I'm still trying to find a book form I can do easily, since I'm looking for something I can alternate with beading, so I don't spend quite so many hours with a needle in my hand. I do love digital photography, but I also wanted to find something interesting to do indoors when it's raining, which it does quite a lot of in oregon, lol!
So I was looking at the book on handmade books published by penland ( a wonderful fine craft school in the east) and found a tutorial on hedi kyle's blizzard book which I tried. I found it way more work than I was willing to put into it and too hard on my hands as well, since there is a lot of heavy folding with the bone folder involved. So then I went in another direction and am working on a bottlecap book....have punched out the "pages" and they're sitting in the bottlecap while I decide how to "bind" them....fun, but probably another route I won't be traveling too far on.
Then I was looking at some of chad alice hagen's felt brooches and thought it might be fun to do my own take on them, so I crocheted some of my multi-colored wool into a small rectangle and will be working on felting it....but that's another route that takes a lot of physical effort so I'll have to see if I'm up to it.
Still...it's nice to try different things sometimes and take a mental and physical break from my bead embroidery.
And while I was cleaning out a cubby in the studio I came across some very old bits and pieces of my beadwork that were done when I was in the early days of making jewelry with beadweaving, mostly using the peyote stitch. It reminded me that it's been a long road getting to where I am with the beading and how long it took me to get the skills that now let me focus more on meaning and soul and not so much on craftsmanship and technique. A long and happy road and I wish the same for each of you...work you love to do, in a place you love, surrounded by friends and family you love...
