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Interchangeable Postcard Quilt
I started making postcard quilts just before my daughter was born, many years ago. Now I find I am making one again: for a friend whose baby is due in February. She has a pack of alphabet cards she...
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Dear Writer: Kinder, Gentler Rejections
Rejection slips are a natural part of sending out work to magazines; in fact, rejection is the norm. If each magazine only takes 1-10% of what it receives, the odds are always against you. Except when...
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Substitute Tools
When I was a child I received a set of craft encyclopedias that ultimately functioned as daydream enhancers rather than as practical guides. Why? Because each project required a new set of specialized...
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Art-Related Book Gift Guide
Yes, you can get some amazing and inspiring books for under $1oo, most under $30. These fifteen are some of my favorites. I've included links to my related blog posts. The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily...
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Checking in with the Little Free Library
A little over a year ago I wrote about the Little Free Library that lives on my street. Three more have recently sprouted up in my area. The project, started by Todd Bol in memory of his librarian mom,...
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100- to 365-day Creative Arts Challenges
You see them everywhere: personal challenges to do something every day for a year. In 2002, my friend and longtime book arts colleague Michael Henninger took a picture of his baby's first 365 days...
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Star 82 Review 1.4 Is Live!
Star 82 Review is the online and print magazine I founded last year. Now, four issues later, it is thriving! Wonderful writers and artists continue to send new work, readers comment, and interested...
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Turning and Turning and Poet Joanne Kyger
In her book, Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India Journals, 1960-1964, Joanne Kyger revealed her struggles with her own work as she told of her life and process as a poet and as Gary Snyder's wife in...
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New Home for San Francisco Center for the Book
The San Francisco Center for the Book moved around the corner into their new space almost a year ago. And what a space it is! Betsy Davids and I visited last week. Here's what we saw as Chad Johnson,...
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JOY to the Art-O-Mat
Here is a little surprise that came to me out of the Art-O-Mat (there are only two in Northern California!) at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento last summer. These old vending machines now house art...
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Hourglass Binding: A Centered Book
A new year! Time for a new binding! Last week I dreamed that a long-lost friend had bound a book of her drawings with this exposed stitch binding. I had never made it before. When I dream a book I have...
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More Hourglass Binding Models
Two more Hourglass Binding models. The taller one contains single sheets of 140 lb. watercolor paper, folded in half to make the signatures and has a found paper cover. The smaller book is made with...
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Creative Arts Challenge: Week 1
In an earlier post I mentioned creative arts challenges: one was a one-hundred-day project, others meant to last for 365 days, and I said I would begin filling this little date book and see what...
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Little Free Library Night Light
On my walk, I found another Little Free Library on Arlington Avenue at San Luis Road. This one is solar powered. (I've written previously about them here and here.) Inside, you'll find some labels to...
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Framing Books
Books have covers, sufficient to set a tone, give a hint, protect and frame the contents. We have to get inside of books, usually, to get to the contents, and so they are not framed or hung on a wall...
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A Hike as an Imagined Book
Our first hike of the new year was in Tilden Park, a huge resource to those who live in the San Francisco Bay Area and perhaps less known, but equally spectacular, to visitors from beyond. It has been...
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Reading Aloud
I've heard that the number one fear for most people is public speaking (death is number two). I don't know if reading aloud qualifies as public speaking, but perhaps getting up in front of a group...
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Mystery Date (with a Book)
I had just been telling someone about the old board game Mystery Date. The premise was that each player (girls, of course), had to assemble an outfit that matched the date (a guy, of course: the game...
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Mystery Valentine Give Away
Inspired by the Mystery Date with a Book at the Alameda County Library, I'd like to offer you a mystery valentine. Choose one of four vintage never mind the press valentines that I made in 1995. Some...
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"Pop-Up School" and Library at BAM
Giant rag rugAn exhibit at the Berkeley Art Museum that opened January 31, 2014 contains a library as part of its interactive showcase, which is “like a pop-up school.” Curated by David Wilson, who has...
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