The Gryphon's Feather Studio

riffing and stitching

Riff

as a noun: 

• an ostinato phrase (as in jazz) typically supporting a solo improvisation; also :  a piece based on such a phrase
• a distinct variation  

as an intransitive verb:

• to perform, deliver, or make use of a riff

First known use of riff- 1935

(from Merriam-Webster)

 

getting ready to riff

(clockwise from left: my heavily annotated copy of Exposed Spine Sewings by Keith Smith, my big binder of personal notes & stitch samplers, (the green page is fun foam- easy to sew through when working out a group of sewing ideas), wood glue for constructing stitch samplers & practice cards, piercing template, stitch sampler & practice card.)

As a bookbinder, I love learning new sewings, but I also love riffing on sewings I already know. The process is like solving a puzzle.  First, I have to examine the way the stitches from a particular sewing duck and weave to look the way it does yet maintain the tension that holds the whole book together, and then, I set to work on figuring out how to alter the original sewing and still end up with a book.  Sometimes, I combine parts from two different sewings to make a new-to-me interpretation.  I'm a pretty geeky person bookbinder.

But, for all my geekiness, I'm also a pretty irreverent bookbinder. I've read those rules in those formal books on bookbinding, and, mostly, I chuck them out. Thinking of having to be so careful, of having to "follow the rules" made me anxious, so I stopped following the rules. I wanted to see what would happen.

Would my books fall apart? Would they be grotesque? Does it really matter if I am not measuring down to 1/64"? Can't I just use Elmer's? What if all I have is a soup spoon and a thumbtack, and not a bone folder and an awl? (the answers- nope, nope, nope, yep, and yep, you can make a book just fine.)

I once entertained a class by making a book without using a ruler. With so many bookbinders worshiping the God of Precision at the Altar of Expensive Tools, how did I get to be such a heretic? 

Way back when, hmm, eighteen years ago or so, I took my first bookbinding class and fell hard for the idea I could make a book.  Given that I loved books with my whole bookwormy heart, and had serious crushes on the feel of nice paper and the smell of paste, I was destined to be hooked! I took more bookbinding classes over the next couple of years, progressively learning more complicated sewings. 

In one particular class, about fifteen years ago, I was really lost.  Somewhere in the beginning, I missed some incredibly important bit, and just couldn't figure out what was I was doing wrong. I was so lost I cried! And, I wasn't the only one reduced to tears that day. The teacher, widely admired and kinda famous, was stern, rigid, and intimidating.  My fellow students and I were paying big money to take a class where we were scolded, patronized, belittled, not allowed to talk to the people sitting next to us, not allowed to ask questions or for help, and either kept up with the pace of the instruction or failed. The instructor actually used the phrase, "sink or swim" to describe the class during the introduction.

Luckily, at lunch, some friends helped me figure out what I was doing wrong, and I made it through the class.

The class structure wasn't that uncommon; I had taken similar bookbinding classes from other instructors. This "boot camp" mentality was an accepted norm. There was, and still is, a whole faction of people teaching bookbinding this way- heavy on the rules and low on encouragement.  

After that experience, I taught myself by working through the bindings in various books. Instead of looking at some of those complex diagrams for sewing bindings and feeling my eyes glaze over (oh, all those little numbers and arrows, and aaaaaarghhhh...), I'd sit down with needle and thread, and work my way through those squirrelly diagrams, one little number at a time. Those complicated diagrams began to make a lot more sense, and I made a lot of books. I also learned a lot about the "rules."  

I learned which "rules" were actually structurally important, which "rules" were icing-on-the-cake rules (ones that improve the appearance of your finished book), which "rules" were really meant for rebinding rare texts to preserve them for all eternity, and which "rules" were just added by anal-retentive, and occasionally sadistic, instructors. (Just kidding! Well, about the sadism, not kidding about the anal-retentiveness.) I learned that I could alter the instructions for a sewing and still have a book at the end. 

Maybe more importantly, I found a way of approaching bookbinding that has continued to keep the joy and pleasure in the process of making books. The process of learning and experimenting became play. While a finished book is indeed a lovely thing, enjoying the process of making that lovely thing is good for my soul!

Give your computer photo editing moves like your iPhone's!

