I always love hearing about good books, TV shows, films, classes, etc. from my bloggy friends (or even things I should stay away from). So, I thought I'd open up comments this weekend asking you to share a recommendation or warning. I'll try to gather them together and post a list next week. Here's a few from me:Book - I just finished Stephen King's "11/22/63," and it was gripping enough to keep me up late into the night (and inspire today's art journal page). It's about a man who travels back in time to stop the assassination of John F. Kennedy. It's not a scary, horror book, but it's compelling. It could have used an editor (it really didn't need to be 1,000 pages), but it was still a fast read and raised lots of interesting questions.Products - I love Dina Wakley's original release of stamps from Stampington (used in today's AJ page), and she just released some new ones! You can check them out here. I also used Tim Holtz's Distress stains - I thought for sure I would fall in love with these, but I haven't yet . . .Class - Cheryl Johnson is running her Beautiful People portraiture class again. I took it, and I loved it. You can register at this link. My class review is here.Movies - Last weekend Paul and I went to see Dark Shadows. I was pretty disappointed. All the good, funny bits were in the previews. It never became either a full on comedy (like Austin Powers, for example, which is what I was expecting) or an exciting Sci Fi/ Fantasy movie (like Star Trek, for example) or a scary movie. It will no doubt come out on video at Halloween time, and it would be an okay rental. But save your money and see something else at the theater!TV Show - I have totally enjoyed Awake on U.S. television this season. Unfortunately, it was cancelled! It is sort of like Life on Mars, (which has both a U.S. and U.K. version). It's available on netflix or itunes if you want to check it out. I also like the U.S. show Grimm, and it was actually renewed for next year!Please share your thoughts on the good, the bad and the ugly! It's one of the best things about visiting blogland after all!
I was the very lucky recipient of the book, Raw Art Journaling by Quinn McDonald. I received it from Melissa, who is hosting Pass the Book, Year 2. I have had the book for a while, so it is time to send it one its way. The book is a wonderful introduction to art journaling, and I think it would be particularly appealing to someone who is curious about what art journaling is all about and wants to know where to start. The book emphasizes making meaning with words and simple designs, so don't be scared away if you don't have a bunch of acrylic paint or pile of collage images! In the spirit of the book, I made this art journal page. My page was also influenced by two recent posts (here and here) by Dina Wakley at her blog, Ponderings, and it features a wonderful quote recently featured here by Deb of Paper Turtle.If you would like a chance to check out Raw Art Journaling, simple leave a comment telling me so. In about a week, I'll pick the next recipient of the book and send it on to you. There is a bit of a catch. After you get a chance to read and digest the book, you need to offer it up and pass it to someone else! If you feel moved by the book, it would be nice if you posted a picture of how it inspired you. I'm sure anyone - a beginner, intermediate or experienced art journaler - would find something inspiring inside the pages. ********************************************************************Today I am grateful for: All the creative inspiration I find in blogland.
I don't think I mentioned that I traveled to my nation's capitol last week. Most of the time, I was stuck in a hotel working, but I did manage to get out a bit. One of my favorite things to do in Washington, D.C. is to visit the monuments at night. The newest monument honors Martin Luther King, Jr. We went after dinner and had to wait a few minutes before we visited because President Obama was there for a private viewing! If my father were telling this story, it would be all about how he visited the monument with the President, but, truthfully, all we saw was his motorcade parked and then eventually driving away. The monument is stunning. A large carved sculpture with a wall full of quotations leading up to and away from it. I found it very moving, and I made this art journal page, featuring one of the quotes, to remember my visit.You can read more about the Memorial at this link. The plane ride is about six hours, and I put the time to good use doing some reading. I finished my current book group book, The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka. It was very good (I gave it four out of five stars). It's written in a lyrical, almost poetic way, in the first person plural. In a mere 130 pages, it manages to convey the experiences of a group of Japanese picture brides coming to America in the early 1900's up until the time of their internment during World War II. I also read The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. It was an interesting but overly ambitious novel about a family of women in Salem who can see the future and may or may not be related to witches. I ended up confused and a little frustrated at the end, but there were many aspects of it that I enjoyed. I gave it 3 out of 5 starts for being flawed but worth reading. I also gave 3 out of 5 stars to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, a nonfiction book about the woman whose cells were the first to be "grown" and used extensively for cell research. It was an important story to tell, but I don't think it was very well told. My biggest complaint was that the author spent too much time talking about herself and had a somewhat condescending view of the subjects. It also could have used an editor. Up next for my book group is The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Have you read anything good lately?
Yesterday, I reviewed Tim Holtz' new book A Compendium of Curiosities. Today, I wanted to review some of his other publications. I've grouped these into three categories: freebies on his blog and webite; books by Design Originals; and videos by Page Sage.
