New Year's Greetings
30 December 2009
28 December 2009
Book Review: Art Making and Studio Spaces
I have taken classes from the eight artists featured in this book including the author, Lynne Perrella. But I have been in only two of the studio spaces shown, so before I got her book, I was more than anxious to see what the rest of my instructors' workspaces looked like. I also was curious as well about other artists whose classes I have not taken yet or have heard about in the media.
The "tour" began with the author's studio. As I looked at each artist's spaces through Lynne's and the photographer's eyes, I began to wonder if that my conception/definition of a typical artist's workspace was pretty limited. In this book, the stores and outdoors were considered as extensions of the creative space for some of the artists. One could think of the whole world (including libraries, museums, stores, et al) as one large studio for the creative people.
This book is more like a photo-documentary on the workspaces of 31 artists (one couple counted as two) - twenty-nine artists are residing in this country (USA) and two are in Australia. Lynne's descriptive writings provided personal observations of the space, and also the details on the artists from various fields: quilt making, photography, mixed media, graphic design, landscape architect, book arts, collage, assemblage, sculpture and even antique restoration. I found it interesting that Lynne would include a restorer's workshop as part of this tour - once again, this book challenged me to rethink my preconceived idea on what typically constitutes a "creative" space.
Due to the limitation of any publication, not every nooks and crannies are shown for all of the artists' spaces. Not only that, I know that some of the studios were really not that neat when the photographs were taken. Very few artists would allow anyone to take pictures if their workspaces happened to be very messy, and I appreciate seeing a number of "messy" studios in the book. However, I have been in another one and I can tell you that it is always that neat and organized at all times.
Since there were no artists shown in the photos, I believe that including them in the photos would give us a better sense of the scale and size of their workspace. Some of the studios were not shown as a whole room but as mere glimpses or partial views.
Even though this book was not meant to be used as a reference or DIY book for better organization or creation of a studio space, I was inspired by how these people effectively utilized the limited space to create a truly conducive and supportive environment for their own personal creativity. it is very interesting to notice the various locations of their "laboratories": garage, separate building, basement, backyard and even a barnyard full of farm animals, to name a few.
I would most likely look up other books for more practical ideas on storage or organizations. However, I would go to Lynne's book for more aesthetic inspiration and ideas on how I can make my own creative space that would truly reflect my interests, my style, and my personality.
Art Making and Studio Spaces
Quarry Books
January 2010
Paperback, 176 pages, 150 photos/illustrations
Disclosure notice: As per FTC disclosure requirement, I have received this book from its publisher in exchange for my personal review in this blog. Also, a small percentage will be paid to me by Amazon.com if a sale of the above or others is made via the above links. Thanks so much for your support!
23 December 2009
Book Review: Collage Lab
This is the first book in the publisher’s new Lab series, and its format provides an experiential and experimental approach to building your own personal and unique repertoire of collage skills and techniques.
This book is a combination of prompts, step by steps, tutorials, techniques, material lists, and examples – all put together on each full spread (book laid flat for full view of two pages) to provide a comprehensive, but not necessarily exhaustive, view of each of the building blocks. It would be nice if it could be bound with metal coil or plastic spiral instead of glue so that it could be laid flatter on any surface.
There are 52 laboratories in this book, grouped in 12 units with four or five labs each. Going through each lab is like laying brick by brick to build a pyramid-like wealth of knowledge and experience in the art of collage. It provides ample opportunities to try out different ways of using a specific technique, and encourages the learner to allow room for mistakes – instead they can be viewed as accidental discoveries.
Even thought this book seemed to be focused primarily on the beginners or anyone’s first foray into the art & craft of collage, it does provide new ways or ideas even for the most advanced students. For example, I learned a new way to convert a colored photo into a pencil drawing by printing it out in black & white, gessoed it, and then fill in by hand with pencil strokes.
In summary, having a book open in front of your art projects is like having a private tutor sitting next to you as you develop and build your own wealth of knowledge in the mixed media world.
