The words remain

 

I do wish I could get myself better organized to record the process/progress in the studio with some regularity, but the endless amount of the work itself continues to take precedence! The pull to tell the story of it all is still present, though; I enjoy—and miss—this aspect of the studio. When I recently glanced through my Olivetti entries from the last several weeks (my daily practice for 2017, described in this post), I realized that many of the "captured" thoughts had been inspired by this year's cache of paperwhite bulbs. A sort of thread began to emerge, so I thought I'd bring together some words and images here.

*

I don't always know which variety of narcissus will bloom from the earth-scented bag handed to me by the plant vendor—only that their heavenly perfume will soon fill the studio. In any case, it's always wonderful to watch the shoots growing noticeably taller each day, and then the blooms escaping their spathes, one tiny flower at a time. The centers of this year's flowers were yellow, with a pronounced bowl shape—almost daffodil-like...

All that remains are the paper-y petals (shown in the image at the top of the post), now brittle and faded, but lovely all the same. Still, there will always be the memory of their promise of spring—which, indeed, did arrive!—and of course the words they inspired on the Olivetti.

(Plus a handful of photos...)

*

 

Here are a couple of the entries about the paperwhites...

 

*

Despite the daily ritual of typing up a few lines on the Olivetti each day, the pile of paper scraps with practically illegible thoughts/notes scattered across them has continued to grow—since I am not always able sit down to the typewriter straight away, this is often still the way that I remember what will ultimately be typed. The diverse collection of scraps, with the many sizes, shapes and paper color/types has a beauty of its own...

 *

The Olivetti awaiting today's lines, followed by a photo of the original box (I just love the details, and how it has survived six decades, in who knows how many homes)...

 *

The bulbs when they first arrived in the studio...

 

 

...And the last typewritten entry about the paperwhites of 2017...

 

Happy spring to everyone in the northern hemisphere...and may those of you south of the equator enjoy all of the beauties of fall...

Getting to know the Kuretake watercolors

Last fall I gave my daughter a set of Kuretake watercolors, which I have been wanting to try out ever since. After spending a few happy days with them recently, I offered to make a trade of sorts—I would keep the box of Kuretakes and treat her to a trip to the belle arti store, where she could assemble her own custom set of watercolors. That was her original intention, but I had ordered her the Kuretakes as a surprise before realizing this. Even though she was gracious about the gift, I can relate to the excitement of composing a personal palette, and figured my proposal would be a happy solution.

So I have been "getting to know" my inherited watercolors, which come in a delightful green box (shown further down the post). Since many of them appear so much darker in their pans I have been creating a reference guide, with the corresponding numbers...

 

I love the packaging: a beautiful green box, with metallic Japanese characters...

 

Last fall I began working on an invitation suite designed around a leaf theme, but had to hit pause when I got caught up with the launching of Studio Milledisegni. In the meanwhile, I have grown so fond of the repetitive action of painting leaves that it's become somewhat of a meditation. Below are some of my leaf-covered sheets... Stay tuned for the card designs, which are quite different from these all-over patterns!

 

I hope those of you currently in winter are surviving what can often be the hardest weeks. Seeing the paperwhite bulb shoots growing taller by the day (above) is certainly making the days more enjoyable in my studio! And if you are still in the middle of summer, may it linger a while longer...

Happy 2017 all around the world!

I had such a wonderful time designing cards for Studio Milledisegni's preview collection—it was hard to choose just one to share my New Year's wishes! I opted for some sparkle—why not ring in 2017 with a hint of shimmer and shine (and bright hopes)? Originally designed as an invitation, this design was inspired by the fabulous chandeliers that mesmerize me every time I visit Venice...

Happy New Year!

Notes on creating patterns

For the past year I've been busy with pattern-making. A handful of designs came about through digitally recoloring my hand-marbled papers. Some, like the pomegranates, artichokes & lemons shown further along this post, are based on illustrations I made for my BookArtObject cubes ( Mise en place); others are composed of layers & layers of precisely spaced letters (now unrecognizable as such), an idea inspired by a past ALaW project.


I had in mind a collection of a dozen or so to begin with, but "exponential" is a word that comes to mind when describing this project! The number has fluctuated as the designs evolved, but I finally settled on thirty-two for now.

