supplies

On Friday, I received the supplies I ordered. It was very exciting. Here's what the box looked like when I opened it (like you really needed to see it):

Here are the contents of the box:

The smaller book kit is bigger than I thought it would be, but that's okay. The purples in the purple paper set were not as deep as I'd like, but I'm sure I can do something with it anyway. I really like the blue/green paper set. And I sure bought a lot of glue. I'm thinking that I might still need an x-acto knife and cutting mat, even for these kits, but maybe I can make do without. We'll see...

Other than opening the box, I didn't get a chance to touch these, though. (I was too busy trying to catch up on sleep.) Maybe next weekend...

a start

When I got the stuff I ordered from Niko, I said that I was hoping that it would be the start of being more creative. Of course, I had really already started getting creative earlier in the week with the making of Dora's recipe book. And, last weekend, I purposefully went to the farmers' market to do a photo shoot. So, what I'm really hoping is that I make time to be more creative.

Writing the first two posts on this blog (first published in my other blogs) was a step towards being more creative. I've really been wanting to get back to writing -- both the more casual/fun blogging and the more serious academic writing -- so it's good to be able to put something down again. This morning, I decided that if I'm going to get more creative and want to document it, then I'd need to make a new blog. I know I don't really need yet another blog since I'm pretty bad at keeping them up-to-date, but it's a psychological thing, a commitment (even if it ends up being short-lived). And anyway, the creation of a blog--with the personalization of design elements--is itself a creative act. So, here we are.

Also, this morning (actually yesterday morning, since it's now past midnight), I ordered some basic bookmaking supplies. I had been looking at them the previous night, but I didn't commit to purchasing them until this morning. I had decided that I would go with pre-cut materials for accordion books so that I wouldn't have any excuse to get started right away (well, one less excuse anyway). As with any shopping, I got very excited and carried away and wanted to get all the basic equipment for both glued and sewn books. But, as I saw how much it was costing (and on the advice of my friend), I decided to only order the materials that I would actually need.

I ordered:

• 2 sets of accordion book kits (2 different sizes) -- only includes chipboard covers and inserts
• 2 kinds of adhesives -- Yes glue and PVA
• glue brush
• awl -- I don't really need this, but I got it anyway
• bone folder
• lots of decorative papers

I still spent quite a bit of money, but I'm really excited that I've taken this step. Too bad that it might take a couple of weeks for the stuff to get here, though. Who knows if the enthusiasm will be gone by then? I hope not, though.

My goal with getting these stuff is not necessarily to get all fancy, but just to get myself started. This is why I chose to go with the kits first. Once I really get into it and especially if I find that I really have the time to do it, then I can try to get more complicated. Wish me luck!

farmers' market

Last Saturday, I decided to do a photo shoot at the farmers' market at Wilson Park in Torrance. I had gone there the previous Saturday and spent too much money. So, I thought I'd go again and kill two birds with one stone -- get some shopping done & get some photography practice.

Last May, I went on a photography holiday in the Andalucía region of Spain. It was the first time I really took manual photos. But I haven't touched the DSLR since then. Hence, the idea to do a photo shoot at the farmers' market.

I'm definitely still a newbie at it. I'd kind of forgotten what basics I learned from my holiday. And it didn't help that I was eating and shopping while trying to take photos. But at least I purposefully went and did it.

So, here are my photos from that day:

recipe book

Eudora Loh, a colleague of mine, retired after working for the library for 36 years. Last week, a week before her retirement party at our department, I somehow became in charge of creating a present for her. We had a joint retirement party (5 librarians retiring at the same time!) a few weeks back, and the organizers of that party were already giving her a memory book, which included contributions from people throughout the library. I figured we couldn't really do the same thing, especially since many people in our department already contributed to that one. I was too tired to come up with anything new and, since the idea of a recipe book was mentioned, I thought we'd go with that. But I couldn't quite let go of the memory book idea so I decided to make it a combination recipe/memory book.

I thought this was going to be simple--people would give me recipes, notes, pictures, and all I'd have to do is cut and paste. Not! Being the perfectionist that I am (well, when it comes to certain things), I had to have a template and, since I was making a book, I had to format it so there's room for the sides where it would be bound (basically making mirror templates). I also had to make the recipes look uniform. Then I had to categorize the recipes somehow and add pictures -- of the food and people.

It took me at least 25 hours to do it, but I'm really proud of how it turned out. I had really wanted to make it into an actual book with a thick cover, but I just didn't have the time (not that I really knew how to do it, either). I ended up using card stock for the covers & bound it together with ribbon. Here is the final product:


On the upper left corner of the picture is actually a binder that Dora can put the recipes in should the recipe book prove too flimsy or difficult to use as is. Here is what it looks like inside:


That's one of the recipes I contributed. I actually made that for one of our departmental parties and that's an actual photo of it.

We gave the recipe book to Dora at her dessert party on Wednesday, and I have to say that she really loved it. She said that a recipe book they had made for someone else is a staple in her kitchen, and she knows this one will be as well. Since it contains pictures of people in the department, she said that she is sure to remember us every time she uses it.

No one else had really seen what I was doing with it, but they were all quite impressed. So I'd have to say it was time well-spent. And it really got my creative juices going...

We also went creative with our banner. Instead of buying a generic banner, we decided to use the same template that I used for the recipe book and printed one letter a page. Then, we strung them together with ribbon. I got this idea from something I had seen online, but it was my friend's idea to use the template. And she printed and strung it together. Here's a picture before they were fully strung together and hung up (since there is no other picture of it by itself).


Dora also really liked the banner. In fact, she loved everything about the dessert party. What's not to love, right, especially now that she has the luxury to truly appreciate every little thing?

Postscript: I saw Dora again yesterday and gave her the book jewelries; she thought they were perfect. She also said that she read the entire recipe book, especially the notes that people wrote for her. She still loves it, of course. :)

shopping and creativity

On Thursday, I got some stuff I ordered from Niko Silvester, a friend/classmate from folklore grad school. Niko is a Renaissance woman -- she writes stories, books, and comics, binds books, makes prints, creates jewelry, does photography, etc., as well as reviews video games and gaming equipment.

Last week, I was thinking of a present to get for a colleague, who is retiring after 36 years at the UCLA Library. I happened to be wearing a book necklace I had bought from Niko a couple of years ago and got a compliment on it. Niko's book jewelries are basically very miniature hand-bound books, and I figured that book jewelry is an appropriate present for a librarian. It took me a long to decide which ones to buy, but I finally picked these:


Aren't they wonderful?

Well, since I was buying stuff, I thought I might as well order something for me, too. I have always admired Niko's works, so I bought "Liminal," a black-and-white intaglio print featuring a tree trunk and fairies (I love both!). I have to say that the pictures on her website don't do it justice. I love it--it is gorgeous! And I happen to have a frame that is perfect for it. So, I have put it in the frame and found a space for it on my bedside table.


As you can see, I have sort of created a little nature-themed vignette. In front of it are two huge grey/white conch shells that I collected on one of the uninhabited barrier islands on the Eastern shore of Virginia last summer (I went on a seashell-collecting boat excursion), as well as a Jade iron fairy.

The point of all this, aside from being very happy about my purchases, is that I am inspired to do more creative stuff. I've been feeling this a lot lately anyway, and this is just another source of inspiration. So, I am hoping that writing this post is just the beginning to the rekindling of my creative endeavors (the writing part, at least).

Postscript: I asked Niko for more info about the print, and she ended up writing an entire blog post about it. It's a detailed description of the process of creating the print with some more pictures of the print. Very interesting. Seems like a lot of work! Makes me admire it even more.