As you know, I spent the month of February doing a paper weaving every single day. During that month, I heard about a German paper weaving tool that school children in Germany use. I eventually ordered this German weaving tool, but I was reluctant to order it for a long time because the tool is $6.95 and the shipping is $7.50. That said, I'm so glad that I did. It's a total game changer. It comes with no instructions because it's pretty intuitive to use. It's like a long skinny pair of reverse-grip tweezers. I think of it like a... Read more →

Here is the first of what I assume will be many, many, many mixed media collages made from my gelatin printed striped papers. I put together a short process video: Monthly members have access the the real-time (about 30 minutes) version of this video. As you can see in the video, I used Matte Medium to adhere the papers together and I didn't use a substrate of any kind. This has positives and negatives. On the positive side, you can make your collage any size. It's also really nice and lightweight because it's just copy paper. On the negative side,... Read more →

During February, I participated in "Weave Through Winter," a project led by Helen Hiebert. The challenge was to create a paper weaving every single day in February. Here are my previous posts about this challenge: Days 1-6 Days 7-14 Days 15-25 For the final 3 days, I wanted to think about how I might integrate weaving into my regular artistic practice. I figured it would be a good fit with bookbinding, which I do a lot of, so I made a few books with woven elements. Take a peek: This is a woven concertina. It's nice in the photo, but... Read more →

I'm currently participating in "Weave Through Winter," a project led by Helen Hiebert. The idea is to create a paper weaving every single day in February. Here's what I've made so far: Days 1-6 Days 7-14 And now, days 15-25! This leaf is woven into an existing journal page - you can see the front and the back here: The entire process of this weaving is available to members to watch in real time: This weaving was painted AFTER weaving and you can see a bit of that process HERE. This weaving is by far my favorite -- it also... Read more →

As you know, I'm currently creating a paper weaving every day this month for Weave Through Winter, the brainchild of Helen Hiebert. Several people have asked me for paper weaving instructions. I'm still a super beginner and learning as I go. But I thought you might enjoy a paper weaving process video: This two-minute video represents about an hour in real life. If you'd like to watch the real time version, monthly members can find it in the online classroom. Thanks for stopping by! Read more →

I'm currently participating in "Weave Through Winter," a project led by Helen Hiebert. The idea is to create a paper weaving every single day in February. Here's what I've made so far: Days 1-6 And now, days 7-14: As you can see, my weavings are all over the place. Different sizes, different formats, different styles, different everything! Last week I talked about being in the technical phase of learning. Right now, I'm in the experimental phase of learning where I'm simply trying everything I can think of to see what works and what doesn't. As a side note, learning phases... Read more →

I'm currently participating in "Weave Through Winter," a project led by Helen Hiebert. The idea is to create a paper weaving every single day in February. There are prompts, but I'm ignoring them. As a total paper weaving newbie, I need to focus on simply getting a weaving done every day. Here's what I've made so far: Looking at these photos I can see that I'm in the technical phase of learning. It's the phase when you're trying to master the precision -- the technical aspects -- of a skill or idea. For most people, the technical phase of learning... Read more →

Today is my birthday! I'm just a little bit older than I was in this birthday photo. (And 5-6 years older than my Mom was in this photo!) And now I must confess an awful truth: I don't really like cake. I like the look of a cake and I love the look of a cupcake. But I'd much rather simply eat ice cream or a cookie and call it a day. Nevertheless, like I said, I do like the look of cupcakes and there's a certain two-year-old living in my house who can demolish a cupcake in no time... Read more →

Is it too late to share some Christmas-ish photos?! I hope not, because I'm going to do it anyway. Is this like wearing white after Labor Day? No longer taboo? First up, this is the gingerbread house that my Mom, my son, and I made: Making projects with him I am always yelling at myself in my head: DON'T TRY TO CONTROL THE PROCESS. LET IT BE WHAT IT IS. Most of the time, I manage to roll with whatever he wants to do. And in the end, it's always lots of fun and nothing that I expected. And now... Read more →

If you're like me, you love to make hand made cards, but you hate that people throw them away. Well, I figured out a solution that makes the card both a card and a gift: In essentials, all I did was cut some slits into the front of my card and slide the artwork in. It's quick and easy. When I posted this video on social media yesterday, I got a few questions about how to cut the slits, so I put together a quick tutorial: What do you think? Is this an idea that you'd try out? Thanks for... Read more →