Collage Lab
Quarry Books
February 2010
Paperback, 144 pages, 150 photos/illustration
Disclosure notice: As per FTC disclosure requirement, I have received this book from its publisher in exchange for my personal review in this blog. Also, a small percentage will be paid to me by Amazon.com if a sale of the above or others is made via the above links. Thanks so much for your support!
17 December 2009
Cool Wrapping Paper
Last night, an UPS guy dropped off a large envelope at my home, and I was expecting a book. Much to my delight, I also got a set of wrapping paper which was given to me as a gift from Craftside.
The label on the wrapper reads:
The Story of Craftside’s
“Up-Cycled Wrapping Paper”
“Up-Cycled Wrapping Paper”
This gift from Craftside was created with the environment in mind. While the front of this wrapping paper has a cool, retro design, the back includes colorful images and text from our craft books. This is because our wrapping paper and gift tags are made from our printer’s scraps that are normally thrown away! This is how it was done…
The wrapping paper is made from the “makeready” of two of our newest paperback editions: Intertwined and Sweater Surgery. Makeready is the waste created as the printer calibrates the correct ink colors, “making the press ready” for the actual print run that will create the finished sheets. Usually, these 200-300 sheets of makeready are thrown out. Craftside used these sheets to make our wrapping paper.
The gift tags were created from scraps as well – they were made from the makeready of the paperback covers.
We hope you enjoy Craftside’s “Up-cycled Wrapping Paper.”
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Wow, that's really cool! I love the idea of repurposing the waste paper - turning them into wrapping paper. And the paper's of a good quality. Included in this set are two pieces of wrapping paper - one "retro" and one Japanese style flower motif - each measures approximately 9 inches square folded.
They measure approximately 19 inches by 37 inches when unfolded.
You can see that the back of the wrapping paper were actually test prints for one of the paperback books.
These cool sheets will be given out by Craftside at CHA, Maker Faire, Renegade and any other craft show that they are going to. Those of you who are going to CHA 2010 in Anaheim, be sure to visit their booth so that you can have a set. Since I won't be going to Anaheim next year, I am glad I got a set in the mail instead.Note: Printed designs on wrapping paper, and printed images on the back of one wrapping paper © 2009 by Quarry Books.
Photo credits: Andrew Borloz of Urban Paper Arts.
Disclosure notice: This post is my personal & unpaid endorsement of the above product sent to me for promotional purposes.
16 December 2009
Book Review: The Art of Decorative Paper Stencils
Author's note: I have already written a review for this book that I purchased from Amazon.com last July, however, here's another one due to the fact that I got a reviewer's copy directly from its publisher last October.
This book is an unusual hybrid combination of traveling memoirs, paper crafts, patterns, and stenciling. The author has taken the art of kirigami (Japanese art of folding and cutting) to the next level by showing how it can be used to record the travel sights or memoirs. I have traveled to Japan and Europe several times, but I have never thought of looking for specific shapes & forms that are vernacular (native) to the country that I was touring.
The book contains many different patterns that were inspired by six different cities that the author visited: Kamakura, Japan; San Francisco, CA; Montego Bay, Jamaica; Prague, Czech Republic; Berlin, Germany; and Vienna, Austria. Also shown are different ways that the patterns can be arranged: singly, grouped, or overlaid. For the page layouts, the author used the paper from the local areas that she visited – brochures, tickets, food packaging, or any found material. Not all of the folding patterns are circular – some of them are edges or borders.
Included in this book are six projects where the cultural stencils can be used: scrapbook pages, cakes (stenciling with powdered sugar), hanging mobiles, flowerpots, wrapping cloth, and bowls. These projects provided a wonderful way to relive the travel memories at home. Seven sheets of decorative paper are attached at the end of the book for personal projects
Using the design method presented by the author, I plan to create decorated paper with my own hand-cut stencils that will be influenced by the cultural style of various countries. I find this book to be great for those who want to visually journaling the travel experience with scissors instead of pens.
