A Notebook For My Morning Pages

 

So something a bit different this post (meaning it's not about glass!).

A lot of people will have heard of the book The Artist's Way. (this is an affiliate link - if you buy it I will get a tiny sum.  You can see my whole bookshop here.)

 

I’ve been aware of it for years, but I’ve finally decided to follow the 12 week programme.

Part of the programme is writing morning pages.  3 pages of stream of consciousness at the beginning of your day, to get all the rubbish out of your head and give you a fresh start.

 

 

Again I’ve heard lots about morning pages but never had a go before.

 

So to show my commitment to the programme and my morning pages I made myself a notebook to write them in.

 

I haven’t done any bookbinding for so long!  

 

 

And while it did take me a second to remember how to stitch the signatures together, everything else felt easy.  And all my kit was where I expected it to be too!  Bonus.

 

I thought I was going to cover it with yellow paper, but changed my mind at the last second – having already used yellow thread to stitch the signatures together.

 

So I used yellow paper as my end papers and some off cuts of ‘leather’ wallpaper to cover it.

I didn’t want it to be too good to use!

 

I think it one of the chunkiest books I’ve made – but I did the maths to see how many pages I would need for 3 pages a day for 12 weeks, so hopefully it’s big enough.

 

If I decide to continue with morning pages after the programme I’ll have to decide if I want to make a book each time or come up with a different solution, but that’s something to worry about in a couple of months time.

 

 

It felt good to do something I haven’t done for a while and have a good result.

 

Now I look forward to seeing what I can get out of The Artists Way and how it might help me to improve my creative practice.

Making Marbles With Martin

 

 I've just spent the week in Scarborough with 'im outdoors, the dog and my in-laws.

It was a nice week away, but I think I bemused the in-laws by disappearing for a couple of hours on Monday afternoon so I could take a marble making class.

I've been wanting to try marble making for ages, but didn't have the confidence to do it by myself.  

 

I knew that Martin at Tuffnells Glass does a marble making 1:2:1 but at 2hrs it doesn't really justify the 6hr drive!  However, when I realised we'd be staying a 30min drive away I booked a session. 

Although the rest of the week was quite cool, I still found myself sweating away in a glass studio again!

 

Over the course of the 2hrs I learnt how to make a vortex marble and one with dichroic glass (a glass that changes colour in different light).  Two different techniques but with lovely results. I think my recent classes with Laura helped too.

 Then I had to wait before I could have a proper look as they had to anneal in the kiln.  We went back a couple of days later on the way to Bempton Cliffs (we saw puffins!!) to pick them up. 

 

So they are not round, and one has a dent where I dropped it while melting in the punty mark.  Oops!  But as first go marbles I'm very pleased.  I understand the concept and I'm pretty sure I could do this again at home, although they will probably be smaller with my little torch.  And I think if I had more time I could get the shaping better, but I didn't want to keep 'im outdoors waiting as he came to pick me up.

I can really see how each thing I learn builds on previous skills and improves my skill set as a whole.  And while it can still sometimes be frustrating when things don't work, over all I'm very satisfied with the skills I'm building. 

(They are really hard to photograph.  You can find a video of them on my Instagram.)