I have to typeset the story of Digital for my show. I have edited her tale a lot over the last couple of weeks, and I think I am finally happy with both the words and the images they will go with.

Ok, my last two poems:

April 29th – I used a writing prompt from Hazel & Wren again. This one about cameras (my favorite topic perhaps?!)

The Doctor’s Camera

the shattered planet lay
on her examination table
sterile instruments spread out on either side
microscopic lifeforms
from the planet’s surface
slowly draining their way off
forming slowly spreading puddles
where she wished they wouldn’t.
she picked up her camera
and started to zoom in
on the broken planet
until she could see
the minute details
of each surface
the atoms and microscopic bits
that made up this little world
and when she had finally examined enough
she began to photograph
and replicate
and fix and heal and patch
and rebuild the pieces of this planet
back to a whole.

April 30th – this is about letterpress printing, which is on my mind today. ‘Scrape scrape pull’ is the rhythm I get into when I am mixing ink.

Scrape scrape pull

scrape
scrape
pull
scrape
scrape
pull
each letter has a weight
each word has a weight and meaning
each piece has a place
scrape
scrape
pull
scrape
scrape
pull
each image
on block
created by taking away
scrape
scrape
pull
scrape
scrape
pull
each piece
put together
to form a story
scrape
scrape
pull
scrape
scrape
pull
translucent mixes with
white mixes with
black but only a touch
scrape
scrape
pull
scrape
scrape
pull
ka-chung
pressing impressions
into fiber
into image
into memory
scrape
scrape
pull
scrape
scrape
pull

Listening to the rain

April 28, 2013 by Jes

Another long ‘creating’ weekend is slowly ending. I’m a little nervous, because this is one of my last long weekends free before my show goes up, but I’m not going to dwell on that.

It was a great weekend! I have made more progress on my artwork than I could have hoped, and I have a pretty clear path to the end. I must keep focusing! I can do this!

Right now I am sitting by our deck, listening to the rain, and smelling the damp earth….my favorite scent is the smell of spring rain. There is nothing like the first one of the season.

I have of course kept up on the poetry this weekend. Both of these came from writing prompts that Kris Bigalk posted on her Facebook page. I love how many places you can find writing prompts during NaPoWriMo!

April 27th – What can you live without: (I’m on day 6 of no coffee….tomorrow morning marks one week! And Lynn, if you are reading this, I did just go to the Tea Source today to stock up, and picked up some of the Blueberry Fields tea you mentioned as well as two others! I think I’m set!)

I can live without….

I can live

without coffee

Strong

With almond milk

Whatever smooth flavor

Of Peace Coffee

was featured that week

Fresh ground

Fragrant

French press

I DONT HAVE A PROBLEM

I CAN GIVE IT UP

IVE GONE FOR A WEEK WITHOUT

I CAN KEEP GOING

Black tea

Is just as good

Loose leaf

Steeped in the French press

Fragrant

Almond milk

And just a bit of honey

But he drinks tea

Not coffee

And now I have to share

I never had to share my coffee

I can live without it…..

I can…..

April 28th – try writing a poem with the phrase ‘I remember’ repeated at the beginning of each stanza….

I remember

I remember
my granny’s collection of apples
she had because she was a teacher,
and teachers collect apples.

I remember
specifically her clear glass apple
filled with liquid
and flakes of shiny gold.

I remember
when it sprung a leak
liquid oozing out,
the gold flakes stopped floating.

I remember
her searching
through phone book pages
for the company named
on the apple’s gold sticker.

I remember
her writing down an address,
wrapping the apple while grinning
“We are going on an adventure”.

I remember
riding in her red Caddy through
the coolest area of town
filled with old buildings and train tracks,
and so many signs about art for sale.

I remember
walking inside
one of those buildings
with my granny and her apple.

I remember
we met a woman
who gave my granny a new glass apple
with floating gold flakes
and carefully she took
the leaky one away.

I remember
she gave us a tour
to see where they made
glass apples
before being filled with liquid
and gold.

I remember
watching many people hanging out,
listening to loud rock music,
wearing grungy clothes,
and turning liquid fire
into these amazing hollow glass objects.

I remember
the woman explaining
those were the artists
and they created the glass apples.

I remember
when I first decided
I wanted to become an artist.

It was right then.

I remember
thinking that being an artist
meant you could hang out with your friends,
listening to loud rock music,
and make amazing things.
That you could wear grungy clothes,
because no one cared what you wore!
You were an artist and you were awesome!

I remember
years later I realized
that was only partly right,
but I wanted to be an artist anyway.

And so I am. True story.