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Finished!

I finished it!

Art Journal - Binding fisnished

Ok.  I didn’t really finish it exactly…that’s going to be a while.  But it’s less exciting to yell,  “I bound it!” from the rooftops.

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I used, more or less, a Coptic stitch to bind it.  I changed it up a bit since I used just messy single pages instead of tidy signatures.

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So, every four or five pages look like this and it lays flat when opened which is cool for doodling in.

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I plan on writing and or drawing in it a little every day or so until it’s all full.  That’s when I’ll have actually finished it.

Art Journal Print

Oh, and here’s a print I made (with the help of some good friends) of Barbara Bains.  I picked her picture randomly off of the cover of a vintage magazine.  Made a lino cut of her face and printed up a bunch of her.  Then I found out that the next day – totally a coincidence – was her birthday.  Freaky.

I brought the bound (not finished) book into the Regal Find to show my friend Jessica and she asked my to teach a class on how to make one of these!  Woohoo!

It’ll be in January, I’ll keep you posted.  So really, “I’m finished!” means “I’m starting!”

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Too much fun

I was having way too much fun to take any pictures at the Madison Print and Resist.  It used to be the Zinefest but there was way more than Zine’s available so they changed the name.  It was a great time.  Here are a few pictures I took with my phone:

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My impromptu sign, in case you couldn’t tell where you were from the…

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…Inviting mess.

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Here’s the only completed project I took a picture of.

And I felt proud to know that I have all the goods to throw together an art table out of my stash of collage materials.  Who said hoarding was all bad.

The Zine’s and prints were amazing and I came home with a big pile of gorgeous work and met some wonderful and inspiring artists.  I’d do it again in a heartbeat!  Even with all the lugging and impossible construction going on all around us.  It was a blast!

 

 

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Mail Art This Weekend!

Hi all you local folks!  This Saturday I am hosting a table at the Madison Print and Resist (formally the Zinefest) as part of the Madison Book Festival in the Helen C. White Hall at 600 N. Park.  Print and Resist is in the College Library.  That’s the library on the first floor in the cafe area.  Here’s the Print and Resist’s awesome fancy poster.

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My mail art table will be (as all mail art should be) entirely free.  I’ll have art supplies and resource for you to play with so make sure to come by and check it out.

Never made mail art?  Well, you totally should!  It’s fun, free and awesome!  If you send me some mail art (with a legible return address) I will totally mail something back to you.

Jennifer Falkowski  
PO Box 6691  
Monona WI 53716-0691
USA
 

I hope I see you there!

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Liebster

I was just nominated for a Liebster Award.  I’ve seen similar things around town…blogging town that would be…and I think it’s awesome.  Here’s a helpful post that describes the general idea.

Kirsti(K)nits nominated me and sent me a great list of questions to answer.  So, here I go:

What is your best advice for a new crafter?
Make mistakes.  They can’t hurt you but the fear of making them can block you like crazy so screw up now and get used it.
QUOTES
What is the strangest thing you’ve ever made?
That’s actually super easy to answer.  I had this dream recently of a mobile out of dried fruit.  Specifically watermelons and cantaloupes.
Right?  I hear the crazy there.  We all know what watermelon is made of.
But I woke up with  such a strong image in my head that I went out right away and bought a dehydrator and got to work.
Mobile
Nope, the watermelon never really worked but I loved the cantaloupe.  I’m really thrilled to have put the energy into it.  They were just for me.  I couldn’t gift them, I couldn’t sell them and they attracted flies and bees.
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Both flies and bees, people.  But I really loved the process and the pointlessness of it.  It gave me a great feeling of freedom around the creative process for process’s sake.
Who is your favorite knit/crochet/sewing/crafty designer?
Yikes, this is way harder to answer because I love so many.  But, I’ll put the first person who jumped into my head, though there are so many talented people out in the world who I so love to follow.  I love India Flint, the natural dyer and dreamer.
Why did you start crafting?
Before falling in love with my husband and having kids, I was an actor. I was recently out of a strict acting conservatory training and feeling very disgruntled with the life in the theatre (I’m ignoring you, spell check, it is so theatre with an RE and not, as you suggest, boring old theater).   It was creative but very demanding and competitive.   However, I was very satisfied (gruntled, you might say) with being a mom of little people.  But after a short while I was hungry for that old creative life.  A good friend of mine taught me how to bend wire to make jewelry and I haven’t stopped obsessively making stuff since.
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I think we all need to, in whatever way fills us up, create.  Maybe it’s cooking or gardening or fixing electrical circuits, but it’s the creative act and, as humans, we need it.
What is your best advice for a new blogger?
Post more pictures.
Indigo Blue
There are never enough pretty picture to look at.  Oh, and one font will do just fine.
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Why did you start blogging?
To only connect.  That’s just another huge human need.
As part of the Liebster Award dealio, I am going to link to 5 awesome blogs with fewer than 3000 followers and send them some fun questions to answer.  Thanks Kirsti(K)nits!
Here are your questions:
What is your best advice for a new maker?
What is the best mistake you’ve ever made?
Who is your biggest inspiration?
Why did you start making things?
What thing have you always wanted to try to make but haven’t?
What is your best advice for a new blogger?
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Art Journal!!

I went out to dinner with my friend Forrest, who is a Co-Owner of Artterro, the other night and had such a great time and incredibly inspiring conversation.  We talked about creativity and she gave me so many wonderful ideas and so much support and perhaps I had a bit too much wine. So I felt really tired and cruddy the next day.  I laid down to take a nap but I could not shut my eyes because my head was just so full of things I wanted to try.  I jumped up and started work on an art journal – one of the things we talked about the night before.

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I took this old book apart.  I’m taking beaver back.

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I found a few books at the library that were destined for the recycling bin.  I like to think I saved them.

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I did what I consider to be foundation pages.

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Also, this book has some really cute paragraph titles and pages that I will totally use in the book.

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Also some awesome beaver shots.

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Claude Debussy.  No reason.  I stapled two overlapped pages together.

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Some more stapled stuff.

 

 

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I think this is my favorite so far.

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I still need to paint the other side of these pages, too.

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I tried to think in terms of framing the paper.

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This is a bag.  It looks the most unfinished to me.  I need to keep in mind that I’ll be adding more.  I do really like the white.

Art Journal Foundation PagesIs this upside down or right side up?  Any of the pages could be turned around.  See what you can accomplish with inspiring friends…even hungover.

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More changes

Always laughing
Always looking for reasons to laugh

The Jennifer’s will still work together but we also want to do things on our own.  So now I’m here and the other Jennifer is working on making a website, too.  I’ll share her link as soon as it’s ready.

We have big plans involving indigo and other natural dyes and finding alternative and interesting ways to apply batik designs.

You can follow this blog to keep posted about our classes.

I’ll also post my experiments and classes and ideas and pictures and silly thoughts.

Thanks for moving on over with me.