Computron

It's getting toward the end of winter, the end of the school year, and the end of my student loan. A few large purchases need to be made (silicone, a website, business cards...), repayment plans need to be formulated, and I need to make sure I've got enough to help me out when I move! 


And my computer's dying. 


It's tragic. I've had the HP dv2000 for four years. It hasn't been the smoothest of relationships (the great Motherboard disaster of 2009 put a two month hiatus on the lovefest), but we've grown quite close over the years. I feel the end drawing near, though: it's getting old. The battery won't stay charged for more than 30 minutes. It's heavy. It's sluggish. The fan's loud. And they keys are so full of cat fur it amazes me they still work. 


I've been looking at iPads. They're beautiful and small and within my price range. The bubble was burst about half an hour ago when I realized any significant word processing would be hampered by the 'Pad. I am sad. 


Next best thing is a macbook. A thousand dollars is a lot of money though, and I'm going to have to do some serious number crunching to find the cash. 

Define Your Terms

Over the weekend (and again on Thursday) I had a fabulous meeting with my mentor, WhiteFeather Hunter. I had been stuck on a couple of pieces, Alain and Helene, and the books were lacking. Long story short, she was able to look at the pieces with fresh eyes, and those big mental blocks are dissolving. 

Photo by Carol Collicutt 

Waxing Prose

The third book in the series (shown here) has waxed pages. I've felt internal resistance to making these books at various points during the process, and this one was no exception. 

These books are an integral part of my healing process, as well as being a symbol of the synthesis of ideas occurring when two artists collaborate. Frog, in various aboriginal mythologies, teaches us to speak out. Pine (oh, where did I read this?) is a picture of robust health, far sight, and deep roots. Keeping these things in mind, I made the three books: confrontation and forgiveness, cleansing and renewal, and the healing of scars. 

The Luthier's Apron

After much hemming and hawing and doodling and dyeing, I've started work on the luthier's apron. This is half of a costume I'm making for the Advanced Felting course, and the character is from the fairy tale, the Two Sisters. 

Unlimited Control

Here's the deal: I'm in the process of prettying up this blog while I'm putting together a website. I know exactly what I want, and that poses a problem, because I can't find what I want. 


I downloaded an alternative template for this blog, but it needed a few tweaks. I'm a little proud of the html-wrangling I did to fix the errors. Mind you it was a minor problem and found instructions in the help forum, but a victory is a victory. The next thing I've noticed is the list of folks I follow is missing. I suspect it's the same problem I had with the navbar, but can't figure out where in the code it is. 

You Speak With Such Reverence

A massive portion of this semester is dedicated to this project, You Speak With Such Reverence. I'm collecting stories from anyone (hey, you've got stories, right?) that deal with the marks love leaves on us, whether it be physical or emotional, positive or negative. 

Nearly Finished!

Ta da! Nearly finished book! I'm so pleased. Cracking it open for the first time was a treat :)

However, I'm not happy with the interior. The pages are too bland, the colors too simple. It would take a long time to fill it with words, and I don't think my own musings would be appropriate for the collection as a whole. 


What am I going to do? Burn and rebuild.

The Next Step

It's been a little while since I posted (oh, shame on me!), so here's an update on the book's progress:

This is a photo of the book block and covers, right after I finished stitching on the spine. After doing that, i aligned the block inside the covers, put those loose cords through the front of covers (through the holes) and pasted them down on the inside.

The next few steps follow quickly, as you don't want to glue your book shut or mess up your papers. After the cords have been inserted and pasted down, add the leather, end papers, tie it up to enhance the spine ridges, and let it dry! 

This book's been a huge learning experience, as I was going on incomplete instructions and vague memories.