More string

The String project went around and around in my head as I tried to fall asleep last night. Artist books! One at a time.

I just can't make the same thing over and over. Whether it's cards or Christmas ornaments or whatever, I tend to work in series. I try an idea, improve it, develop variations. At some point, the idea has run its course and I'm done. Once in a while, I think of a new take on an idea that already has died, and I revive it and repeat the process. But whenever we have a YaYa card exchange, I struggle. I really do try to make 10 or 12 of the same card to share with my sisters, but I never pull it off. Mine always end up being a series rather than an edition.

When it comes to making this book, maybe that tendency is a strength. I'm thinking I can print the poem on some kind of sturdy paper--canvas paper or watercolor paper, maybe--one stanza per page. And then I can hand-embellish each page with paints and inks and stamps and found objects. And on the publisher's page, along with my contact information, I can put some kind of note that this is a unique handmade book.

Stacie sent me a link, the other day, to a Tim Holtz video demo of a new product--grungeboard. WoooHOOOO. Can't wait to get my hands on this stuff. I found some on eBay yesterday and ordered it, along with some of Tim's new one-step crackle paints. I'm thinking his grungeboard hinges would make fine embellishments for my handmade books.

I got so excited thinking about all this that I dug out the poem and read it for the first time in several years. Uh-oh. It needs some fixes. There's one part, in particular, that has been rewritten a dozen times and still is not right. I need to decide whether to start fresh--write a new, replacement stanza--or just delete it.

I'm still in the middle of making Christmas ornaments, but my head is totally in this new project. That's the way it always goes, isn't it. My brain is always at least one project ahead of my hands, hurrying me to get on with things. So many new things to try, so few decades left in my life.

Kimberly and Lisa, thank you so much for the positive feedback on this idea. Y'all will no doubt end up the recipients of my prototypes. No good deed goes unpunished.