Blog

On the jewelry-creating side of life, the
children’s necklaces for this summer are now in my Wishscroll shop

Dear friends,

A quick note for all of you who are making things and selling their creations. This winter/spring I’ve found two blogs that are just too good to keep to myself:

Crafting an MBA: business thinking for designers & makers

and

Tara Gentile: write well, create often

Enjoy!

PS. New links via Facebook!

The Crafts Report

and

Get Clients Marketing en Aquisitie tips (in Dutch)

Surf Bunny (what a great name!) was so kind to send me an email with the link to this Flickr photo stream page, with illustrated accordion books from different artists. Just finished watching the slide show – all fueled up to get creative. Thanks!

This lengthy title sums up the useful contents of  this blogpost… Check it out!

Have you ever sought for inspiration? Well, this blog post by Zsazsazsu, and the responses to it, should cure any visual creator’s block – well worth a visit!

This is the title of the blogpost by Donna Watson, an artist whom I’d describe as talentfull and with a trained eye, wise in the ways of nature, and an inspiration… Just visit her blog, and her website – you’ll see what I mean.

PS. She was so kind to include my work in her blog. In doing so, she first contacted me via email to ask for my permission to publish a photo of my work. After seeing her blog I was more than happy to give the permission. Now this is the way I like it, being polite and thoughtful, also in the wild wild west, no, I mean the world wide web.

Impressions of work in the making. These are the altered elements ( primed, dyed, illustrated…) for new artists books, that will accompany a selection of previous work at the Kunstkelder, Putten, Netherlands, 23 April – 22 May.

Let’s keep it short&to the point shall we:

The 14th edition of the Bookbinding Fair in Sint Niklaas, Belgium, will be held on Sunday 25th of April 2010, from 11.00 to 17.00.

The location is the Stadszalen, Leopold II-laan 67, 9100 Sint Niklaas, Belgium.

For tools and materials, workshops, demonstrations and meeting your bookbinding, bookrestorating colleagues.

2,50 euro per person, children until 12 years old 1,-

For more information check out their website here.

Combing through emails and such after a wonderful afternoon of constructive playtime.

Today I attended a workshop by Eva Organiseert. I usually am on the giving side of workshops, so this one was a treat and exception. I could relax, let go and dive into the flow of Eva’s creative guidance. The theme of the workshop was “what to keep and what to let go 2009/2010″, with visualisation, Q&A and collage. I went there with a slightly nervous feeling, and came home with a huge collage and deeply rooted peace. It was really, truly GOOD.

So what does the title of my post refer to?? To Karuski’s blog game – make a weekend wishlist and blog about it. It has been a playful day so far, why not close the day with a game too? : ) Here goes:

- beautify our home some more

- forward my entry book for Scripta Manent exhibition

- take a hot, long bath

- enjoy a dinner with friends tomorrow (we have a date)

- go to the cinema Sunday (yes, a date too!)

I found this and thought I’d share it with you. Craft Hope for Haiti has an Etsy shop, where you can either 1) donate something you’ve made, or 2) buy something you wanted anyway. In either way, all the funds go to Doctors Without Borders, who in their turn help the people in Haiti.

Act NOW. Go to their site and/or shop and do the right thing : )

Here’s my donation, the Tan and black leather wishscroll ($ 77,-). For more wishscrolls see my Wishscroll shop.

I received this in the mail from the Book-Arts List, and thought I’d share it with you – enjoy!

An amazing film by Martin Andersen about a book by Maurice Gee. Promotion film for the New Zealand Book Council,”Going West.”

After a tiring – what am I saying? – overwhelming day I was totally thrilled with this article, where Umberto Eco explains the virtue(s) of making lists.

My personal list of the moment (a family member passed away recently) would contain the following elements: Love, respect, gratitude, reflection, compassion, relief, happiness, togetherness, support, sharing.

My personal business list of the moment would contain: Love, happiness, ambition, creativity, flow, skill, curiosity, good vibes, music.

I’m also curious to read about your lists…Share them if you like, I’ll post ‘em right here!

Playing with cardstock at the atelier. I needed a business card organizer for myself, and made one extra for …you, perhaps? Made of recycled card stock, with paths of paint for the graphic effect.

Size in inches 9 1/8 in height, 13 in width
and in centimeters 23,5 in height, 33 in width

This book is for sale. € 19,75

And these notebooks with hand dyed covers are quite interesting…

Notebook  height: 15.5 cm or 6 1/8 inches, width: 11.5 cm or 4 1/2 inches. Several patterns, colourschemes in “mainly red”, “mostly brown” and “I’d say blue”.

€ 19
Paypal accepted. Email with your address  for total price including shipping.

This is the new mantra, showing up on my monitor again and again. I feel drawn to eco-friedly, high quality handmade, sustainable design products, websites and blogs, and have come to believe that many of us have made a huge step towards a greener lifestyle already. An example – take a look at this piece of Living Jewelry!

At the atelier/studio recycling seems to be the keyword too. New books from repurposed materials are emerging slowly but surely, alongside with paintings, papergoods and house jewelry. Hopefully I can publish the good news of having them ready&available for you soon!

