After my last post, my best friend and loyal blog reader told me she could sense the urgency with which I am wanting to find a letterpress of my own, so I won’t delve into the details of my antsiness any more right now…but I am still looking!
This week was a little busier than recent weeks, with plenty of enticing distractions going on outside of my usual busy-ness with books and printing. My parents were here last weekend and we loaded up on art, music, and theatre during the course of the mere 2 1/2 days we had them. Between MoMA, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Kathy Caraccio’s studio, Gypsy, and the US premiere of John Tavener’s newest mass, it took the balance of the week to really recover and feel like we were back in the swing of things. I do have that custom guest book just about done (just needs ribbon!), and enjoyed the sweet and entirely complimentary surprise of a mention on the absolutely engrossing blog of its soon-to-be owner!
In the meantime, I’m about to replenish some supplies, as I’ve nearly run out of book board (for covers) and printmaking/book papers (for pages), and am thinking of adding a few new thread colors to the mix as well, and also experimenting more with found papers and fragments for book covers. I’ve really enjoyed the journals whose covers are made from ads in 1920s dental and orthodontic journals, and I’d love to find some other old texts, as well as using the bags and boxes of various papers (receipts, programs, envelopes) stashed around here.
Lately, though, I have to say that my biggest focus is not only getting my work done, but maintaining as much of a sense of balance and calm as I can, while kicking around far too many ideas for my own head to handle; designs I can’t wait to get to, contacts I can’t wait to make, and printing/binding combinations to last me through the next several years. In the middle of all the pressure I put on myself to do more, learn more, and constantly create new ideas and new pieces, I’m also remembering - every once in a while - to breathe and look around.