Re-using Materials

Some time ago a friend of mine raided her work’s (ok, I’ll say it) garbage can and rescued a TON of vinyl (and other fabric) remnants for drapes, flooring, and wall covering samples. For a very long time I had no clear idea what to use these remnants for. Most of them were too thick to cover book board with easily and were too small to make the kinds of books I was used to making. And then, I opened up my good ole Keith Smith book and looked around at some other kinds of bindings- using soft covers as opposed to hard covers. And well, wouldn’t you know it I found a whole new use for these otherwise ‘trash-able’ items and I couldn’t be more excited.

Two weekends ago (I think) I was part of The INDIEana Handicraft Exchange Holiday Hoopla mini in Indy and while there I received a custom order for a journal made with only graph paper. When I got home I wasn’t sure just how I was going to go about making this journal, what with the (lack of) time I have on my hands lately and Christmas around the corner, I needed the turnaround time of this journal to be QUICK! So, I opted out of the hard cover journal and looked into my vinyl pieces. I took two 5×8 pieces and glued them together first with PVA and then, after pressing for 24 hours, sewed them together on my trusty (unused) sewing machine. After that I sewed the cut graph paper pages in using my new technique (thanks Keith Smith) and voila- New soft cover journals that are too much fun to make.

After that, I wanted/needed to get rid of all this paper sitting around my place. I can’t justify buying new paper until I use all that I have sitting around- so I took some other scraps of the vinyl (I’m not even positive it’s really all vinyl, that’s just the easiest way to describe most of it- a lot of is backed fabric, which makes it GREAT for book covers!) and some typing paper I had sitting around, hand ripped the pages, and used some hemp thread to pamphlet stitch them together. I listed these on Esty today.

Oh, the joys of using what you already have on hand, or what you (or someone else) has pulled from the proverbial garbage can!

INDIEana Handicraft Exchange winter mini

Ah yes, more things to learn. But all good. All good.

In Retrospect

Bloomington Handmade Market

Originally uploaded by Conduit_Press

Yesterday I spent the majority of my afternoon selling (standing) at the Bloomington Handmade Market at the Waldron, and let me tell you, it was great. It was my first ever art fair/festival/market and I’m sure people are tired of hearing that it was my first ever event, but man, I was nervous. I’d been planning/creating for weeks, what felt like months, and with a little one by my side, it wasn’t so easy. By the time the Market finally arrived I’d managed to get 130 (yes, one-hundred-AND-thirty) items completed- can you say overkill? And the week before my ultimate goal was simply to photograph what I’d made, so I’d have some sort of documentation that, yes, I did make one of those one time, but instead I focused on how the heck I was going to display all those 130 items on a 6 foot table.

And I’ve learned. Boy have I learned. I mean, it’s not like it was a harrowing learning experience- no, not at all. I met some really superbly nice people yesterday, people that essentially are my competition in a way, but people that were nonetheless not only polite and cordial, but friendly toward me in a way that when I’d walked in the door yesterday I was afraid I wasn’t going to find. Just because I’d like to leave this entry mostly on the positive side, I’ll just say there were a few people/vendors around and about that were none too nice, that were ‘better’ than those that surrounded them (me) and made sure you knew it. But, you know what, meeting those nice people that surrounded me really overshadowed the not so nice ones. We’ll leave it at that, and instead focus on the amazing artists I met while out and about.

First and foremost, Megan Winn of The Binding Bee creates amazing handmade books (see, my competition) that are beautiful and well-made and something I really aspire to be. It’s kind of funny (I think) that I’m promoting another book-maker here, but, that’s what this is all about- helping each other out, and pointing out when people are perhaps better, definitely different, than yourself. I sort of compare it to music . . . in a way. Like, for some reason I like to think that Taylor Swift has really good taste in music. I picture her listening to Cat Power and Imogen Heap while in her room, but then, when she makes her own music, it’s something much more cute and innocent. And that’s sort of how I feel about Megan’s books. I Love them. I adore them actually, and would have purchased one (or more) if I weren’t poor (I really Love books, it’s an obsession like my new obsession with cloth diapers), but I don’t myself make books like her. Not that I’m not capable, I probably could if I wanted, but they wouldn’t capture the same feel that Megan’s books do, because they are her signature, her style, not mine. And I’m kinda like Taylor Swift, and the cutesy country music with my books. Ok, that was a long drawn out way of explaining something I probably didn’t even need to explain.

I also had the pleasure of being in a booth next to Miss Kathryn Dart whose art is something I should have spoken to her longer about, but is amazing even if I didn’t allow myself to speak with her depth about it. I believe it’s called Encaustic Art and I overheard her many a time explaining how and why and the history and really, I felt like it was really impressive. I didn’t get to walk around a lot myself yesterday, but I feel as though Kathryn was one of only a few ‘artists’ in the group. Yes! we are all artists in our own right, but when I say ‘artists’ I simply mean painting, drawing, sculpture- sort of the classical kinds of arts if that makes sense. There were four of us book makers, quite a few knitters and clothiers, jewelers . . . etc. Anywho, amazing art. Amazing. And such a sweet sweet girl (I’m saying girl not to be offensive, no not at all, just to point out that she’s a sweet young lady who has a great artistic future ahead of her).