 

*

 

Below is a snapshot from when I was in the process of organizing, shuffling & reorganizing the printouts into mini "collections"—many times!—a process I found immensely satisfying/enjoyable after the intense, detail-oriented period of designing & editing.

I was searching for some kind of logic behind the various combinations, and it was actually quite challenging to arrive at a single, "ultimate" way to group them—but the great thing I realized is that there's plenty of flexibility. Personally, I love the idea of being able to assemble a custom set of just about anything, whether it's a palette of oil paints/watercolors/pencils...or a set of stationery or dishes or clothing. Flexibility & choice are both cornerstones of Studio Milledisegni, but I must admit that it was difficult to come up with a good way to present all of the options to customers!

Here are a few of the natural groupings that "emerged"...

There are many more designs (not to mention combinations), and I'm hoping that others have as much fun as I did when putting together their own customized sets. (The 12"x18" sheets are offered in "mix & match your own" sets of 8/12/20/32.) I've been using them for wrapping small gifts (as shown in my last post), lining drawers, creating gift tags & envelope liners, and one of my favorite ideas so far has been a book cover. I trimmed  one of the marbled papers to wrap around a book I was giving my daughter for her birthday, so it served first as the gift wrap, and now as a dust jacket/place marker. We're hoping to make some decorations for our Christmas tree with the papers this coming week, and I'm excited to see what other creative souls will come up with...

Some of these designs are also offered through my studioMdesigns items (cell phone cases, zippered studio pouches, clocks, notebooks, etc., which are produced by a print on demand company). While paper will always be my first love (and it feels odd to give up control over the production process) I must admit that it can be pretty intoxicating to see one's work transformed into such a vast selection of media!

 

*

 

I hope you are all finding time to be creative, whether in the kitchen, the studio, the garden...or wherever you might/must be spending your time at the moment. Happy holiday season!

Paper + Sugar

I thought I'd share a few things I made for my daughter's nineteenth birthday last month. I always look forward to creating something to make her day more special, whether from paper or eggs/butter/sugar/chocolate (usually all of the above)!

The image above (and the next two) show an accordion booklet/"card." I chose one photo from each year of my daughter's life—twenty in total, including the year she was born. It was so much fun to hunt down old photos...though extremely difficult to narrow my selection down to only one per year! I was fascinated to see the changes from one year to the next...sometimes it seemed like a natural/logical progression; other times as if I was looking at two different girls!

One of my hand-marbled designs (that I digitally colored) made a sort of title card in the clear "envelope."

 

+++

 

My birthday is just a few weeks before my daughter's, and since she spends most of October "researching" a cake for me (!), it's not easy to follow her act in the birthday cake department. She's become quite enamored of the "tris" concept lately, so I decided to put together a trio of sweets: I made spiced espresso brownies + a cardamom & cinnamon chocolate mousse served with fresh cream, and there's also a flourless chocolate/chili pepper cake from our favorite local bakery . It was a perfect excuse to use our gorgeous platinum-rimmed Annie Glass plates, which allowed some breathing space for the sweet indulgences!

+++

 

My daughter's birthday came just a few days before the StudioMilledisegni launch, and it was exciting to be able to use some of my original paper designs to wrap her birthday gifts this year—somehow those I had test printed ended up going together quite well. Shown in the photo below are a few batik-y patterns that (believe it or not) began life as an ALaW project (thank you, Fiona AKA Paper Ponderings!)...dozens of letter shapes are manipulated/juxtaposed with/superimposed upon one another. The swirly pattern is one of my digitally colored hand-marbled papers, and the one in front at the left is a reproduction of a copper tray that has developed a beautiful patina over the years.

This style of wrapping gifts, with the multiple accordion folds, is something I picked up when I lived in Brazil in the 70s—even at the basic/everyday department store (there was one called Lojas Americanas, i.e. "American Stores") someone would wrap packages like this at the cash register while the cashier was ringing up your purchases. (I wonder if they still do this?) I am hoping to do a how-to video on Instagram once I add the decorative paper sets to my shop...

Even after a couple of weeks, I am not quite used to the idea that I am the mother of a nineteen-year-old. I must say I feel pretty lucky to still have her at home—I was off to college at seventeen, but the kids go to high school for five years in Italy. She fills our home with music & creativity, not to mention the fragrance of her inspired baking!
  
Hoping you have all had a very happy December so far, and paper & sugar wishes to everyone...