Book bindings

For the theme of books, I focused on just the various ways of binding them, in a simple isometric view.



For the first time, my design actually made it into the "roundup" image for the vote opening announcement blog post! I don't think it made any difference to the voting, but cool anyway.

This did pretty well in the contest, making it into the top quarter of entries. My favorite was this one.

Interconnected Artists

The second issue of Illo magazine finally arrived! I am pretty jazzed. I learned something really interesting - James Gurney, the Dinotopia guy, was college roomates with the infamous Thomas Kincade, "Painter of Light." Even better, they worked together painting backgrounds for a Frank Frazetta-produced animated film. Frazetta is basically the guy who invented fantasy art as we know it, with muscly men, volumptuous ladies, and raging monsters, all naked or nearly so. To top it off, the film was directed by Ralph Bakshi, known to me as the guy who also directed an animated version of The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings. I have fond childhood memories of watching this, which I've been informed by my brother I am completely incorrect to have, so I'm thinking I'd rather not see it again so I can continue to enjoy the memories.

The film in question was called Fire and Ice, and it sounds terrible.

An Amazing Life

For my bedtime reading lately, I've been reading On Architecture: Collected Reflections on a Century of Change, a collection of essays on architecture that my dad gave to me a while back. I've always had an interest in architecture - I even wanted to be an architect when I was a kid. I like to look at random buildings and imagine what it would be like to repurpose them, usually as houses. What if you converted that strip mall to apartments? Or that office building? These essays, by Ada Louise Huxtable, are mostly reviews of buildings (such as museums & corporate headquarters). I wish there were more pictures to go with what she's describing, but it's still fascinating to read critiques of structures. One of the architects who comes up frequently is Mies van der Rohe, who is basically the guy who came up with what we consider now to be the default corporate skyscraper - a giant glass-covered rectangular prism. One of the articles happened to mention that he lived from 1886 until 1969. What an incredible time to live - can you imagine if your living memory covered from a time before cars & planes and only a rudimentary electrical infrastructure, up to the development of computers and the landing on the moon? (Not to mention all the world-changing global conflicts in that span) We study all those things in history and know the dates, but it's still pretty incredible to think that they all really did happen in close enough sequence for someone to have lived through them all.

Birthday Crafts

I got another craft book for my birthday this year (some months back): Patchwork Puzzle Balls by Jinny Beyer. I love Jinny Beyer's style - she does cleaner, more modern takes on traditional styles with an emphasis on color gradients. Her quilts use so many different fabrics that it's a little exhausting to think of. These balls are neat, because I always thought geometry was fun, and these are just geometic solids, stuffed tight until they become spheres. The trouble with projects like these, that are so easy to work up, is...what do you do with them? I'm not the type of person who likes having "decor" touches, like bowls of decorative things out just to look nice. I was thinking it would be fun to stuff these with beans or rice instead and use them as beanbags. One of my favorite toys as a kid was a set of beanbags my mom made out of fabric scraps - all kinds of calico and fun early-80's prints. Even so, I suppose I would have to take up juggling to get any use of out such a thing now. Hmm, maybe I could sew little bells in and give them to my mom as toys for her cats...

A Successful Holiday Season

I am back home tonight after a week of visiting family for Christmas and Chanukah. I didn't manage to give any truly handmade presents this year. However, I did give a few somewhat crafty things - my sister-in-law got a gift certificate to Spoonflower, and I gave my uncle some postage stamps from Zazzle with an image I drew myself:

I've really been wanting to try Spoonflower, but haven't come up with a really thrilling idea for a custom print yet - so let's see if I come up with something before my sister-in-law does!

As far as GETTING crafty presents, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law (from Mr. Moxie's side) gave me some craft books from Kumiko Sudo I've been really wanting to get: East Quilts West, Fantasies & Flowers: Origami in Fabric for Quilters, and Folded Flowers: Fabric Origami with a Twist of Silk Ribbon. I love love love Kumiko Sudo. Really neat graphic designs, combined with 3D elements, combined with cool color combinations. Sadly, I haven't had a chance to actually make any of the projects out of any of her books, but perhaps 2009 will finally be my year. :) I would love to make a soft "book" out of a sequence of her designs, especially the ones in Folded Flowers, but I don't know any little girls of the right age to give that as a gift.

They also got me Threadbared: Decades of Don'ts from the Sewing and Crafting World, a book published by the people behind the hilarious, and sadly defunct, Threadbared website.

And finally, they gave me Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking, a bread cooking book I've heard good things about.

Overall, quite satisfying!