2018 and 52 books to make .....

I have been sitting here for an age trying to remember how to write a blog post now that I have finally found myself here ....... nearly had to 'phone a friend' but eventually I found my way.

Happy New Year to any of my fellow bloggers who still follow me and any who find their way through to 'tracemarks'.  To say I have missed my 'tribe' is an understatement but over the last couple of years it has seemed too difficult to find anything to write about, create or share.  Amongst many things I was pondering towards the end of last year, was a way to motivate myself back into the studio and I came up with the idea of a 'book a week'.  It seems manageable when I think that my commitment is really just to make a book a week - it doesn't actually mean I have to have artwork or any substance to the work.  I just have to make a book.  Of course as I have spent years and years making artist's books it is unlikely that any of the books I make will not at least try to stand up on that shelf ....

This is my first effort and it came about by thinking that I would like to make a book about thoughts for the New Year and what it could hold .... not necessarily resolutions but notes or reminders perhaps.  

And so the first of my books has been made, out of tea bags, into a simple concertina framework.  I decided that the spine would be as deep as the pages as I liked the symmetry that gave the book and that each page would actually be two separate pouches into which I could place messages to myself as the year progressed.  

Some years ago I bought three beautiful A4 sheets of tea bag paper in a favourite paper shop of mine in Paris.  It seemed almost sacrilegious to then cut up these sheets though I did and then started trying to work out what I wanted to do with the pages/pouches.

I played with the idea of using gorgeous little decked edge cards (again bought in Paris) and although I preferred the look of the teabag paper with the white inserts, I decided the book was becoming more and more complex which is really not my style at all.  In fact I am not sure that this book is actually my style but with only a a few days each week to come up with an idea and then work it to a conclusion there is not much time for all my usual deliberation.  The book had to be made.

My sewing machine blew up as I began to sew my first pouch and as such I knew that I would have to sew it all by hand.  As it turned out, I think I rather prefer the irregularity of my hand stitching.  I have only just begun sending messages to myself and the first couple that went into pouches were feathers - a reminder to me of how much I love the outdoors and how it feeds my soul to go wandering.

I played with a couple of my wooden stamps collected in London and into this pouch I hope to have a list of things I wish to accomplish this year.  This and that and that and that ........

 Into one of the other pouches though not photographed here, I wrote my word for the year which is 'nourishing'.  I hope to nourish my creative self this year and I hope to find that this restored balance within me will enable me to nourish those around me too.

I have already begun work on my book for next week - a little more like me and though I may not finish all its content in time, I will certainly have made book 2/52 by the end of next week.

Now I am back on line I will make sure I find time to wander and visit with fellow blogging friends, see all the exciting things that have been happening in the studios of your corner of the world.  Can't wait :-)