Disclosure notice: As per FTC disclosure requirement, I have received this book from its publisher in exchange for my personal review in this blog. Also, a small percentage will be paid to me by Amazon.com if a sale of the above or others is made via the above links. Thanks so much for your support!
15 December 2009
Book Review: 1000 Creative Ideas for Reuse
Garth Johnson
Thinking that it was a "how-to" book, I ordered this book based on my artist friend's recommendation. Instead, it turned out to be more of a photo-gallery type reference book. As I was going through the book, the wonderful memories of inspirational and mind-expanding visit to the Portland Museum of Contemporary Crafts (Oregon), Museum of Art & Design (New York), American Craft Council Fair (alternate crafts section) at Fort Mason (San Francisco, CA) came to my mind.
In every visit, I was fascinated and amazed with how ordinary or found materials can be repurposed, recycled, or even re-manufactured into an entirely different entity. I saw several of them again in this book, and from the same book, many more examples of material reuse from many different categories were shown: fashion, home accessories, book arts, mixed media, and interiors.
Each photo (1,000 of them) has a number and the name of the artisan. If one wants to know what materials were used, one will have to find it in the image directory at the end of the book using the number as the index. However, the image directory is a bit confusing and difficult to read because it was not in the expected columnar format.
Despite the shortcomings of the book's layout design and the misleading title, I have found it to be inspirational as it enables me to come up with more ideas for what I can use with my own found materials. And if I need more information, I can look up a list of resources in this book.
Overall, I find this book to be a good sourcing tool for scouts who are looking for exceptional or "green" items to be sold in crafts fairs, galleries or other retail venues. It is also an excellent idea-generating tool for those who want to create, design or maintain a "green" lifestyle by either recycling with found materials or buying the handcrafted objects from the artisans.
Disclosure notice: I purchased this book from Amazon.com with my own monies, however, a small percentage will be paid to me by Amazon.com if a sale of the above book or others is made via the above links. Thanks so much for your support!
Book Review: Dirty Fingernails
John Foster
Ever since I graduated from University of Bridgeport in 1979 with a degree in industrial design, I have been watching the current trends in various design disciplines. From taking two courses in graphic design and package design, I remembered how labor intensive and time consuming the whole creative process was without the aid of computers. Done entirely by hand and/or by photomechanical means, the final production-ready artwork was expected to appear perfect as if it was already printed, and any visible evidence of “hand made quality” was considered to be unprofessional, substandard and amateurish.
With the advent of the new digital technology during the past two decades or so, I noticed that most of the designers’ drudgery work was either replaced or eliminated by computers. At first I was fascinated and awed by what could be done on the computer, but as the years went by, I was dismayed at the number of the look-alikes that were either copycats or ripped off from the originals. Not only that, the quality of ‘humanness’ or ‘hand-designed’ feelings seemed to be absent from the digital creations.
That issue appeared to me as the author’s lamentation, and he seemed to feel that the originality of any design could be best achieved and preserved by utilizing the low tech approach: creation by hand. Many of the letterforms shown in this book were either hand-lettered with mark making tools or handcrafted as 3-D objects with paper boards or other materials. Trompe-l’oeil technique was cleverly used for letterforms created with found materials in some of the photographs. Some of the illustrations or backgrounds were either hand-rendered or hand-painted.
Most of the work in this book seemed to have something in common – a lot of them are urbane, nitty-gritty, and streetwise with few of the having some graphic elements reminiscent of the 1950s. Information was provided for each one-of-a-kind design as to what specific materials were used and how the final design was executed or printed – one of them was done with hand-cut stencil. Some of them were individually customized after the printing, and even fabric or hand sewing was used in a few examples.
From looking at this book’s collection, I can see how the utilization of hand-rendered graphic elements in the creation of any design have made the final product (layout, package, or promotional item) unique and stand out from the crowd. Not only that, these designers seemed to achieve a higher level of professional satisfaction by getting their hands dirty in the design work by using the low-tech means instead of having everything done completely on the computer without having to touch anything except the keyboard and the mouse. These successful designers have successfully combined the best of both low & high tech worlds together in their work. Overall, I think this book is an excellent reference book on how the hand-creations and digital technology can be effectively used together.
