Long Hot Summer Nights

Sitting at the Meet Your Maker Indie Craft Fair here at the Pizza Reasearch Institute. Pizza is selling fast. Books and cards are selling slowly, so I thought I'd take a minute to catch up on the blog.

If you've been keeping up on my Facebook posts the past few days, you know that it's been HOT here. Triple digits hot. And you also know that my office at W&S is un-airconditioned. Not a wasteful person, really, but when temps get above 99, I start needing a speedy cool down, and there are usually three or four days every summer when air-conditioning is a definite must in Eugene. We even turned on the 1970s behemoth air-processor that came with the house. I wish I knew if it was safe.

Well, as the week has progressed, it has gotten cooler. Tonight, for example, it's a balmy 95. It's all about perspective, people.

Lots of new vendors tonight. I have my eye on a pair of earrings made from pineapple-shaped beads and a crocheted porcupine. I'm gravitating towards the absolutely adorable tonight.

And here's my latest:







It's a ReBound Book, from a new series called the Ghosts of Summers Past. I carve a little spot in the recycled covers for old slides from the 1960s and 70s. This one features the image of a man floating in a pool, and is dated September 1970.

I'm seeing a lot of folks tonight who used to shop in the old bookstore; Alice, John, Jamie, Bob, Olive, Marilyn . . . and that one older guy whose name I never knew, but who always wore a straw hat in the summer. It's my theory (untested) that only very decent people wear straw hats in the 21st century. I guess that theory is partially tested; there are the Amish after all.

Safe as Houses

I love our little house, and our green yard, and the art studio we've been building out back. I love the picket fence we put in the front and the privacy fence we put behind. I love the siding we're hanging over the old ugly ply board, and the new yellow color, and our plans for a red door. I love every little thing I've planted, everything we've built, and our work has transformed this place. Talking about leaving it is heart-breaking.

So I won't entertain those thoughts. For now we're here, safe as houses. And I'm planning on keeping it like that for some time to come.

Instead, I'll show you some cool stuff . . .

These are my next recycled book boards to be turned into ReBound handmade blank books. Some of these covers are over 100 years old, as you can see by the inside stamp on one: "Princeton Theological Seminary -- 1880".







I used to get sad thinking of these old books being taken apart, but it's really very democratic this way. They get scanned, reprinted, and sold to colleges, universities, seminaries, and churches all over the country. And now that I've found a use for some of the covers, I can sleep a little better.

Here are two I just finished. These are going up in the shop post haste. You can see they're not nearly as old as the upcoming batch, but they're still lovely, don't you think?




This first one is a sweet little thing. The binding came still attached at the spine, so I wrapped the case in this lovely vine-and-berries paper and gave a solid stab binding a bit of dressing up with some cross stitches.




And here's the second one. I used the same decorative paper for both of these, but the bindings are very different . . .




This is a coptic binding, something I'm getting better and better at not muffing up. Sometimes the stitches tear the paper, but my hands are becoming more sure of themselves, as you can begin to see. I think coptic bindings are rather elegant, and have the benefit of opening flat. It makes them perfect to use as sketchbooks or guest books.





And here is my last show-and-tell of the day: a skirt I made recently from some vintage fabric I found at the thrift store on half-price day. I think it looks rather 1950s, and I've been sewing enough recently that I was able to make it without using a pattern.




The buttons, which you can almost see here, are more bakelite, caramel colored coat buttons from that auction lot I picked up in Tennessee last spring. I'll edit in a close-up of the buttons later, as they're too lovely to ignore.





That's plenty for tonight. The two finished books I featured will be up on Etsy; but I'm keeping that skirt. ;)

Sky Blue

Ah, a sky-blue bike-truck. Pretty, no? I'll give them a little free advert (and considering how few people read this, it really is just a little advertising).

Neverland

A few shots of one of the major projects I worked on for our recent production of Peter Pan as well as one of me, in my Nana disguise (I made the velvet helmet with ears {a recycled faux fur collar from a Goodwill} and ribbon ties; Rosalie G. beautifully executed a tiny mob cap for the top using leftover recycled-bedskirt-fabric from her handmade Liza apron. GORGEOUS).

This Neverland Map was created over the course of several weeks. Shawn and I built six 5' x 2' canvases out of scrap wood from an old pallet, and one large painters' dropcloth from the hardware store. The canvas was stapled in place, and then I painted this original map of Neverland using acrylic paints and brushes of various sizes. I researched place names mentioned in Barrie's original book, as well as the sequel, but because Neverland is always moving things around (perhaps some inspiration for the Hogwarts staircases?), I was pretty free to interpret the shape of the island and the lay of the land.

To finish, some mesh (recycled from an old mattress) was stapled over the back of each frame, and hinges attached the panels into two 3-panel screens. These were used in the parks as a backdrop and as an exit point for cast members.

On windy days, we tried many methods of keeping the screens upright, especially at our grassy venues. In the end, the father of two of our cast members ended up holding them upright from behind. Someday, I hope to invent a fool-proof method of keeping such things upright in outdoor theatre.

Clickable photos reveal larger versions.

Days O' Work

I started this project a few months back, taking a photo of myself via web cam everyday at work. As I get older and become for comfortable with how I look, I have been contemplating a series of miniature paintings based on these photos, Frida Kahlo-style self-portraits done tiny.

Here are a few samples from the photo pile. The stack is now more than a hundred deep of these little snapshots of my working life, but this will give you some idea of what I've been working on . . .  Now picture them made into little gem-like paintings.

Too self-absorbed?

For Alice

A very merry unbirthday to you darling. Wish you were here.