Cool Down, Rev Up

January 11th, originally uploaded by Lili's One-a-Day.

Yes, it finally cooled down! Only 69 degrees today.
So...production has been at a standstill at Roska Handmade headquarters. That means there have been no new notebooks to drool over. I'm sorry. Things have been pretty busy lately. I am a little bit tired out from my classes already, but I am really glad I'm taking them, they are both going great. I can tell I am going to learn so much in my bookmaking class, the professor is really great, she is super passionate about bookmaking; plus she is fun and goofy to boot, so the six hour class just flies by. And my design class, while not quite as exciting, is really helping the way I look at my processes, especially how and from where I draw inspiration. I am rediscovering my love for collage! So now I have all kinds of ideas swirling around in my head for new projects! The one I am most excited about is a calendar. I would love to do one because I really love calendars, they're a practical way to have a rotating display of art. Way cool. I did some searching on flickr today for inspiration and am getting really amped. I'm thinking about doing a printed one, either gocco or linoprint or some combination of those, so I can do a limited run of those, and then also doing some with original collages. Yeah, I'm being a little ambitious. But I have a tendency to do that. Man, I can't wait to get started!

mel

First Steps

I got my gocco you guys! It finally came late last week, which is so exciting. But...it is currently still in the box. Part of that is that I have had a lot of other things on my plate since it arrived and also had to deal with a small crisis the other day, which means that I haven't been doing any creating (except for some extremely satisfying knitting). Also, I am a tiny bit scared of it, but I'm sure that feeling will fade once I crack open the instruction manual and track down some of the tutorials I know are floating around out there in the interwebs. But mostly, I am, wait for it, feeling uninspired! Yes, I'm sure if you've been reading this blog for a bit, you might have heard this from me before. But I really don't have a clear plan as to what I want my first exciting project to be, besides making a little design with my web address to print in the backs of all my books. I was heartened today when I saw an easy diy photoboard project on the paper and stitch blog, super cute and super super easy. Hello, obviously what I need is an inspiration board! I can't wait to get started on my research.

mel