As I was saying though- I’ve learned. I’ve learned that:

- having a wide array of prices ($1-$80) was definitely on my side in a troubled economy
- having tiny little cutesy buttons was beneficial when children were walking around and dragging their parents by their sleeves to my booth
- a cash apron might work better than a cash box, perhaps
- no one wants to pull a book of a shelf for fear of breaking it- thus, the shelves are gone and I have to find a new way to display said items
- even though they are books, and are durable and beg to me picked up and flipped through, people REALLY don’t want to; they’d rather touch every single knitted item you’ve made, move it around, and put it back, before even touching a book- which I find odd- but I’m a book Lover that picks up and touches every book in her sight. Interesting.
- bring food and water when your husband has to go home with the baby for the majority of your day
- buy a stool or a high chair to sit on because standing for 6 hours straight is something more akin to work, and this is simply Fun:)
- be thankful- because boy am I; I went in just wanting to make back what I spent on being in the show ($40) and I came out having ‘profited’ about $200, which is nice . . . very nice

In Retrospect

Yesterday I spent the majority of my afternoon selling (standing) at the Bloomington Handmade Market at the Waldron, and let me tell you, it was great. It was my first ever art fair/festival/market and I’m sure people are tired of hearing that it was my first ever event, but man, I was nervous. I’d been planning/creating for weeks, what felt like months, and with a little one by my side, it wasn’t so easy. By the time the Market finally arrived I’d managed to get 130 (yes, one-hundred-AND-thirty) items completed- can you say overkill? And the week before my ultimate goal was simply to photograph what I’d made, so I’d have some sort of documentation that, yes, I did make one of those one time, but instead I focused on how the heck I was going to display all those 130 items on a 6 foot table.

And I’ve learned. Boy have I learned. I mean, it’s not like it was a harrowing learning experience- no, not at all. I met some really superbly nice people yesterday, people that essentially are my competition in a way, but people that were nonetheless not only polite and cordial, but friendly toward me in a way that when I’d walked in the door yesterday I was afraid I wasn’t going to find. Just because I’d like to leave this entry mostly on the positive side, I’ll just say there were a few people/vendors around and about that were none too nice, that were ‘better’ than those that surrounded them (me) and made sure you knew it. But, you know what, meeting those nice people that surrounded me really overshadowed the not so nice ones. We’ll leave it at that, and instead focus on the amazing artists I met while out and about.

First and foremost, Megan Winn of The Binding Bee creates amazing handmade books (see, my competition) that are beautiful and well-made and something I really aspire to be. It’s kind of funny (I think) that I’m promoting another book-maker here, but, that’s what this is all about- helping each other out, and pointing out when people are perhaps better, definitely different, than yourself. I sort of compare it to music . . . in a way. Like, for some reason I like to think that Taylor Swift has really good taste in music. I picture her listening to Cat Power and Imogen Heap while in her room, but then, when she makes her own music, it’s something much more cute and innocent. And that’s sort of how I feel about Megan’s books. I Love them. I adore them actually, and would have purchased one (or more) if I weren’t poor (I really Love books, it’s an obsession like my new obsession with cloth diapers), but I don’t myself make books like her. Not that I’m not capable, I probably could if I wanted, but they wouldn’t capture the same feel that Megan’s books do, because they are her signature, her style, not mine. And I’m kinda like Taylor Swift, and the cutesy country music with my books. Ok, that was a long drawn out way of explaining something I probably didn’t even need to explain.

I also had the pleasure of being in a booth next to Miss Kathryn Dart whose art is something I should have spoken to her longer about, but is amazing even if I didn’t allow myself to speak with her depth about it. I believe it’s called Encaustic Art and I overheard her many a time explaining how and why and the history and really, I felt like it was really impressive. I didn’t get to walk around a lot myself yesterday, but I feel as though Kathryn was one of only a few ‘artists’ in the group. Yes! we are all artists in our own right, but when I say ‘artists’ I simply mean painting, drawing, sculpture- sort of the classical kinds of arts if that makes sense. There were four of us book makers, quite a few knitters and clothiers, jewelers . . . etc. Anywho, amazing art. Amazing. And such a sweet sweet girl (I’m saying girl not to be offensive, no not at all, just to point out that she’s a sweet young lady who has a great artistic future ahead of her).

As I was saying though- I’ve learned. I’ve learned that:

- having a wide array of prices ($1-$80) was definitely on my side in a troubled economy
- having tiny little cutesy buttons was beneficial when children were walking around and dragging their parents by their sleeves to my booth
- a cash apron might work better than a cash box, perhaps
- no one wants to pull a book of a shelf for fear of breaking it- thus, the shelves are gone and I have to find a new way to display said items
- even though they are books, and are durable and beg to me picked up and flipped through, people REALLY don’t want to; they’d rather touch every single knitted item you’ve made, move it around, and put it back, before even touching a book- which I find odd- but I’m a book Lover that picks up and touches every book in her sight. Interesting.
- bring food and water when your husband has to go home with the baby for the majority of your day
- buy a stool or a high chair to sit on because standing for 6 hours straight is something more akin to work, and this is simply Fun:)
- be thankful- because boy am I; I went in just wanting to make back what I spent on being in the show ($40) and I came out having ‘profited’ about $200, which is nice . . . very nice

Mock Display

Mock Display

Originally uploaded by Conduit_Press

So, I set out yesterday to try and figure out just how I was going to display all of my items yesterday . . . this is what I came up with. Which, isn’t ‘awful’ (but not great either) but literally this is half of what I have to set out. I need better spatial ability.