An Update

Long time, no see, blog world! With a {somewhat} recent change in jobs and other life changes, I have been kept quite busy and, unfortunately, away from the computer.

Here's an update of some of the things I've been up to since my last post:

Still on a repurposing craze after the cereal box books I made for Craftcation, I created a new journal made from 6-pack containers; 

 

I was lucky enough to be a vendor at the spring Patchwork Oakland where neon sprinkles studio debuted a new display set-up and a new sign;

I taught a few more sessions of Introduction to Bookbinding at the San Francisco Center for the Book;

After class, I turned some of the scraps from our books into mini accordion books.

I moved. This photo was taken right after the move, I haven't had much time for unpacking so it's still pretty accurate...

 I decided I was tired of my mousy brown hair and had a little fun with hair dye;

I started working on hand-drawn patterns for some new products and a class that I will hopefully debut this fall;

And I took my first ever trip to a Russian grocery store. I couldn't read the packing but I could admire it.

Lately

Things have been quiet on the blog because I've been quite busy in the real world. 

At the end of April I taught a session of Introduction to Bookbinding at the San Francisco Center for the Book. I say this after every class but, April's workshop was the best one yet! One of the things I really enjoy about teaching bookmaking is that it's such a universal object form that everyone can understand (even the e-reader folks). In this particular workshop I had the pleasure to teach bankers, lawyers, art students, and even a database manager!

A few days after the workshop I was back at the San Francisco Center for the Book for an evening of simple bookmaking demos at the grand (re)opening (a big open house celebrating the move to a bigger and better building). 

I spent the night teaching visitors how to make maze, or meander, books. These are fun, simple structures made out of a single sheet of paper. I like them because they can open in any direction and have all these secret little spots to discover and they can also be flattened to view a single image all at once, instead of page by page (like this one, made out of a photocopied map of Michigan). 

Just some of the happy folks with their aMAZEing books!

Not sure if I remembered to mention it but, on Mother's Day, I will be a vendor at Patchwork Oakland! It will be the first time I have an entire booth space to myself and I couldn't be more excited. I've made some new products for the show (just wait until tomorrow's post) and Charlie even built me a folding wall to ramp up my display.

I've been working hard to get the word out about the show (I hope you'll stop by!) and one way I decided to invite folks was by seinding out customized event postcards. 

With scrap paper, washi tape, scissors, a hole punch, and some kitchen twine to tie it all together (craft pun alert!) I made these fun little invites. I have a few left over, if you'd like one of your very own, let me know!