Week Four - No Strings Attached

This book is not held together with stitching like the others but is bound only using paper.  The silver piece that is the center of the binding also wraps all the way around the book and becomes the closure as well.  The pages are blank paper, recycled paper, and decorated paper.

Mirror Mirror

The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say. - Gregory Maguire

Steppenwolf

Fantasy will set you free

Paper Anyone?

Since graduation in December 2011 from the School of Design at NCSU I have been making many books.  Books for shows, to sell, the book challenge, etc.  Amazingly enough I have yet to buy paper for any of the books (most of which have blank paper in them) or book board for covers.  I have been using all the left over paper from the ridiculous number of half used sketch books I have (we had to buy a new sketch book every semester and normally for every class) and leftovers from project.  I've been re-purposing the covers of said sketch books as the covers for the new books.  I'm going to post when I have run out of paper.  I don't know about you, but I am quite curious to know how long all of this will last me.

Week Three - License Plate

This book is made from an old license plate.  I used black sketch paper on the inside with some decorated papers for a touch of color.

Last Nights Dream - Island Overflow

We had taken a trip out to an island.  It was small and tropical with many trees and only cliffs out to the sea.  While I was there, after doing much exploring, I started to work on a bug collection.  I was in a very cluttered lab/studio space and all my bugs and containers were stashed behind a dirty couch.  So I pulled them out and started to work on a small space of table that wasn't cover in papers and random objects.  As I was working, people would come in and either help or watch.  My boyfriend came in too.  He sat with me the longest.  During the whole time I was working, the room we were in slowly started to disappear.  Where there were walls and desks, trees and bushes started to grow instead.  While I was working I had to find all the bugs I need to pin a black bag.  I had lost one though, it looked like a quail mixed with a peacock but the size of my thumb.  As the room changed though, from inside to outside, I saw one walking by so I stabbed it with my pin.  I had to do it a couple times for I had missed the first time and only stabbed his butt.  To help stab him, I myself got smaller so I wouldn't lose him.

All of a sudden water started to rush in.  A little at first but then more and more.  My bugs were swept away, trees were falling down, but panic I did not.  I'm really quite unsure of how this worked but in the dream it made perfect sense; So the island was rising hundreds of feet while at the same time flooding.  It was taking on an "edge of the world" effect where all the water rushes off the edge as a huge waterfall, though in this case along with the water there were trees, bushes, some cats and dogs, and other random things.  I was hanging on the edge so I didn't get washed off the island.  Tons of water and debris were rushing over head.  It was quite an amazing view looking down.

And then I woke up. . .  A short dream but this was only one part of it.  The rest was too confusing to put into words.

Last Nights Dream - Zombies and Hedgehogs

First I saw myself.  The other me was staring back but there was nothing in her eyes, almost as if they were dead.  No expression, no movement, almost like something you would see in a scary movie.  Then I saw a row of children, all around the age of 7, standing in line in a WWII military base.  They all had uniforms on and their bodies facing away from me, but their heads were turned a quarter of the way back as if looking at something on my right.  Except one boy.  He had his head turned back farther and was looking straight at me, but his face was black, no features at all.  It look like someone had Sharpie Marker-ed over his in a photo, or his face had been cut off and there was nothing in his head.  The last thing I saw before I really starting dream was a door that was slightly open.  Everything was black except for the doorway, like standing in a dark room with a light on in the hallway.  A small face slowly leaned in the view of the doorway.  All black with no features.  Just a silhouette.  And then it slide back out of view.

It started off in a large, old, wooden mansion.  It was in the middle of a field that went on as far as you could see, touching the sky in the distance.  At first it was a game, us against the zombies, and then turned into a horror film.  I was in the body of a little girl, maybe 10-12 years old, and there were only a hand full of us left by the time it turned into a slaughter fest, horror movie, with us (the humans) losing.  I hide in the bathroom at the end of the hall on the 3rd floor.  Peering out around the old claw footed tub, I looked down the hallway.  The closet door, on the right, was where the zombie princess and her zombie body guard were closed in.  It was her room.  The door right next to it was where all the humans were hiding in (except me, for some reason, as a 10 year old, I went solo).  About another 25 - 30 feet down the hall way was the stair case.  I could hear the creaking of the other zombie minions, slowly coming up the stair case, over the bickering of the humans.

Then the zombie body guard and one of the large male humans both came out of their rooms at the same time and started bickering with each other.  I was very confused.  The bickering then turned into a wrestling match.  That was when I came out of my hiding spot to make it stop.  I seemed to be on the zombies side, trying to get the human off of him.  I kept yelling "Leave him alone!"  I just got pushed off of course being that I was a small girl.  At this point, the zombie minions were flooding the hallway and rooms, no longer slowly either, while the zombie princess arrogantly watch from the doorway of her room.  The only female in the grouped grabbed my arm and yanked me towards the bathroom window.  She broke the window and pushed me up and out as fast as she could, following shortly after me.  When we, somehow, climbed down the side of the house and made it some feet away, we turned and looked at the mansion.  She had been bitten.

We turned around and there was a huge complex of warehouses, all concrete, rusted metal, and broken dirty glass.  But by the time we got in the first warehouse there was only one of us.  A young woman in her 20's.  I was her now.  I couldn't tell if the little girl was gone and I was now the woman who had saved her or if that woman was gone and I was the little girl just 10 years or so later.  It didn't seem to matter though to me, I just started exploring around the maze like hallways.  The place was apparently owned/occupied by this older man who would do experiments on anyone who wondered there (which was apparently a lot of people including myself).  I met some strange looking people with strange things attached to them or following them.  This placed also seemed to be like a game; there were teams that would battle other teams.

