alaw 2013

Well, I'm certainly getting a late start this year for ALAW (a letter a week).  It took me awhile to settle on a format and style - after much deliberating and sketching and fussing about, I think I've settled on this.  Here are the letters I have so far, drawn with pen on bristol paper....can't decide whether to add color to them - that's a pending decision.

As of now my intention is to mount them on a spiral book ala Corrine (a scroll)...we'll see.

Twining the letters is challenging and I'm not sure I have the best solutions here.....may change some up.

ALAW book done

My second alphabet book is finally done.....a few weeks late, but, done!  Quick refresher, the brief was to make each letter of a 3x3" square and then present in a display format.  The idea is to make one letter per week, finishing the year with two completed alphabet projects.  I'm using the ALAW project as a way to reinforce and practice my lettering skills AND to begin learning bookmaking.

This second book centers around my photography (flowers) and the lettering.....  The pages are 140lb watercolor paper with colors washed randomly on the pages.

my first stitched book binding - discovered how critical it is to measure accurately for the holes!

 oops...kinda fuzzy.

multiple flower photos in each pocket; flower names starting with the letter make the background

yes, I don't have any "U" flowers - something to work on! 

There are both things I love about the book and things I would change and many things I learned for future book efforts.  I like that I fiddled and tweaked when I encountered a problem and figured out something to do without starting over.

wrapping up ALAW

I hope you've all had a simply marvelous Christmas and Boxing Day.  I hope you've found time to be with friends and/or family, people you love and who love you. I hope you've found time to be quiet and time to be joyous.  I hope you now find some time to take a deep breath, relax, and reflect on what 2013 will bring.

I had a most excellent Christmas - our boys came over, stayed the night and we played games, drank and ate, played some more games, talked and put our feet up and talked some more - oh yeah, and played some more games and ate and drank some more......did I mention we love games of all types?  It was one of my favorite Christmases ever!  Here's my family on Christmas morning:

I have found some time to be creative - a moment here and there.  I've been working on my ALAW (a letter a week) project, my second alphabet.  Here's the last of the letters I've written on my pockets (these haven't been cut apart and folded yet).  Then I'm adding photos that I've taken of flowers beginning with each letter to fill the pockets.  Next step is to figure out the book format I want to tackle.

I certainly like how some of these letters turned out more than others - even after practicing a whole page of each before moving to the pocket - the texture of the paper is different and the pen reacts differently, but I didn't have enough of the pocket paper to practice on it.....so I figured it out. 

Here's a few of the flower photos that will go in the pockets - they are 5x2.25"

Hopefully I'll get the book started in the next few days.....Now it's time to turn my mind to what I want to tackle for my first alphabet in 2013.....hmmm.....

ALAW

Fiona, the hostess of A Letter A Week, is putting out a call to everyone to test the waters for people interested in participating next year.  By creating a letter a week, you end up with two completed alphabets over the course of the year - will they be in book form, hanging from a branch, a suncatcher, a quilt or framed for your wall?   Use your own skills/interests to pursue what interests you.

This year was the third year and my first in participating.  It's a very low key ongoing project filled with some creative ways to make/illustrate/create the alphabet.  Fiona provides a landing place to share your project and progress but with no weekly check ins or anything....you're on your own!

If the idea appeals to you, be sure to visit her site and read about it then let her know you're interested.

You may remember my first alphabet of Zentangled tiles assembled in an accordion book kept in a box.  My second (still in progress) alphabet combines my love of photography and my attempt at hand lettering and will also be in some sort of book form.  I'll be continuing whether Fiona hosts or not because I find it interesting to find ways to make an alphabet interesting and I've only begun to explore my many ideas.

How about you?  Interested?  Try it; you'll like it!

ALAW catch up

I haven't worked on my second ALAW alphabet in a while so played a little catch up while I was on vacation.  Most of this one is computer work at this point so I printed out the background for all the letters (flowers beginning with each letter in a faded script), found and cropped the flower images before we left and hand lettered the alpha using my parallel pen while vacationing.

As a reminder, the brief for this project is to create alpha letters in a 3"x3" format and then mount/display them artistically.  My alpha pockets are 3x3 and create a little pouch, then I'm using my own photos of flowers to illustrate each letter.  Originally I was going to do one flower per letter but I have so many pretty flower pics that I'm going to use multiples (though I won't take up your time to show them all).

E:

echinacea

F:

fuchsia

forsythia

G:

geranium

goldenrod

H:

hyacinth

hellebore

I:

iris

J:

jasmine

My idea is that these will end up in a handmade book and it will be interactive because you can pull the photos out of each alpha pocket.  It will look something like this:

If you want to join in or just see how creative other folks are, please visit the site - one of the coolest thing is that you can make the alpha however you want: paint, collage, wood, fabric, beads, etc.  

second alphabet

An ongoing project is my ALAW (a letter a week) so at the end of the year I'll have two alphabets completed - I made the first alphabet into an accordion book (you can see it here).  This time I wanted to incorporate my photography as well as make a little more complicated book.

I decided on flowers as my theme since I have tons of flower pictures I've taken over the years.  My idea is to make a pocket featuring the letter of the alphabet (in the prescribed 3x3" format) and then tuck my photos of flowers starting with that letter inside the pocket.  The lettering in the background is computer generated and is a list of flowers beginning with the letter drawn.  I did a ton of research trying to find as many for each letter as I could.  (for example, the background text for the A is agapanthus, anthurium, aster, astilbe, acacia, alstromeria, acanthus, amaranthus, anemone, allium, amaryllis.  I won't have photos of all those, but of more than one!

lettering done with a parallel pen - still learning how to use it evenly

Then came the hard part of selecting which flower starting with "D" I was going to use.  I decided not to limit myself so redesigned the pockets with gussets so they could hold multiple photos.  I found this bit of leftover paper that is perfect but I don't have a lot of it so if I mess up writing a letter I don't have room for many corrections so I think I'll wait til I draw them all then go back and redo my least favorites.  Or, maybe I'll just go look for another paper :)

agapanthus and astilbe, photo size 2.5" x 5" to fit inside the 3" pockets

bird of paradise

clematis

dahlia and daffodils

Now that I've settled on a plan, I'm off and running - I've made a list of the letters I don't have a flower to go with and so now I'll be on the hunt as we go on vacation next week.  I need to fill in those holes!

They'll look something like this .....

I'm also sharing this post with Artists in Blogland.  It's a great site to share what you've been up to creatively....I usually forget to add my post, but lots of people participate so it's worth a visit.

THIS SOUNDS LIKE FUN

I came across this in my blog reading today and thought I'd share in case any of you want to join in.  Donna Downey (Simply Me) put out an international call to help her decorate her new studio space and it sounds like SO much fun!  She wants any and all takers to decorate a paintbrush that will then adorn the walls of her public restrooms.  Simple or elaborate, the style is up to you.  You can read more here.

    

These images are from her site - one on the left done by Julie Fei Fen Balzer and on right by Donna. (she could have put it in Jenn's turquoise and lime challenge this week!).  So if the idea of having an embellished paintbrush along with a card proclaiming your info hanging in the restroom gallery of Donna's studio appeals to you, visit her site for all the details.  Fun!