100 Day Project

Several weeks ago, I came across the 100 Day Project on The Great Discontent and thought it'd be a great exercise to explore something I've been interested in but am not already good at, and practice discipline at the same time.

Designing cards that commemorate an occasion—from the typical calendar holiday to obscure life events, appealed to me because I've also been thinking a lot about connection, how we benefit from it, and how I can help increase it. I only have a couple ideas so far on what those 100 cards' contents will be, plus I have to consider exploring possible styles, so I'm definitely open to (read: please feel free to suggest) ideas!

You can follow my daily progress on my art & design instagram @farthermore, #100okasions, and see other people who are participating at #the100DayProject. I promise you it will not all be pretty (at least mine certainly will include a couple fails—I'm only human!), and while it's scary even for me, I love the idea of a judgment-free zone to experiment and try it in community. Please consider joining—it starts exactly one week from today. I'd love to see what you've chosen for yourself and what you're up to, so if you do decide to participate, let me know your IG handle and 100 Days hashtag below or on my facebook page!

Before You Go

Today is the 10th anniversary of my maternal grandmother's passing. I was in college at the time, rushing down to see her when my mom called me to let me know she had already gone. Despite the language barrier, I had always understood her deep love for us, and it took me a long time to process my regrets and loss. Making this artist book to memorialize her, say the things I wanted to say, and depict our relationship was a big part of that.

Guide: this video has no audio.

I only made two copies of this book, and the structure was a physical manifestation of my search for her—sort of a reverse burial.

details

10" x 10" x 2"

Materials: hand-made papers, English-Chinese dictionary pages, newspaper, printed pages, photographs, Chinese silks, bookmaking board, cheesecloth, watch (or ring, depending on the edition).

How Soon Is Now?

The snow is finally melting, the air is warming up, and I'm excited for spring and all the lush green that comes with it! Which reminds me of my trip to Oregon that I never got around to posting. Here are some highlights:

The Portland Japanese Garden has views to reward you with in every direction you turn. I love the dense and layered textures the greenery created here. Can you find the bridge with the man on it?

I'm sure everyone takes a picture of this tree, but I couldn't resist. It really is beautifully formed!

There was a 4" monster slug I saw and spared you from, and instead you must suffer this ridiculously tiny baby slug.

Just a carpet of neon algae at Canon Beach.

Frien-emones.

Goonies pilgrimage!

I feel like half of the desktop wallpapers must have been shot here, I couldn't seem to avoid a photo that didn't look like one! My two biggest regrets were not getting to Haystack Rock before the tide came in, and breaking my foot hiking near Mt. Hood on the very first day. Not pictured here: the best flan I've ever had in my life, and the beauty of St. Johns Bridge in Cathedral Park. I wish all infrastructure was built with that level of attention to detail! My pictures simply did not do the structure justice.

*Title is a song by The Smiths, who I belatedly discovered due to my airbnb stay while visiting OR.

"All my work is much more peaceful than I am*"

As I enter my final lap of preparing to start something new, I find myself instead hitting the breaks and filling with fears and self-doubt. Hearing "real talk" like this was refreshing and encouraging, especially coming from a success like Design*Sponge's Grace Bonney. Beyond the comfort of knowing one is not alone, it also gave a few good practical suggestions to respond constructively to fears as well.

Also, now I want to attend WMC. Next year perhaps?!

*Title is a quote by Maya Lin.

Playing By The Book

Among the possible hobbies one can think of, making books is probably not one of the more common ones. Personally, the idea of a book as a hand-made object was long forgotten until I took a bookmaking class in college. Since then, I've just never been the same.

Bookmaking perfectly combines my love of paper goods, storytelling, working with my hands, and the challenge of thinking dimensionally. Even when I strip it down to the simplest forms, such as with my sketchbooks, I still like to play around with the binding, materials, or content. I also find it especially satisfying when I can be a little greener by repurposing random materials into pairings that work or add interest.

Here are a few that do just that:

Covers: vintage wrapping paper front, leftover gold paper back. Endsheets: random blue papers I found tossed out in art school (yes, dumpster diving is a legit skill you learned to do in my college). Instead of evenly spaced stitching I extended the horizontal lines from the front.

From "Eden" in W Magazine's Nov '06 Art Issue, a collaboration by Richard Tuttle and Mario Sorrenti. I cropped and scattered the images throughout for bursts of color and composition inspiration.

Vintage marbled endsheets used as a cover, with a vote-elected spine color from aged construction paper. In keeping with the "old-as-new" theme, the interior endsheets are also vintage papers featuring a wedding party from the '47 Broadway show Brigadoon. I liked the color tones as a compliment to the spine, and who doesn't like a dance party? Filled with repurposed paper from a giant sketchbook and finished with a diagonally sewn spine.

Bonus round:

I hate waste so I took the remnants of my cut pages from the sketchbook above and made a smaller book out of them. Cover is with the same remnant gold paper as the first sketchbook posted, paired with more glossy magazine cuttings I have laying around. Endsheets are hand-marblized paper from my college years. If you're wondering how extensive my hoarded collection of materials are at this point, I'm working on it for the sake of my husband, that's all I'll say!

I feel like each of these have a completely different feel to them and can imagine each of them belonging to a different type of person. Do any of these appeal to you more than the others?