Life Lately

Hi! I know I've been kind of AWOL and there's really only a handful of people who even read this, but I wanted to share what I've been up to lately.

In late August I started taking my first class since I graduated from college.  Since I work at an academic institution (UC) I can take classes for free.  And since photography is a key part of my job description, I can take a photography class on work time.  Super awesome, right!?  For someone who loves taking photos and even does it as part of their job, it's kind of crazy that I've never taken a photography class, not even a film photography class.  Somehow it's just something I skipped in all the high school and college art classes I took.  But since I want to start taking conservation photography documentation classes soon, I figured I should probably get a basic photography class under my belt first.  While parts of the class have come naturally, I am surprised how challenging it has been so far.  In particular, being restricted by our subject matter and assignment.  We all know that nature, and flowers in particular, are my favorite thing to shoot.  Well, the subject matter for our first class project was "Abstract".  That meant NO nature whatsoever.  No trees, no plants, no people, no animals.  No naturally made things whatsoever!  It was a definite challenge for me, but it really made me look at things differently and I think I really learned a lot and grew as a photographer during this project.  And that was only our first project!  I wanted to share some of my best shots with you all...

In early September I made probably my prettiest and craziest cake so far for a dear coworker's birthday, and I just have to share it...

It was an orange poppyseed cake with orange buttercream.

 Also, for the last couple months I've been making handmade books and watercolor cards and prints.  I'm finally getting ready to sell them this weekend!  This will be my first time ever going out into public and selling stuff I've made to people.  In person.  In real life.  I'm a little nervous!

I've got 49 books/journals ready to sell, as well as galaxy cards and prints.  Here's hoping it goes well!

For any Cincinnati folks who might be reading, I'll be selling at the Pleasant Ridge POP! Market from noon to 5pm this Saturday (24th).  The market is located in the Pleasant Ridge Presbyterian Church parking lot (5950 Montgomery Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45213).  

That's all for now.  I won't promise that I'll be back to blogging on a somewhat regular basis, because that just doesn't seem realistic.  I've got a lot of fun stuff on the horizon and being present in my life just seems infinitely better than blogging at the moment.  But I'll try not to be a complete stranger.  Happy Thursday everyone!

Book Arts

Sorry I haven't shared any new photos (or really really old photos for that matter) lately.  I know I've been slacking but I promise that I haven't totally been doing nothing.  Instead of editing photos lately I've been spending a fair amount of time working on a couple of artists books I've been making.  Ever since I started working at my current job about 8 years ago and learned how to make books I've been doing just that, making books.  But only blank ones, what you'd commonly refer to as journals.  I've sold some in the past, but mostly I've just either made them and kept them or made them and given them as gifts (the main recipient being my best friend, Amanda, who actively journals on the regular!).  Anyway, I'd never really made a book with any substance or content...until last year.

It's not that I never wanted to make a book with content, or an "artists' book" as it's commonly called, it's just I never really had a single idea.  Until last year, when for our student appreciation day we made carousel books (which I had never made before) in the lab, and for the first time ever I had an idea.  And so I made my first artist book and I was so excited about it that I entered it into Bookworks XVI (my book is pictured at the very end of the post!), a local collaborative book arts exhibit that's put together by the Cincinnati Book Arts Society (aka CBAS, pronounced like the fish, sea bass) and the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

Now, I had been trying to think up an idea for Bookworks for years, but nothing...until I made that first carousel book.  I really liked the structure and something about it just inspired me and before I knew it I had a handful of other ideas.  Which leads me to the pictures of the book below, my second ever artist book!  I worked on this book mainly over the holidays and just now finished up making a custom cloth-covered clamshell box for it, so I figured it was time to share it...

It's called "Cosmic Ocean".  It's another carousel book, but this time I used Arches 140lb watercolor paper and QoR watercolors! [Front cover]

[Side opening]

I used small, thin magnets to create clasps on either side of the book to keep it shut.

I also embedded magnets into the front and back cover boards so that the book would stay open for display.

Here's a gif/animation of the five pages, it starts with the Earth and ends with the red galaxy and the space ship.

This was a very fun book to work on and I felt I really pushed myself further on this second artist book.  It also, just the like the first, really inspired me and as I was working on it I started to come up with other ideas for other books!  I hope you enjoy it!  And if you're in the Cincinnati area, I do plan to submit it into the Bookworks XVII exhibit this year, which generally runs from June through August in the Main Branch of the Public Library, if you want to check it out in person.