Ever wish you could edit photos on your laptop or desktop as quickly and easily as you do on your iPhone or iPad?  You can! 

My inbox had an email from the Nevercenter folks this morning advertising a HUGE sale on their CameraBag 2.5 app for Mac & Windows.  

It is normally $20, but is on sale for a very limited time for $8.  

Nevercenter also has a free, 15-day trial version, so you can check it out before purchasing.

I'm not affiliated with Nevercenter in any way.  I've purchased their apps for my computer, iPhone and iPad.  The original Camerabag app was one of my favorite iPhone apps when I started shooting with an iPhone in 2009.  It was the third app I purchased, and a version of CameraBag has been on my phone ever since!  Their apps have been winning awards for years.

The computer version is available for Mac & Windows (PC) systems.   It offers 150 filters, and the ability to create  and share your own, as well as access the shared filters of other users.  There are a number of great features, but the best part is you can keep it simple! You can just apply their filters, and play with your photos!  Or, if you are interested, you can go in-depth with creating filters and using the photo editing tools. The computer version also supports the use of RAW image files, if you shoot your images in that format. 

 

In my opinions, one of the best thing about Nevercenter's products is the information they include in the "Support" section of their website. I took a quick screenshot of their website from my phone.  You can see they have tutorials and videos for whatever level of experience you have using these sorts of applications.  I clicked on "Getting Started with..." which led me to a page that even explained how to open the app.

 

I had CameraBag 1.5 on my laptop. When Nevercenter updated to 2.0, the update was so huge, and offered so much more, you had to purchase the update.  It wasn't expensive, but I didn't want to spend the money at the time.  When I finally wanted to update, the offer had expired.  I didn't want to pay $20 for the new version, so I just kept the old, which of course, I didn't use as much. 

But, $8?! Heck, yeah!  That's a hella deal! (it's what? 60% off?) I thought I'd pass the info along to all of you, just in case you might find $8, for a terrific piece of photo software, appealing! 

If you are using a Mac, then you already know about the Mac App Store.  You can buy it there for $7.99 using your iTunes account.  If you are PC/Windows, you can buy it directly from Nevercenter, and use the sale code SPRINGSALE when you check out. You can pay via credit/debit or Paypal.  I used the Mac App Store. What? It's a penny cheaper there!  Just kidding, using the Mac App Store was easier - just needed to enter my iTunes password instead of entering all my address and billing info into the Nevercenter site checkout form.  (yes, I AM that lazy.)

You're welcome!

51, slightly crazy and rather curly

 I gave myself a haircut a few days ago.  I had been, once again, growing my hair out, thinking I might like to have it long again, and had, once again, gotten to that awful in between place where I tried not to look at my hair when I looked in the mirror. 

So, this is me, now. at 51.  Self-cut curls. Wearing a freshly made pair of earrings and a new shade of lipstick. Slightly crazy and rather curly, or is it the other way around? 

 

One Singular Moment

We receive gifts scattered through out the many days of our lives, gifts of singular moments.  Moments which, despite the clichéd nature of the phrase, are "once in a lifetime."  

I want to show you a gift I was given.  But first, a bit of a background story: 

Joe, Gryphon, Sunny, and I were out in the boat exploring the river. Tooling around in our old jon boat is something we do often, of course, since the front yard of the river house literally ends with the Allegheny River in the same way other front yards end at a road. I almost always take my camera bag with me. For this river adventure, Gryphon was using my Canon SX10-IS, and I had my Canon Rebel XS.   

Shooting has a way of bringing me more fully into the moment, of narrowing the focus of my awareness into what is right there around me.  Shooting grounds me, brings me more fully present. There are no to-do lists running through my head when I have a camera in my hand. I am looking; I am seeing. I am completely here in that exact moment in time, in that exact location in space. Being present is a key part of being whole, being spiritual, of being able to hear the divine that exists in each of us, in the world around us. Photography as a path to being present is one of those gifts I feel a powerful obligation to share.

 

You might have noticed I collect "found hearts" - images of objects, scenes where I find hearts hidden in plain sight. My "found hearts" are secret messages reminding me I am loved, reminding me to love.    

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

 This quote, while often attributed to Ghandi is actually a distillation of his words:

"Gandhi said “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ... We need not wait to see what others do.”

