Small steps

 As we begin to find our way back to making here in Maleny, I have been prepping and printing a few bits here and there. Always trying to push a few things forward at a time, just to make sure nothing gets left too far behind.

I know International Day of Peace isn't until September, but there is a process of choosing words, and selecting type, then setting type and sorting through the brown paper cutlery holders, and inking and printing, and making holes and threading cord and sorting and packing and posting.... so I figured I might start now in my spare moments!

This year I have returned to John Lennon, and am simply asking that we give peace a chance...

On return, it also became clear that I had run out of grief cards. That is not my preferred way of being so I spent time finding if I had any blanks already prepped, and cutting paper to make new cards.

And then I wanted to check which type I might have used to print the name of the press on the back of the cards...

My first guess was close, but no cigar as they say.

My second was the very essence of Goldilocks - just right!

And so I printed some backs, some fronts and some middles...

I do love a deckled edge.

Now to let them dry and do some illustrating, find some envelopes and cello bags and add them back into the inventory once more.

And in other spare moments I have been doing the very last transfer of type from a small and difficult to use (that is, to get your fingers in to pick up the type) set of drawers into a small drawer that will complete the job.

I am almost there, and then we will have our final collection of type. Next job is to re-make the type reference books and create some new paper inventory sample books.

I keep saying to myself that future me will thank present me for doing these small tasks of sorting and re-organising.

And then to the ongoing beauty and gift of flowers. My dad's orchids are doing him proud, even in the cold and windy and sometimes wet weather we are having for winter this year. I love both the purity of this white one and the buoyant joy of the orange one.

And another gift of flowers, this time from my cousin, and these kangaroo paws are now on the kitchen bench being beautiful.

Teaching and Presenting

 I am excited to be presenting at a Conference in NZ in September - "Bind25". Hosted by ABCNZ it brings together fine binders and artists book makers and all associated variations in between.  Whilst they have prepared an extensive week-long program I will only be dashing over for a long weekend kind of thing...life.

I am presenting on my work and thinking about how to build narrative in artists' books. The presentation is coming along and taking shape as I ponder and meander and crystallise and clarify.

Before I head off I have also been offered the opportunity to run a workshop on Building Narrative - an opportunity for folk to take their artists' book making deeper; to think their way through story telling via the medium of artists' books and to take the reader on a full and satisfying journey.

Through the week I knuckled down and grabbed hold of a heap of artists' books from my collection to start finessing and updating the course.

I brought them home and spread them out.

And sorted through the opportunity moments in the workshop where participants will sit down together and discuss what different stories different styles of artists' book tell...

And I reached a point where I knew which books would work with which books, and in which groupings and why.

Sometimes I joke that there might be two things written on my gravestone:

1. She had neat handwriting; and 

2. She was organised.

The organised thing is always a bit amusing as I am the only person who ever really experiences my head space. My head is filled with thoughts that need connecting or jotting down; or which create new jumping off points for other ideas and... it can be quite the jumble. My sense has always been that my organisational side is just about trying to make sense of all this bubbling excitement!

And so as I kept having a multitude of thoughts and ideas about where to take the workshop and presentation next; I decided each thought could go on a sticky note and get stuck down. That way I wouldn't lose it, and I could watch them all come together.

It got pretty wild by the end of the morning!

Yet the sense of satisfaction as enormous. Despite how it might look here, I knew where to head next, and what needed doing. So good!

And then just to some lovely colourful, jewel-like details of an artwork we recently purchased from our friend Ken Munsie. These delightful moments make me smile each time I pass by, or glimpse over at it...