Under Construction

Inspiration: Old books

I made this birdhouse a few years ago for my mom.

I still really like this project.

I have been thinking for the past month or so how much I enjoy using cast off books as a medium for other projects.  Like book clocks. This one (from an old copy of Horton Hatches an Egg) was my favorite. I may be the only one but I kinda like the embroidered book pages I've been working on.

I've started a list of projects that could be made using books as the primary (only?) material. I'm kinda excited about it. Who knows, maybe I'll burn out on the idea before it goes anywhere but I could imagine creating a whole line of work to sell online or at a show. If I think big I could even imagine a small gallery installation (where I would have to pretend to be an artist). 

As with everything, this is not an entirely original concept. I've seen a lot of work along the lines of this piece on Etsy

But I haven't found anything as amazing as these INCREDIBLE sculptures. This is one link you should really follow. Enjoy

Finally, here's some info about altered books

P.S. Photos in this post are by my dad. Thanks, dad.
P.P.S. YouTube is down tonight so videos tomorrow(not that you're losing sleep over this or anything)

Inspiration: Soft stones

I really like UNIFORM Studio Blog because she talks a lot about the inspiration for the pieces she makes and the process she goes through in creating her clothes. I think it would be fun to keep a log of what is inspiring or interesting to me (I realize this may not be at all interesting to you--sorry!). Also, I think it will be fun if I do make something to have a link to the source of inspiration.

Over the holidays I got into wet felting roving into balls. It started with a purchase from Wool Handcrafts. Then I went to the local yarn/wool store and ended up with $15 worth of roving (credit card minimum charge--$15 will buy a lot of roving).  After making all the Christmas ornaments and balls and felting kits I still had boatloads of wool.

When I saw this photo (via Design Sponge) (please follow that photo link, it's not even that exciting but took me a seriously long time to find again) I realized I wanted to make a bowl full of brightly colored wool "stones."

Tonight I finally got around to it:


I think they'll be a fun, toddler-friendly table decoration in a wood bowl (or maybe a felt bowl if I really get my act together).  They're all slightly different roundish shapes from about the size of a tiny tangerine to the size of a potato from the cheap 5# bag of potatoes (a smallish potato).

This was a fun evening project--I recommend it.