Back to business after a ridiculously long, fantastically fun summer holiday.

Honing those workshop plans…a sneak preview:
a new course:The meditation book
workshops paperdecoration+personal journal: paperback de luxe and 
leather decoration+personal journal:coptic binding chic…

…To be published soon.

And making new art work+books for my Etsy shop.
Slowly does it. Stay tuned, create when you can, enjoy all.

PS. Helen and Hilke have contributed to these workshops and they respectively win a 25% and 100% discount!

Hilke attended the workshop Coptic binding and got curious: could one also make Coptic endbands in more colours than just one? She investigated the technique and concluded YES, it is possible. Click on the photo for an enlarged version.

I really REALLY enjoy it when people get inspired to go on and experiment on their own. A big thumbs up and a cheer to Hilke for taking the ancient Coptic binding a step further again – some 1600 years after it’s invention.

Photo(s) are a courtesy of Hilke aka Buechertiger – also check out her blog.

(Unfortunately it appears I can only upload this 1 photo at the moment. Will try to add some more later)

As a reply to my bibliography post, I got a lovely email from Juliayn Coleman. She reminded me of the books of Bernard Middleton, Marianne Tidcombe and Miriam Foot, the two first are added to the bibliography. New names for me: Sven Dahl and Edith Diehl, their books are also in the list now. She also recommended the website of the Newberry Library for further reading. To view her site, Book Island, look here.

A little trailer to change the way we think… check it out&tune in : )

Scripta Manent is a beautiful exhibition organized by the Estonian Association of Designer Bookbinders every five years. In fact, it was this exhibition, all the way back in 1995 that opened my eyes to bookbinding as an art form. In 2010 it will be organized for the fourth time. If you are a creative bookbinder or a calligrapher, take a look at the Scripta manent site. For more information you can contact the chairperson of the Estonian Association of Designer Bookbinders, Sirje Kriisa. 

Wishing you a lot of inspiration – and good luck!

Here are some photo impressions of last Saturday. Thank you Minca for borrowing your camera, and thank you all for a fun day…and for being such stars cleaning up the atelier at the end of the day!

I’m putting together a brand new workshops agenda. Your input is very welcome! I’ll read all suggestions carefully, in some cases I will fuse ideas…and come up with new courses to tickle your inspiration and creativity. To get an idea of workshops until now, check out the Workshops section here.

Here’s the deal: if your idea leads to a workshop as it is=100% along your idea lines, you’ll get 100% reduction on the fee=a free workshop attendance! If two ideas get fused to a workshop, both originators get a 50% reduction.

You have a great idea but cannot attend? Mail your idea anyway, and be sure to include any online adresses you might have plus a post address. You’ll get kudos for your idea online, and if your brainchild materialises into a workshop, a materialized Thank You will come your way in the post.

Please send your ideas by June 29th 2009.

The new workshops will start in September 2009.

PS. The workshop Coptic binding, described in the previous blog post, was great fun. Both Dymphie and Hilke blogged about it afterwards, you can read their posts here (Dymphie) and here (Hilke aka Buechetiger).

A content “hello” from a (mothers) day end. From a week’s end. From closing-an-episode end.

At the moment…
…the Coptic binding workshop has been sweet and fun. Check out the active bloggers, participating the workshop, Dymphie and Hilke a.k.a Büchertiger. The second half of the workshop will probably result in some photos too.

…the first of three bindings for an artist is ready. Very happy with the result.

…preparing for the lecture on book repair this coming Thursday.

…mentally reserving Friday for repairing a Chinese scroll, that has patiently been waiting in the atelier for its share of tender, loving care.

…and thankfully blessing all that has been, openheartedly welcoming all that will come. Content, here&now.

The symposium was great fun – meeting old and new colleagues, exchanging business cards and views, enjoying food for the body (lunch was great!) AND food for thought, refreshing professional input all day long.

After chewing on the issues (and my notes about them) three things, of personal value, are emerging:

1. The discussion about labeling makers as designers OR crafters OR artists is still very much alive and kicking and it irritates me beyond commentary.

2. The notion of having to de-learn in order to innovate is something I wholeheartedly agree on. In my opinion in order to create truly fresh things one has to be a novice or a master.

3. Trends picked up: cross-feeding between crafts and industry, new technologies and materials available, DIY/crafts is “hot” in USA thus it will become “hot” here too…

Crafted, a symposium examining contemporary developments in conceptual crafts and the future of crafts in terms of innovation, luxury, sustainability and craftsmanship. Sounds good to me! Let’s go. This coming Sunday (April 19th) in Amsterdam, from 11.00-18.30 at Pakhuis De Zwijger.

(this photo is taken by my son, and will be featured in my artist’s book)

Astrid from Tulibri was so kind to react on my previous blog, and sent the links to three interesting makers of decorated papers in Germany. Here they are:

Gisela Reschke

http://www.buntpapiererin.de/

Susanne Krause

http://www.hamburgerbuntpapier.de/

Ilona Hesse-Ruckriegel

http://www.hesse-buntpapier.de/

And from Peter aka Vuscor from Köln, I received the following link to Buntpapier by Tanja Karipidis.

