Book Art

I've been blown away with inspiration and awe after finding the most amazing book artist. Check out artist Brian Dettmer and his amazing carved books. I've never before seen anything quite as complex and as intricate carved into books. So impressive and inspiring!

I've been continuing on with my library- catalogue-index-cards postcard project and last week I sent off two cards through postcrossing.com and one to a friend in the UK. This red woven card was sent to Poland. The pink textured one below went off to Arizona in the USA and the blue card with the Queens head stamps went off to London, England. Hopefully they all arrive soon and don't get lost in the post!

I'm excited about trying some simple book folding and carving, but mine will be extremly simple! I'll post pictures if any of my scultptural experiments turn out alright.    Lily 

   

Woven postcard

I've just finished another catalogue-card postcard and am sending it off to China! Here is a picture...

Lily

Love affair

Contrary to our posts...or lack thereof...I've been busy creating new postcards and beginning a love affair with duct tape (sorry Brad!). I think that the paperback romance novels that I've also been collecting and partnering with the duct tape have been fuelling this affair. Funky little wallets and change purses are being born on my desk thanks to some inspiring websites. Check out Dustin Kirks  simple instructions for making a duct tape wallet and Refabulous for paperback book-cover wallets. I combined both ideas and have been making a no-sew hybrid from duct tape, old paperback covers (please note that no books were intentionally harmed for this project), and clear sticky-back shelf liners. 

I've also been making and sending my little card catalogue postcards around the world with Postcrossing.com. I've just sent two more off this week, one to Russia the other to North Carolina, USA. These are the postcards that are currently travelling:

I've also added a couple more postcards that got sent a few weeks ago, to our Flickr account. So please take a look at: http://flic.kr/ps/LUA1F

Lily 

Procrastination

Procrastination is really the mother of all evils. Unfortunately I’ve realized that I am really driven by deadlines; that is deadlines given to me by other people. Take this blog post: I have had seven days to post it and I am doing it on the last day.

Much like Lily, I have decided to create/finish something every week. I have a lot of unfinished projects and ideas that are half started, so a weekly deadline is really going to help me finish them. These projects will be a bit of everything, from jewelry, collages, drawings and knitwear, to gardening projects.

I was attempting to create a new piece of jewelry for Lily for Christmas. But it’s now the New Year and it still isn’t done, so what better place to start…

 

New Beginnings, New ideas

Happy New Year! With a new year comes new ideas and lots of resolutions. One of ours is to blog more often. A lot more often. So, we have committed to each post once a week about our current interests.

I'm (Lily) really into making postcards from old library catalogue index cards (see picture) and sending them around the world via Postcrossing.com. I've created an album in our Flickr account to show you how they look.

http://flic.kr/s/aHsjxX6xaR

My plan is to create, mail and share one postcard every week, although I got excited and had time today to send off two in the mail!

Brad is remaining elusive about what he is working on, so will share more details later in the week.

Hopefully we can sustain this for the next 52 weeks.

Lily & Brad

Urban Farmer

Design comes in many forms. Recently I have been spending time trying to design a vegetable garden that will work for everyone, (family and the DOG). I know some of you might think its December so why are your wasting time doing it now, but every spring I find that the beginning of the growing season is spent building raised planters or something instead of actually getting the plants in the ground. So back to the question of design: I took some time to layout where I wanted the new patches to be and to help with weed control in the spring I laid newspaper out across the area. Lily got me a book from the library called “The Quarter Acre Farm – How I kept the patio, Lost the lawn and Fed My Family for a Year” which has inspired me this spring to turn half of the garden into vegetables. I’ll keep you posted as to how my garden progresses. I have to admit that I really enjoy gardening and getting the kids excited to see where food comes from.

On a side note I was cleaning out my Jewellery workshop  (some shelving fell off the wall) and I came across my old portfolio case.  I was shocked at the drawings I kept in there. Some of them had to be at least 20 years old. I think they might help in the design of my new vegetable garden!

Brad

We've just added some pictures of our art to a Flickr account. Please take a look! We'll let you know as more pictures are added...