Today there was more printing
And purple ink
And awesome people in the print studio
And so much laughter
And hula dancers
And after-chemo hair
And popsicles
And learning
And feeling a part of a community
And I am exhausted, but I can’t wait to go back.
Bright lilac ink (the fluorescent lights throw the photo’s color off) on the Universal 3 Vandercook at MCBA.
Too exhausted for words. But the third hashtag is done! And I biked to the library and MCBA today….the fresh air was good, considering all the time I have spent in the basement printing…..
I came home today to see that we have a few white lilies growing in the abundance of yellow and orange lilies. My yard continues to surprise me.
Day two of crazy printing week…and I just scheduled myself for a second week of this. It is truly going better than I imagined! I’m grateful for the friends I have around me at the studio, those that stop by for lunch or a time to chat, and for those sending me encouragement through social media. This little book has become quite the project!
Let the week of letterpress printing begin! Time to see how far I can get on the letterpress portion of this book in a week!
This weekend I managed to pass the half-way point for the ink jet printing portion of the book I am working on. Each day gets me a little closer to the next step.
Between marathon printing sessions, I did have an excellent weekend including time spent at the Antiquarian Book Festival, time spent floating on a river with friends (and a chance to try out a waterproof 35mm camera!), a delicious brunch with my family to celebrate an upcoming event, and a little time spent seeing what new things is growing in my yard.
Back to the regularly scheduled week to come.
Yes, I worked almost the entire weekend away. But, it is pretty nice to be spending time working on artwork work and photography jobs instead of something completely unrelated.
I started Friday slowly working my way through a massive list of things that need to be done in time for the art festivals this month. I didn’t get everything done, but I made a dent in my list!
I completed five more print runs on my latest book project.
I got two blank journals stitched together.
One is completely finished and on its way this morning to the home of the Craftstravaganza organizers, to see if it can get a spot on the morning news tomorrow! I’m hoping to finish a few more of these to be able to sell at Craftstravaganza and Art-a-Whirl. The photo on the cover is an instant photo using my new Instant Lab from the Impossible Project!
I had a lovely family photo shoot on Sunday…so I really didn’t spend the entire weekend in my studio in the basement!
I also managed to get six rolls of film developed on Friday. I started scanning them in over the weekend. Not quite done with that, but I’m getting there! These are all from my film 365 project.
Today will include a little road trip to drop off artwork, and hopefully more printing and festival prep work. Of course working all weekend has earned me a huge headache today…but hopefully that won’t hang around too long.
Just listed in the Etsy shops:
Listed in our pottery Etsy shop: Pink and purple variegated bowl by dadandkiddo.
Listed another one of my handmade books in my Etsy shop: Spring handmade book by jesleephotos.
Happy Monday!
~Peace~
When you are working for yourself, the weekend doesn’t always mean what it does to the 9-5 people. While I don’t always have “weekends off”, I do still look forward to them. Right now I am looking forward to three days with long stretches of studio time!
I already broke my rule of ‘at least one print run done each day on this new book’. I didn’t print anything yesterday. But I will more than make up for it this weekend! Yesterday was busy with plenty of other things, including a yoga class for me, and printing at MCBA.
These prints do not look like much….in fact my printing technique definitely needs work (more to do with the type of plate I am using vs. the type of plate I really need to be using)….but I am still so excited. These prints show that the plate exposure times I am using are within the correct range for this printing technique! I have worked hard on this over the winter, and I am so excited to finally have results like this! You can actually see a flower in the print! And you can actually tell that there is detail in the flower! And there is actually a defined background square! It really is the little things in life! More to come on this soon, I hope!
I am quite far behind with developing film from my 365 film photography project. But I am still working on it. Not every day is easy to get my film camera out and find something worthy of the cost of the film. But I am finding that more often than not this process is becoming another type of meditation for me.
I am quite content with the idea that now I am just collecting images of this year, that it doesn’t matter that it takes me awhile to develop and upload them, that now the simple act of collecting is what I need to be doing…another act of meditation. Last spring began a pretty tough journey for me. After a year, I’m finally beginning to feel like I more in touch with myself, and everything that has happened and changed, and better able to cope. I am finally feeling more towards the top end of things, instead of the bottom. It isn’t easy to think about or talk about all of this. The past year I have dealt with a lot of major life changes of all types, and the emotional turmoil that came with many of those. I can recognize now that I was dealing at times with depression. Looking back now I can see that one thing that helped most often was these little meditative practices I have found. Writing in a journal daily. Taking photographs daily. Creating daily. And definitely going to yoga classes. In the beginning of 2014 John encouraged me to find a yoga center I liked and go to classes. Taking that time has made a huge difference. Last weekend, I was helping out a friend during a studio sale. She and the other artists there create amazing jewelry, and are great to hang out with. Of course there were many new sparkly pieces that I wanted, and plenty that came home with me. There was one piece that I ended up with that was quite different. This one called to me – yes, that sounds cheesy, but it did. It was a collaboration piece between a friend of mine and another artist. 
This is a Buddhist Mala wrap. There are 108 beads. It is typically used for meditations, chanting, and prayer. The colored beads and charms have various meanings….these particular colors stand for clarity. The moon charm, for wishes. I have worn it every day since.
As the meanings were explained to me, many things clicked in my mind, and the realization of this journey, my meditations, everything seemed to make a bit more sense. I don’t know where any of this will lead, but I feel like I understand my tools better now.
And now that the sunshine is out, I’m heading down to the basement to my studio to develop film! Ha! Somethings don’t change :)
Until next time,
~Peace~
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~
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
Today was one of those amazing days where things work, bits of projects are completed, the cosmos seem to align, blah blah blah! I completed the last two print runs for the little book I’m creating for my show. I do still have to figure out how to print the cover, but the pages are at least done.
I had a great afternoon making pottery with my dad. After that I had a great evening with John cleaning out closets! … Ok, at least I thought it was great. We now have a few bags of things to take to a friend’s garage sale next month. Yay!
I am very excited to have a long weekend off of work ahead of me. This long weekend will be spent working on more pieces for my show. I have only one supply run to make. The rest of the time will be devoted to gluing, printing, carving, and creating. I am really looking forward to it. I have even named it the “make all the things’ weekend! :)
‘Cleaning out’ has been on my mind for awhile and considering I did exactly that today, it is the topic I chose to write my poem about.
Un-nesting
is what he calls it
when i play whirlwind
pull everything out of closets
examining the fit, color,
texture and memory
of each item
before sorting
keep
storage
trash.
Teaching
is what I call it.
Teaching myself again
that memories are not stored
in objects
but in photographs
and journals.
Maybe just a few objects…