Freebies on his blog and webite: Tim Holtz is one of the most generous artists out there. He publishes, free of charge on the internet, a huge number of tutorials on how to make wonderful projects and how to use his products. In addition to the 36 Tags of Christmas, which I linked to yesterday, he occasionally posts other tag projects, like this Easter tag tutorial. These tutorials include step-by-step illustrated instructions. They aren't tagged in any special way on his blog, so you may have to hunt them up for yourself. In addition, he has 18 video demonstrations posted on his website, covering products and techniques.
Books by Design Originals: Tim published two books with Design Originals called Distressables (2005) and Distressables 2 (2006). These short (50 page) books are dense and jam-packed with ideas. They are not as reader-friendly as Curiosities because they cover many techniques that I would call intermediate to advanced and which assume some amount of crafting knowledge. They each cover about 15 completed projects, and most projects include several variations. The products used and projects covered have a much greater variety than Curiosities. . . . things ranging from beeswax collage to altered wooden blocks (in Destressables 2) and tins to minialbums (in Distressables). They often use older product lines designed by Tim for Design Originals or other producers. I call these books dense because they are almost like textbooks for many of his classes or for classes which could be taught. In fact, the three pieces of jewelery pictured up top are things I made in a class with Tim. The instructions for each one is in one of these books, but I never realized that until after reviewing the books again. Overall, the books provide the foundation to make a ton of projects and are a great way to expand your repertoire of altered art a la Tim, but I don't think they are for the meek of art.
Videos by Page Sage: Tim has published two videos with Page Sage. . . An Altered Journey (2004) and The Journey Continues (2006). Each one is about two hours long and is divided into different projects (called Journeys). Each project lesson starts with a list of supplies needed and then shows how to make it. There is also a gallery and some extras. An Altered Journey covers some basic techniques like distressing, brushless watercolor and alcohol ink agates but also some cool, more advanced techniques like faux batik, an altered domino mini book (yes, it's tiny!), and projects with polymer clay and UTEE. The Journey Continues includes some more advanced projects for distressing, using UTEE, polymer clay, alcohol inks, beeswax and cut-n-dry felt. The techniques are more adventurous than those found in Curiosities but are clearly illustrated (so easier to follow than the Distressables books) and do result in completed projects. I"m anxious to go back and watch the videos again, now that I own a melting pot and my skills have gotten more advanced.
After having done this two-part review, it seems to me that Curiosities and Tim's website/blog are a great place for beginners to start and the Altered Journeys and Distressables are great next-steps for the artist who wants to continue to explore various altered techniques and projects. I'd love to hear feedback from anyone else who owns and has used the Distressables books or Altered Journeys videos.
Here's two more creations I made after receiving the new Tim Holtz book, A Compendium of Curiosities. They both use the alcohol ink monoprint technique for the background of the stamped image. Although I have used alcohol inks a lot to make his "alcohol ink agate" backgrounds, this is the first time I have tried this. It took a little practice to get some backgrounds that I liked, but I think I eventually got the hang of it. I especially like the background in seashells. These are two of the 35 techniques covered in the third section of this book. Each technique is described in six illustrated, easy to follow steps. Although many of these techniques have been covered in Tim's 12 Tags of Christmas (found here, here and here) or other tutorials on his blog, there are several new ones and it is wonderful to have them all in one place. Unlike the tag tutorials, these techniques do not result in a completed project; rather they show you how to create various pieces that can be used as either background or embellishments on completed projects. I like that because I want to learn the techniques and then decide how to put them together. If you're looking for completed projects, the fourth (last section) of the book is a gallery with 28 completed cards, tags, scrapbook pages, etc. There's no description of which techniques were used in the completed project or cross-reference to completed projects in the technique section, and I wish there were. But I guess the reader will just have to figure it out themselves. The first section of the book is a list of tools: 24 different Tim products (including basis like scissors and heat tool; specialty tools like a scratcher and tiny attacher; and consumables like paints and inks). I guess it's a sign of my interest in Tim stuff that I own at least one version of 22 of these! (I do not have the texture hammer or tiny attacher.) In my defense, I accumulated these slowly over time, often for classes I taught based on Tim's techniques, which were always very popular. Plus, I use them all. The second section of the book is called ideas and covers 22 products, mostly metal. For each product, there's four photos of how these products can be used on a project with a brief description. These products are things like corners, plates, fasteners, etc. I own very, very few of these products, so this section did not appeal to me that much. On the whole, the book offers a wealth of information for how to use the various products created and/or popularized by Tim Holtz. I also like the feel of the book - it's 75 pages or so and about 9x9 square. It has a spiral binding, so it will lie flat, but the wire is covered and won't catch on anything. Two caveats: if you don't own any of these products, the book is not really for you. Also, if you're looking for a step-by-step guide to make completed projects (like the tag tutorials), you'll be disappointed. But if you're looking for a primer on everything from alcohol ink to distress powders, A Compendium of Curiosities is definitely for you! Since this review is longer than I anticipated, I'm going to review Tim's other publications in a separate post.