(Brian Morton, The New York Times, Aug. 29, 2011)

My "found hearts" remind me to change my own nature, to risk, to fear, to love and be loved.

     

© 2013 Gryphon Ludwig

 

 

© 2013 LK Ludwig

 

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.                                                                                John Lubbock         

 

The real gift, that day, wasn't the astonishing sight of a heart-shaped cloud drifting across the sky. The gift was having Gryphon, Sunny, and Joe with me in the boat.  The gift was seeing their bright smiles, hearing the joyful laughter bursting out spontaneously, and sharing that exact moment to remember for ever, creating a memory, a treasure to be pulled out of a pocket and rolled around in our fingers whenever we need.

paintings are mysteries we are compelled to investigate

a snap of WIP (works in progress) on the wall in my studio

Last year, I posted about some paintings that were works in progress.   One painting did come close to completion, but I lost the groove and in the end, I ended up putting them both aside. Recently, I fished them out of the closet, blew off the metaphorical dust, and started working on them again.  

I've gone from here:

to here:

The dress is the front half of an actual antique doll dress adhered to the canvas (now under many layers of paint, gesso, paint, pastel, pencil, paint.....) My original concept referenced a Mary Oliver poem called Sleeping in the Forest.

I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.

I just wasn't happy, so gesso-ed over much of the painting, and started again a couple weeks ago.  I haven't worked on it in a week or so, as I needed to step back from the piece to let some things percolate.  I can hear it's voice calling to me again, which is always good.

And for this one:

I liked the content, but the painting was too bottom heavy, not balanced.

Now, that one looks like this:

New and more layers, with places from which to move forward.

I also had adhered the back half of the same antique doll dress used in the first painting above to a canvas and had begun a painting that had petered out into nothingness.

Here's where I am with that one:

 

I actually have a couple of other pieces in progress.  They are in that beginning phase where so much is unresolved.  I like having multiple pieces going at once in my studio. When I have just one, I tend to not let things dry that really need to dry, or I keep working when I really need to step away.  

Painting has always given me puzzles to be solved. The impulse, the need to make hooks us, and the puzzles, they reel us in. Paintings become mysteries we are compelled to investigate.

That's what the process of painting really is, isn't it?  

While we paint, we look deeply, listen to our intuition, bring to bear our education, employ our skills.  Each mark we make on the surface represents a single choice plucked from dozens of possibilities.  

This is why our art is in the process of creation and not the final outcome.  

This is why we can look at a painting, and realize the puzzle hasn't been solved, the mystery of getting what we wanted to say out onto the canvas hasn't concluded, and we sally forth with enthusiasm, making, creating, working, puzzling...

 

a morgue of my own

I have my very own morgue. I actually have a few, filled to bursting.

Do you have a morgue?  If not, you should.  Every artist should have a morgue of their very own... 

No, not a collection of dead bodies, although the study of those served Leonardo da Vinci well; didn't they?

I am speaking of the sort of morgue many of us had to keep in various art classes- the sketchbooks we filled to bursting with reference images, postcards of paintings, quotes, bits of poetry, photographs we liked, photographs we made, scribbled sketches so we could recall some idea, something we saw, images clipped from magazines that drew in our eye because of the color palette, the aesthetic sense, the visual appeal, the intruiging idea... glorious visual fodder all jammed into a book. 

The name, morgue, for these in a sketchbook or binder form that art, theatre, stagecraft, design people... and others keep as a reference file came our way via newspapers who kept extensive files, and sometimes rooms, full of reference materials, they called morgues.

(the one on the left is a handmade journal - with braile paper, and corrugated cardboard covers.  It only has quotes and poetry inside and is full now. The center book is a graph paper lab book, and the right hand side is Michael's cheapest black hardbound sketchbook with some paint on the cover, and a good bit of gaffer's tape on the burst-open spine.)

I still keep these movable visual feasts, and I would guess that many of my peers do also.  Since I'm not turning them in for review for a grade these days, I am broader in what I include: clothing, shoes, jewelry, book reviews, & musical performers that have caught my attention, websites I want to visit, apps for which I need to check out reviews, products to try, art supplies to research, paint cards from the home store done around various color palettes, pictures of stuff I wanted to remember that I've taken with my iPhone, ideas for activites to do with the littles, vacation dreams, things to look up at the library...  You know, all that stuff you find and stuff into a manila file folder, that will never again see the light of day? 