Thank you!

Should you have some more suggestions, please mail me and I’ll post them here. Thanks for reading!

I’m looking for makers of high quality decorated papers. Are you one of them? Do you know anyone who fits this category? Please get in touch.

This week the newest issue of Bound and Lettered landed in the atelier. I’m so happy, proud and honoured for having gallery-pages of my work in it! The other contributers are Pat Gill, Paula Beardell Krieg, W.J. Waddington, Inge Bruggeman and Heather Watkins, David Drum, Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord, Monica Leaning, Jerry Tresser and Suhas Tavkar.

For more information about the Bound&Lettered magazine, look here. 

Fresh impressions is a letter press exhibition in Oregon. With plenty of “vitamine i”=inspiration, it’s a recommended browse. Look here .

Well, there we were. All dressed up and ready to party, the atelier shining in its new glory, our work exhibited for everyone to see and all kinds of goodies to enjoy on the White Table.

Would they come?

It was a rainy, gray day. We waited. Had some tea.

The first visitors trickled in. Some more came. And more. And MORE.

I’m happy, Christel is happy = success. Thank you everyone for coming, and hopefully we’ll see you soon again! More information on opening times etc. here.

Christel on the left

An email with a link, and now I sit listening to her songs the whole evening. I wouldn’t share it with you if it wasn’t worth listening to – lovely. Personal favorite? “My old man”. By Signe Tollefsen. Love it.

Now it is scientifically proved. Keeping a diary is good for you. Jotting down thoughts and emotions, happenings of the day or song lyrics, by hand, relieves stress. Check out this article, and get a (hand bound) journal, quick!

PS. A lot of people I know are afraid their partner/roommate/someone else might read their journal. Here are a couple of successful tips:

1. Write in a language that Other Person doesn’t know.

2. Write in mirror writing. It’ll take a while  for that Other Person to figure out how to read it.

3. Hide your journal really, really well. That is not so difficult, if that Other Person doesn’t even know to look for your journal.

4. If the Other Person is your partner, you should be able to just AGREE not to read eachothers’ journals. I mean, a little bit of privacy is not asking too much, is it?

On 26th April the traditional bookbinding fair will again take place in Sint Niklaas, Belgium.

For more information follow this link!

My online shops now have a new banner and I am so very happy with the result! The designer is Jennifer Stuart and here is the link to her shop.

This little film has absolutely nothing to do with books, and everything with life. Enjoy! (click here to see the film).

Have a good week everyone!

A step at a time. After painting and putting up shelves and show cases it was time to figure out how the board cutter and working tables should stand.

While I was on a minivacation in Finland, Christel seriously rolled her sleeves up and made “a few changes”. The space feels really good now! A couple of more working days, and “Phase 2″ should be ready.

Phase 3 will follow some time later this year. I’m itching to get onto books again!

Slowly but surely dreams and ideas are taking shape. We now have painted the atelier floor, the walls, all the woodwork and got (read: bought and assembled) some shelves and vitrines. There’s still quite some shifting around to do after bringing together two ateliers’ worth of stuff under one roof, but we’ll get there.

When all is ready you could expect to see a neat working space + a little shop/gallery with handmade books from various crafters, and tools and materials to buy.

But one little step and then another… You will come to see us at the Open Atelier Day, February 27th, won’t you?

Check out this hilarious book – there is sound too so be sure to have your speakers on. Enjoy!

Yesterday evening we were watching the news, and something electrifying came along: the (felt) artist Claudy Jongstra has won the Prins Bernhard Culture Prize, a very important prize here in the Netherlands. I had first read of her after being totally transfixed by this photo, and then read the article. She had done the capes for Star Wars, which I found a very cool thing, but later I came to realize she has done so much more. You can read all about her activities on her site, just follow that photo link and surf on. She’s very inspiring!

The reason for me to get so excited about her winning the prize lies in a “problem” I have been having – you could also call it a challenge. Craft gets very little attention, at least here at the moment. Whilst, in order to do it well, you need to be creative, technically talented and at least a little bit ambitious.

More on this will follow, but for now, cheers to Claudy Jongstra!

At the moment the world is still. Snow fell this weekend and I’m just back from walking the dog in the glowing darkness. The snow reflects the light, I was drawing hearts here and there in the snow, just because I could.

Tonight I’m reflecting on distance in time and place, and on dreams. Snow reminds me of Finland, and quickly I rewind 10 years backwards and find myself in my first year of Roehampton, my bookbinding studies. Two major wishes had come true: adventuring outside of Finland, and getting into that BA-degree program. I found the first half year exhausting, because of the language. It was a totally different ball game to learn English at school and to use it in everyday life and in an academic study.

Fast forward 10 years to now. I have learned one more language, Dutch. I have moved house and atelier more often than I care to count. I’ve found really dear friends. But the greatest changes are: I became a mother. I have found my partner. We now have a home together. (and let’s not forget Luca, the dog!).

…and I still have dreams – or ambitions I should say. It is easy to get frustrated  when one is tired. But taking a step back ALWAYS reminds me: it is all about letting go. About love, and grace. Wonders happen when you least expect them. And life always, always happens at the right time.