A Creative Moment

One of the best things about teaching is the push it gives you to be fresh and new in what you are doing. (The absolute best thing about teaching is the work students accomplish – so many wonderful ideas that I would never have time to do myself or – would have thought of!)

I’m offering a jump-start-your-creativity class in Michigan soon, along with the previously mentioned bookmaking class.  Well, one thing leads to another….

My class handouts and supplies for the creativity class have turned into a book! The ‘covers’ are thick plastic pencil cases with zip closures like food baggies. They come with holes for fitting into a binder, so it is ready to bind. The pockets will hold colored ink pens/pencils, drawing paper,  my mini notebook of tips and suggestions, and a few other quirky things; blank sheets of white and neon papers will be bound with the covers for a blank journal.

It’s been fun coming up with a different approach to a kit and handouts. I know, it wasn’t really necessary, but since I was going to give them creative stuff anyway… and would probably have used a baggie to hold it all together… and the class IS about creativity after all…

No picture. You’ll just have to visualize – and create your own image of what I’m doing!

Books and Bugs

Thought I’d share some of the results of my bookbinding work the other day. The cover stock is a pile of cardboard from cereal boxes – two pieces glued together works pretty well. Now on to making up kits for an upcoming workshop.

The large grapevine pieces I did last November have been sitting on the deck since their birth. Lately they’ve been moved around a bit to accommodate deck activities – mainly re-staining. Just this morning I moved the big one again and, to my dismay, found very fresh signs of powder post beetle activity.

Drat!

The piece is waaay too big to try to get rid of the beetles, so it has now become an outdoor sculpture on the edge of the woods in the back yard. Maybe it will get moved to a more visible spot … or… my love has been talking about making a trail through our woods – it might become a thing of interest on the trail. It will likely last at least a year or two since the vines are so thick, but it definitely won’t be going to Indianapolis later this summer.