Book Basket Box: Placement for Memory

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I used to teach a workshop with that title. It was my most favorite class because everyone would bring the bits and pieces of things that needed to be kept safe. Things that needed a place to be kept hidden. Things that needed to be discovered again and again.

So today while I am on what I hope is the last of this miserable cold, I am going to start to show you some of my boxes. They are each a different country I traveled to and how I collected the bits that bring back memories and the sketches along the way.

I will start with France:

Each box must be built to accommodate the largest piece with room to extract it for closer examination.  I map everything out on plain paper first before cutting the box/book board.  I put this card in the center of the top of a pale pink cover.

Opened:

The lift out tray holds an English to French translation book, lavender soaps from a lavender farm, sketchbook from the famous Sennelier art store in Paris and bags from purchases.

Under the tray are more maps and bags and a book for more memorabilia.

A bon voyage note from a frequent traveler to the Avignon area and a map.

And one of my most favorite places, the ochre mines of Bruoux. It was an exquisite experience to pass through those arches into pure earth pigment. I came home with so many collected colors from all these travels that I will show another time.

And Italy came right after France.

A gift wrap from Florence decorates the box.

Inside the box lid is a pouch to hold small prints I bought from street vendors and cards that capture the opulence.

And small books of tickets and other mementos. Wine corks and quick translation guide.

I will put two more boxes in today’s post.

Now Bali:

I thought this fabric looked like Bali so turned it into a book cloth to cover the box.

I collected the offerings outside my room in Ubud each morning….of course they dehydrated and became smaller.

I also saved and then purchased the brown paper sheets that food was served on to make a book when I returned home. Pages decorated with scraps collected along the way.

And now China:

A silk scrap I picked up in China became the cover material.

The box opened reveals a heavy stone in the back that a tracker who was poling our small boat upstream on a tributary of the Yangtze. He watched me reaching for a stone while we skimmed along. My sketchbook from the trip is in the tray above. Some of the sketches.

The space below the tray holds books of receipts and packaging and more mementos.

And under a false floor there is the soils of Xian, home to the famous warriors.

Not everything I bring home is in the boxes…only what fits and can bring back the memories of the time there. Likewise the French sketchbook is a heavy leather that I chose not to house in the box but add to sketchbooks on the shelves. We each choose what goes into the boxes and how to decorate its covers and walls.

My students have done such amazing containers…one about a mother who projected one persona to the public and below under a false floor was what the family endured. Others dealt with a loss of someone dear. And others favorite Nature walks with trails and bridges and small critters. I hope they all have kept their boxes to open and remember or to just know the unpleasant has a place to stay hidden.

Next blog we will go to Japan, New Zealand, and my favorite place…Australia!

Til later….

Christmas Beginnings

Posted on by Sandy Webster

The other evening was movie night. We saw Beverly Hills Cop and laughed a lot. Eddie Murphy is very funny to watch. I think the next movie will be the classic, A Christmas Story…then maybe Blazing Saddles. We seem to be into silly fun with our pizza and wine. Outside on the way home, the town and some of the neighbors have decorated for the holidays. I did not see this in the place I left.

The day before I went for a walk to the river. It was very cold and windy.

Lots of puddles to get around or through. I might ask Santa for a pair of boots! The special tree now has a hole all the way through the base of the trunk. I hope it hangs on.

I also worked on another of the stitched animals….bunnies.

Then yesterday I baked the Christmas cake. Very dark.  And I made two because it seemed too much batter for the one round pan. Next year I will not use blackstrap molasses. So in case the flavor is not how I expect, I drowned one in rum and the other in a honey liquor…then drizzled golden syrups into the poked holes. It may take more Madeira and sharp cheese than last year when serving this up to family.

I won’t serve it to friends in case I scare them off. Last night I had my first dinner here for a couple in town that have been very kind to me since the move. It was fun to bring out cloth napkins and make a special dinner with hors d’oeurves. It has been such a long time…before dementia compounded by Covid. I am going to their place this coming Thursday to meet some of their friends.

Other news is that I went to my second poetry meeting a few days ago and actually read one of my poems from Trusting the Tether Line. It was very well received and they encouraged me to keep writing and share more next month. The group is actually quite an education on the subject of poetry; the types, cadences, etc.  I feel so much more at home here in the company of people taking an interest in what I do. Very supportive area that is fun to live in.

