Artfest at last!!

Hooray!! Tomorrow begins the great ARTFEST Adventure. My friend Pamela Armas is arriving from New Mexico with another friend of hers and the three of us are off to Port Townsend until Sunday. Artfest starts on Wednesday, so we will have an extra day to explore Port Townsend and hopefully visit with our friend Lois who owns the bead store there. Also looking forward to shopping at Akamai, the local art supply store. They have just about everything you can imagine in the realm of art supplies. And remember, we can never have too many supplies.
I plan to take lots of pictures to post upon our return.
I'm taking classes from Theo Ellsworth (Mystery Doodling) and two classes from LK Ludwig on making different types of books. I'm excited about both teachers and plan to have a fabulous time!!

Frida Journals

This week I finished 6 fabric cover journals. I call them Frida Journals because most of them have her on the cover. In this batch there are a couple with sunflowers.

I'm excited because this is the first week since Jack died that I've actually been in the studio every day and accomplished something. Being with my friend Pamela Armas for 5 days at Sew-Expo really perked up my creative juices. It's good to feel that I'm getting back to where I was 18 months ago.

Book Building

I got this much of the first section done last week. When I was ready to start, I couldn't find the original drawing. I decided that it was 12" x 12". When I cut the boards it was way too big for my liking so I cut it down to 8"x8". Of course, Chele had made book samples to fit the 12x12. That was ok as they were just a start. We think that from this first level we can go smaller (6x6) or larger 12x12. Also decided to go with primary colors, red, blue, green, yellow, etc. We can always change that too.

This was pretty easy to do. The book board was very sturdy and easy to glue. This week I will finish this level and move on to the next as time permits.

Gotta go fiddle now.

Book/Box Collaboration

The other day Rice Freeman Zachary had a connection to a video of the most incredible book and box construction that anyone could imagine. http://vimeo.com/7694315. I forwarded it to my book making friend Chele and we decided we should collaborate on a structure using books, boxes and drawers.

Yesterday she came by and we discussed many possibilities regarding structure and materials and actually settled on and idea and made "assignments" as to who will do what part as a beginning. It may only be a mock-up for the time being, but it will be a challenge for both of us.

The drawing is our first ideas for the structure.

I'm pretty excited about this as I've been looking for something to spur my imagination and creativity. We'll see where it goes.

My part, for the moment, is to make drawers and to experiment with staining different weights and types of paper for the book pages. Chele will begin her part with constructing the little books.

And away we go......................

One Year Later

Hard to believe it's been a year since I last posted. Much has happened, but most notably the passing of my wonderful husband, Jack. He fought the brain tumor for 10 months, radiation and chemo therapy. Ferry trips daily for 7 weeks to the University of Washington where we had an incredible team of doctors, but alas Jack lost the battle. However, he has gained something that we all long for, pain free peace. He's singing with the angels now and happier that ever. We, left here, miss him terribly, but knowing where he has gone makes it alot easier. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support.

Life with Jack

My husband, Jack, has just been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Already this has changed our lives, as you would expect.
I have started a blog for him at www.lifewithjackford.blogspot.com.
We're praying for a full and speedy recovery, but have no idea where this journey will take us. Meanwhile, I will try to continue making art and sharing it here.

Snow Again!

Here is round two of Northwest snow for this winter. Not alot, but also, not expected. These were taken last night. This morning it's raining a little and the snow is melting away.