Projects to Go

Today I spent nine hours on the road headed to Baltimore, Maryland to see my youngest son for the first time since his move in January. When riding anyplace over a couple hours I always plan a couple of projects to take along to keep my hands and mind busy so the ride goes quicker. This time I brought my tiny books, Viking knit and ruler sections that need to be foiled. Learning what works for travel has been quite a trial with a whole lot of error. I have found that plastic pencil cases work great for travel projects, they lay flat when open and the lid ends up as a usable work space. The best part about these boxes is they are on sale everywhere for as little as fifty cents just before starts I the fall.

I spent a couple days last summer cutting and stitching buttons on covers so they would be ready for the guts. Today I was able to tear and ready 40 book insides, this is an extremely tedious job that is great for in the car. I simply take the thick cardboard that comes as a backboard for the paper I like and use it as a little work table in my lap. With all that done and tucked away into my travel box I can now pull these parts out and quickly stitch the little books together.

This is what my little book project box looks like.

Little Metal Books

Someone asked how I would put my little metal books into a necklace and I finally remembered to take some photos today.  I hope you like them.

Little metal book necklace $68.00

Handmade soldered links

Stamped metal cover

Little Metal Books

I have some new little books to show off, I plan on turning them in to necklaces this week.  I have a show this Friday at the West Michigan Glass Society in Kalamazoo in the Parks Trade building from 5-9 and then another one on Saturday from 9-3 across the street from my home at the Pennfield Middle School.

I have spent some time this past week  tweaking my booth set up, are these things ever done?

Here are the photos of my little books they measure 1.25"x1.50".  Photos of necklace books will be up soon.

Little Metal Cover Books with Eyelet and Leather accents.

Miniature Metal Cover Books $25.00 book on necklace$ 55.00

Photo Friday

I am going to start something new, every Friday I plan on posting some of the items I have been working on for the week.  No chat just photos :)

Tiny etched copper journal necklace, I am still looking for tiny pencils.

A different version of my bird in nest jewelry

All in a days work

Seems like I can never do things in a small way...

Here are 146 itty bitty book covers all drawn on and cut out in a day.  My thumb is numb and my hand is cramping but I got it done.  If I have covers it's easy to take this little project with me when I go places and put them together as I get time.  What projects do you travel with?

Just a few book covers

The word of the day is GUTS

 Today I am going to talk about guts.  I was making the guts to my itty bitty books today and got to thinking about how often it has taken a whole lot of guts to make the decisions that have changed my life for the better. It took a whole lot of guts to walk out of a marriage that didn't work without the support of my family.  It took a leap of faith and guts to purchase my first house, what made me think I could do it?  Guts. When Dave asked me to marry him and it took guts and a huge leap of faith to try the whole marriage thing again and when I quit teaching sewing because I was burnt out and went back to working with kids well that was just crazy.  It has been just under a year since I got up the guts to quit my job at the eye doc's and take up making jewelry making full time.  Dave is always telling me to trust my gut feeling and I have to say that it has lead me to some very good places in my life, I'm enjoying what I'm doing and am always thankful and maybe a bit amazed that people love my pieces enough to purchase them.

I spent today running up to Grand Rapids so I could visit the Tandy Leather Company and got some really great scraps of leather.  It's an hour drive to GR from Battle Creek and I hate making the trip but it is so much more expensive to order leather and they I would have so much leather that I could make enough for every citizen in the state of Michigan.  On my way to Tandy I stopped at my favorite book store, Schedulers and walked out without a single book.  It is a sad sad day when there isn't a book I need in the entire store!  Trust me I looked hard but for the first time ever I just wasn't in the book buying mood maybe I had a fever?

Now for the fun photos...

Some of the new colors of leather I got for book covers,  Personally I prefer the muted colors but I got asked for brighter colors from the kids so here they are

Here are the 36 sets of book guts, I hope to get them stitched together tomorrow.

 

These are the books once they have taken a bath in the coffee and dried.

I love cooler days.

My show partner Sandra and I do a whole lot of out door shows during the summer and I can truly say that I hate the heat.  Anything over 80 degrees makes me wish for spring or fall whatever is closer.  I have always loved the seasons, 3 of them are great but honestly I could totally do without summer and it's 98 degree days.  This summer at our Fort Wayne Show I actually stuck my feet into my cooler to try and get some relief from the hot sticky weather.  You tell yourself that the heat isn't so bad it's not raining but we had one show this season with a bit of rain and the folks seemed to be happy to shop even though it was a bit damp because the rain brought the temps down.

This Saturday and Sunday will be our last outdoor show and it looks like the temps will be in the 70's Yeah!  The show is in Marshal right down town but I'm not sure where we will be located yet.  Anyplace off the blacktop would be great :)

Here is a photo of my biggest money maker at the last show.  I make these tiny books all from scratch starting by tearing the paper to size, right down to stitching them together.  They measure just over an inch tall and the kids at the show just couldn't keep their hands off them.

No couch was harmed in the making of these little books.  Scrap leather is used and they come in many colors.

Each book has it's own unique chain and dangles.

 The links on this book are made out of fused copper and shaped into hearts.  The buttons from my grandmother's collection and of course the beads are hand made by me.