Today, now that the washing and ironing are finished, I am going to sit by the fire with my cats and read Louise Penny’s latest book.

later I will bake savoury scones and something else to share with the men at the coffee meetings.

Dilly is exhausted trying to keep up.

Til later….

The Studio Is Ready For Some Action

Posted on by Sandy Webster

I will catch you up on all the work in the studio to get it completely workable. I started with the two kitchen base cabinets from the hardware store and then stained them and put them on the old rug from our former office.

Patrick brought down the oak top he made to fit across…28″ by 68″. Then he and Marla got busy.

Shelves were added and the old unit Lee made for me to hold my pigments was brought in from the garage, stained and hung to the left to hold more things that I wanted in the studio. My small proofing press and the table made for it just fit to the right and holds all the books on or related to printmaking.

On the opposite wall the shelves are filled with more books, art supplies and small collections. The Cow Story now has a new home. It used to be in the guest room before.

All the characters are there with the book I wrote about them open in the background. Marla hung all the artwork, mostly egg temperas, in the room. She has an uncanny eye for where things fit.

An old drawer acts as a curio cabinet.

And the corner of the work table holds my most used tools. Now all my measuring devices are in one place.  At the end of the table standing on the floor is my large cutter….easy to lift to the table when needed.

And the wall between the door to the room and the closet that holds all the papers and cutting boards. Another large egg tempera, two small white line prints, an aboriginal basket and tapestry woven doll.

Below them is my old tool cabinet with all the small drawers sitting on a chest that holds threads. A small table is next to it with all my book binding threads and holds two bins of envelopes and carved stamps stacked one on the other.

The two bottom drawers on the right cabinet under the work table will hold interesting fabrics and the tools related to machine sewing. The machine fits under the work table. The left cabinet of one wide drawer and a door holds all printing inks, brayers and barons. Below behind the door is my XCut XPress with its two sets of bases and felts and all the carving tools.

I continue to add things to the shelves above that I like looking at.

Now on to the other rooms now filled with artwork.

The bathroom with the newly assembled bamboo medicine cabinet fixed over my bamboo clothes hamper.

And inside my closet over my Migun bed are the degrees where I can stare at them while being massaged and the autobiographical drawings of what Lee and enjoyed doing more than a few years ago.  Also my first wood engraving of a nest and a small painting of a child in a bath that was a gift a few years ago. We were bathed in a large galvanized tub when I was small and I loved her timid expression.

Once you start hanging art work, etc in the closet, you know the walls are full.

The last hanging job Marla and Patrick did before leaving early Saturday morning was placing the six fish I had left from the school outside my studio.

I can never look at these wine bottle fish without remembering the fun parties we had and actually drank this wine. I left a full bottle buried under a tree in my yard at the other house.

Just this morning I put together this floor lamp for the corner Marla said was in sore need of one. She was right. I moved my hand sewing baskets to this corner as well. I can sit by the fire, stitch, look at my garden and watch neighbors from this corner.

The old bamboo head went from my old porch to the new. I will wait til Spring to get two chairs and a table for the porch.

And the bark birdhouses now sit with the moss gardens below the tai chi figures.

Yesterday I sat at my new work table and addressed Christmas cards. I love being in this room!

The cats are snuggling on the bed.

And the new Louise Penny book with Inspector Gamache came yesterday so I will likely just go start it now.

Til later….

Sorry I Am So Late…But!

Posted on by Sandy Webster

Yesterday was Thanksgiving.  Patrick and Marla came down for the holiday and are taking the last U Haul trailer load home. The guest room has been turned into a studio! Amazing transformation that I will feature in the next blog. So far Marla has hung fifty-seven more things on the walls. There is little left to hang!

We celebrated….

When they first arrived just five days ago, they set the tree up.

We put the little tree I have used the past few years with a slightly larger one and the glass pears with dried Japanese maple leaves were hung.

There was time for a very cold walk to the river.

And this morning Marla and I hung all fourteen tai chi figures in the entry area to the front door.

One of the boys from the coffee group invited us over to pick through his brush pile.  It feels like home more and more. This afternoon after loading the trailer the three of us are going to hang the wine bottle fish with rocks in a school on the porch. I will put pictures of those, the new studio and more of Marla’s amazing hangings in the next blog.

It is time to get into those Thanksgiving turkey leftovers.

Til later….