Disclosure notice: As per FTC disclosure requirement, I have received this book from its publisher in exchange for my personal review in this blog. Also, a small percentage will be paid to me by Amazon.com if a sale of the above or others is made via the above links. Thanks so much for your support!
Book Review: Bookcraft
Heather Weston
This how-to book starts with an introduction to materials and tools used in book arts. It also points out some basic bookmaking rules on paper grain, cutting and gluing.
The first chapter is heavily focused on binding methods. Thirteen book structures were shown with highly detailed and clear step-by-step instructions from start to finish. Its primary focus is on various on how the signatures/pages and covers can be bound using the simple gluing and/or stitching. It seemed to me that this chapter’s basic goal is to create a repertoire of basic bookmaking skills for the novice, and it is my opinion that it did succeed in meeting this goal.
The second chapter covers most basic principles and processes for creating the pages and covers. Various methods were shown in a demonstration type photo-illustrations such as cutting, “surface sculpting” (debossing and embossing), and folding.
Its third and last chapter is a gallery type section that shows how the techniques covered in the previous chapters were used. With the book as an art form in mind, eighteen books created by the author and other bookmakers were presented by using the book structure/pages as a ‘canvas’ or ‘media’ creatively and imaginatively to tell stories or communicate via visual and/or textual means. I found the last three books at the end of the chapter to be very intriguing and fascinating because of the way the “boundaries” were being pushed to the point where they almost ceased to be viewed as “books”.
Overall, this book serves as a nice introduction to the world of book arts. The photographs are beautiful, and the instructions are pretty clear. I would most likely use its first chapter to refresh my memory on various book structure designs. No matter how many books on book arts I have bought over the past years, I always find something new to learn. In this book, I have learned a few new things from this book such as hybrid structures and “debossing”. But for some of the techniques presented in this book (one example – pop-ups), I would look in other books for more detailed information.
Disclosure notice: As per FTC disclosure requirement, I have received this book from its publisher in exchange for my personal review in this blog. Also, a small percentage will be paid to me by Amazon.com if a sale of the above or others is made via the above links. Thanks so much for your support!
Book Review: Vintage Collage Journals
MaryJo Koch
When I first saw the title, I was not crazy about using the antique or vintage images for my visual journaling projects unless they related to a specific event or experience. As I looked at some of the beautiful illustrations done in watercolor, I experienced some sort of déjà vu and I wondered why. I now realized that I had gotten two or more of the author’s series of art books relating to nature & wildlife a while ago.Her journals are full of fantastic illustrations, beautiful handwriting, and well-composed & seamless arrangements of collage elements. Four types of journals are explored in this book with some of the processes and techniques explained in detail: travel, food & wine, nature & garden, and family keepsake. Maryjo’s style is consistently the same throughout the book.
The primary focus of this book is on collage and painting techniques for journaling purposes. Of special interest to me are two of painting techniques from this book: 1.painting spotted egg image on paper with gouache; and 2.using a scumbling brush for page edges. In many of her journal pages, the artist used different collage elements such as napkins with vintage images, postcards, stamps, cancellations, flowers, birds, menus, wine labels, and music sheets in such a way that it is almost impossible to see the seams. Some of them are available as clip art (seven pages) at the end of the book for personal use.
Also contained in this book is a brief tutorial on pressing botanicals. Although there are many beautiful drawings, handwriting and watercolors shown on Maryjo’s journal pages, instructions were not provided as they were beyond the scope of this book. But Maryjo did a great job of making the collage elements and hand-done illustration blend together. If one is looking for ways to achieve the vintage look in the journal pages, this book is indeed full of various collage, blending and tinting techniques.
Disclosure notice: As per FTC disclosure requirement, I have received this book from its publisher in exchange for my personal review in this blog. Also, a small percentage will be paid to me by Amazon.com if a sale of the above or others is made via the above links. Thanks so much for your support!
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