a few days ago I finished my little book using the pages marked with memory
a few posts back I shared how I did that - you can read it here:
I wanted to paint something for the inside covers using acrylics ink - I tried for a feeling of water and ground, perhaps a patch of snow or two
these first two images are off-cuts of that paper
the covers were made with a piece of linen painted with earth pigments
I used small strips of linen as a resist when painting it so the cloth looks almost like an old wooden sidewalk, the kind Whitehorse was full of when I was a child so another small piece of relevance to the work
coptic binding - I've made several books using this method but this was the first where I felt completely at ease with the process, it went smoothly, and though the stitching may look slightly crooked in the photo below it isn't, it's just an optic illusion
each signature has three folios (folded pages), the centre one is shorter than the other two
there wasn't enough paper for three full-size pages and this seemed like an interesting compromise
now the challenge is to make use of that design detail when I fill the book though I haven't quite decided how, either writing in the centre with some kind of drawing or painting on the background page or vice versa
the centre-most page of the entire book is an abstracted photo of waves on a favourite Yukon lake printed on vellum
not sure exactly what I'll use this little book for but I'm happy to sit with it and wait - the right thing always comes along if I give it time and space to arrive on it's own
in the meanwhile, the thing that kept me busy all last week and again the week just past was a project I started in the spirit of the
"100 Day Project"
where you do a thing every day for 100 days with the potential of having created something (or things) of some consequence, gaining focus skills, and increasing your knowledge/skills of your chosen subject
I've been wanting to write since I was a child, often writing poems and prose for hours but never with any real focus
for the 100 Day Project I chose to write one Haiku poem every day for 100 days
today I completed my 14th poem, and am pleased to say I have worked at this every day, both in the poetry writing itself and also in planing and adjusting the plan... as I do
so, it goes like this:
100 poems, ten subjects, ten poems in each subject
all subjects have to do with memories of life in the Yukon
five small books will be made, two subjects / 20 poems per book
when they are all written and the books made I'll make a special box, in the Japanese style to hold them
I also have a sketchbook where I write out each poem and the memory/inspiration behind it
I'm writing them in the 5 - 7 - 5 syllables over 3 lines format
I won't bore you with all 100 but every so often I'll share a favourite or two
it's a lot of work but the reward is the doing it
as it is with most things
Also, I’ve learned a few subscribers on Substack that did not receive this post by email. On investigating, when I set up my newsletter a list of any newsletters that I personally subscribe populated in as recommendations. I thought that list would only appear on my Homepage, but it turns out that when people clicked on the Subscribe button to receive my posts by email, that list came up with all those newsletters selected. If the “Continue” button was selected it subscribed you to all of them - the “no thanks” for that was well below the list so is often missed and people continue without realizing they are now subscribing to a a raft of other Substack newsletters.
I’ve removed all of those recommendations so going forward that shouldn’t happen to people, “Subscribing” means you will only get mine. For those who unsubscribed from the unwanted emails/newsletters, it also unsubscribed you from mine. The fix for that (if you choose) is to go to Substack, click your name or profile image, wherever it shows on the page (usually upper right) , then settings, subscriptions, notifications and re-select mine. Technology is all well and good when you know what you’re doing!
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