For a few  years, I used books that were 6x9 or so, but I found the small size limiting sometimes.  I had to fold stuff up to get it in there, so I moved to back to the 9x12-ish size I used in school.  I kept far more notes, to do lists, grocery lists, phone numbers etc, in the smaller size ones- something I miss, and am trying to recreate digitally on my iPad.

I also browse magazines, pull articles I want to read, and staple them along one edge of a page, creating a sort of personalized, homemade magazine of my own. I like to go through the discard pile at the library, too.

If you are finding yourself in need of some visual input, but can't go anywhere to get it, having a book full of things you like to look at, things that struck your fancy, is a great way to have an artist date without leaving home, or while stuck, say, in a waiting room somewhere.  I have been finding my morgues invaluable of late. 

I pulled out my stack of things to go through - my torn out pages, my clippings, images, & magazines, and spent some enjoyable time sorting, tearing, pasting.  Some old toy and kids' clothing catalogs, dog-eared children's magazines, safety scissors, and a dollar store composition book, entertained Sunny for an unusually long time.

I like to drop one in my tote bag for those times I am hanging out in the doctor's office waiting room; I use that time to read those magazine articles I've stapled into my morgue, and to make notes on the clippings that interested me, so I can remember why I clipped them to begin with (which can be strangely obscure sometimes), or what I saw in the image/product/object that attracted my eye (color, shape, texture, line, emotion, imagination...).

I didn't choose the most interesting pictures of the inside pages to show you. Rather than post my morgue pages for you to read and browse, I really wanted instead to give you the idea to make, or return to keeping, a morgue of your own. 

 

 

 

Found Poem Prompt- the first of my Friday prompts

 

Another of my journals- this one is sewn over straps.  The stitching is much like longstitch, but as it is an exposed-spine journal, the straps serve to both stabilize the book block and attach the book block to the cover boards.  The other fun thing is that the book lies flat when opened for easy journaling! The interior is filled with my favorite kind of painted pages, ready to go!  I'm going to be teaching this as a class at Hampton, VA for Art & Soul!

Speaking of painted pages, these are images from another Hampton class, Taking Wing, that makes use of the painted pages and takes flight from there!  I'm finding I journal so much more when I lay in a beginning and sometimes some imagery...  I still work with blank paper, but these are really my current crush. I have several journals set up to work in all at once. I'm continuing to work in this one and will show some more work on Monday.

Here is a pair of pages ready to go:

 

some work and some journaling laid in, with room for more...

 

a found poem piece on the left, and a ready page on the right.  I've moons and birds on my mind as I sculpt pieces to vend at Artfest.

 

the found poem:

when evening comes

if the moon be out

its round full face

wide and flying

small birds

they gather together in flocks

and journey along together.

I talked about found poems in my book True Vision: Authentic Art Journaling, p. 63.  I find that the results from these tap into the moment or our intuition- the results are often a bit surprising!  For this one, I had three scraps of paper from book pages- about 2.5" by 6" in size.  I gave myself the rule of having to choose my words from these three scraps.  No additions. 

So, I offer up this prompt:

• choose three pages from an old discarded book. Photocopies are fine.  Put the book itself away to reduce temptation!  (you can tuck what you don't use back inside the pages after, if you like.) 
• Have scissors at the ready.
• Scan the lines of text, not reading for comprehension but for the flavor of the phrases, for the way the words feel. Be like a reading divining rod, looking for a response from inside.  Don't overthink. 
• Snip those bits of phrase, those words, those reactions out from the paper right way.
• Arrange, rearrange, respond.  Perhaps a second delving into your three pages is needed.
• Adhere them to a journal page!
• This process should be fairly quick- and simple.  React, respond, snip, arrange, glue. Then as my littlest says, "Ta- Daaaaa!"
• You can then work the cut edges of paper into your page with a china marker, a stabilo marks all pencil (they blend with water) a watersoluble colored pencil or crayon, charcoal, even a bit of paint on your fingertip, or what-have-you!

Give it a go!  If you want to show and tell, leave a link in the comments and I'll point visitors your way!

I'm going to be leaving regular prompts and tips regarding journaling -every Friday- so stop back!!