Sunday, June 7, 2009

It's good to finish something! - Part two

Ah, the piano hinge book. I love this book. The Tyvek paper has the sexiest hand feel and the hinge construction, while persnickety, was fairly straightforward once you understood how it all fit together.

I had no idea how I would finish this since - and you'll pardon the pun - the landscapes we did were so alien.

So it sat on my studio table until I was inspired by an article I read in a science magazine about Saturn's moons and in particular, Enceladus.






For those science geeks out there, here's the brief summary I came up with for the back flap:

Saturn's rings just may hold the mystery of life in the outer regions of our solar system, and some the tiniest voyagers capture the imagination.

Enceladus, one of Saturn's smallest moons at only 300 miles in diameter is a shimmering jewel reflecting almost all of the sunlight that hits it. And it's an active beauty with geysers and plumes erupting. Asrtobiologists believe these are caused by liquid water below the surface.

Along with geologic activity and the presence of water, it is believed that life forms may be present. Not oxygen supported life, but the types of organisms, or extremophiles, that may thrive on energy sources like radioactive decay - similar to life forms that have been found deep inside our planet.




It's good to finish something! - Part one

A couple of weekends ago, I had the good fortune to join my two sisters and Pam when we participated in a bookmaking and painting workshop at Whispering Woodlands. Led by one of my favorite teachers, Jill Berry. I knew not only would it be packed with activity, I'd come away inspired to create new things as well as finish what we started during the class!

Here's the first thing we made... a dream book box.
The construction and painting were finished during the class, but the the little story came later, after I got home.
It's more of a made up fable.
During the class, I just painted what came to mind, figuring the story would come later.

And it did.

Long ago the sun refused to behave. It liked to glow in hues of orange and pink and purple.

At night it really acted up, glowing bright and blue - mostly to spite the moon but mostly because it could!

But one day a large snake came along and charmed the sun and ever since the unruly sun kept its blues very well contained.

To be continued...