One guy I ran into had two small spiny hedgehogs following him around.  One was yellow and the other a grayish blue.  The yellow one was very sweet and ran around on his own.  It kept coming to me wanting to be petted.  The grayish one on the other hand kept trying to bit me and was attached to the man by a leash, and the leash was sew into the mans arm.  I was annoyed with the stupid little man and his grayish hedgehog so I walked on.  But the yellow one kept following me, and there for the man and his grayish one followed too since they all belonged together.  A couple hallways later, after passing a room with men mixed with plants, I stopped.  At the end of the hallway was the man who owned the place.  He kept staring at me.  As I stared back, I had forgotten about the little man and his hedgehogs, and the gray one ran up and bit me!  I was very upset and started arguing with the little man.  The owner came down the hallway to break us up, and after seeing that the gray hedgehog did indeed bite me, the owner (with the wave of his hand?) killed the little man and the gray hedgehog, and let me keep the yellow one.

The owner then preceded to show me around the warehouses and shortly after I woke up . . .

Last Nights Dream - Rat Mario

I was wandering around a mall looking for a certain bag that I knew I wanted.  It was in Victoria Secret or Coach, the same store in my dream but the name would switch between those two.  My dog Zoe was with me too, just following me around the mall.  We had to go upstairs to get to the store so we got into this small room that looked like the elevator.  But of course it was not.  The elevator was just the corner of the room where you pushed a button and a wooden box about the size of a shoebox came down from a hole in the celling.  I had to stand on the box and, watch the arms and feet and such, ride the box up through the hole in the ceiling (the same size as the box) up to the next floor.  And some how Zoe managed to get one with me or teleported to the second floor because she was there with me when I got off the elevator.  But when I turned the corner to go in the store, it wasn't there.  So I had to go to a different mall.

A friend of mine drove me to another mall and took the very last entrance to the mall and parked as far away as possible because it seemed like the best idea to him.  Well, since we were so far away, that meant I had to get into a verbal fight with some random people to gain entrance to the mall.  I won, ate a beautiful breakfast feast, watched my dog win a dog fight (without getting hurt), and then Zoe and I got in the mall.  It was exactly the same as the first; elevator, people, store layout, smells, food, etc.  We took the elevator again and went to the store that had the bag.  I couldn't find the bag but after I had looked for a couple minutes a guy came in with a new product for the store; a bag made from a man's shirt.  I took it from him and put it on.  It fit so strangely but was amazing and I wanted it.  But while the guy and the manager were talking about it, I looked over at the two dressing rooms in the corner.  They looked like two bathroom stalls attached to the wall.  Someone was in the left one but the right one was open and there was kid climbing up the wall between the two stalls.  He got to the top and started to watch the woman change her clothes.  I yelled at him "Get down from there right now."  They manager and product guy got distracted from what they were doing to come over and see what was going on.  At that point Zoe and I walked away with the man's shirt bag.

Then I was sitting at a large wooden dining table that had rounded corners.  At the table was also my boyfriend, some of his friends, and some girl sitting on the other side of my boyfriend.  We were trying to play bridge but with all of us and about 8 decks of cards; so it wasn't working well at all.  I kept getting too many cards in suit and the same card as someone else so we never really got started.

Since we couldn't play bridge we decided to go outside.  Standing outside on the balcony was like looking around a mini-castle, kinda like what you see at a putt-putt place.  There was a hole in the wall of the balcony and a rat sitting next to it staring at me.  So I transferred myself into the rat so I could play what seemed to be a real life rat-Mario.  We were in a pipe system very similar to Mario underground maps but much dirtier and gooey.  You had to jump over things, through things, not get hit by spiny things, and make it out to the end where you become yourself again.

After that I went back inside and told my boyfriend that I was going to take a shower and cut my hair.  Which I did, I just chopped it all with giant scissors so it was shoulder-length and very uneven.  While I was gone his sister had run around and been irritable, complaining about everyone and everything.  But I missed her getting into a fight and losing.  Then my boyfriend and the random girl walked over to the apartment room next to ours to hang out and came back before I got out of the shower.  I was very upset with him, he had said things around her that I had never known myself.  He never told me he was leaving.  I guess I was jealous.  So in return I cut her hair too and tied her to a suitcase full of dirty clothes and giant sweat shirts. . .

Week Two - Hands

This book is made from left over hands from my Art to Wear show.  You can see images of the garments on my website at WhatsMahappenin.com.  Made from hand dyed cotton.

Last Nights Dream - Missing Mail Man

The first part of my dream started off in what looked like the plains of Africa.  Spread out in front of me were hundreds of pots, each one for a different purpose.  Our job was to go around and gather anything we could find and put it in it's respective pot; grass, animals, leaves, sticks, bugs, etc.

And that was the end of that part of the dream.

We were all sitting on bus together but no one talked.  All seeming to be off in their own thought.  The bus was stopped on the side of a small narrow street, lined on either side with many tall skinny shops.  You could hardly see the sky, not that it was anything great to look at.  There was a mail man on the bus with us.  The bus would wait for him to get back on after he delivered mail to a store, then drive another 6 feet or so to the next shop, stop and wait again for him to deliver more mail.  I'm really not sure why we all waited on the bus but no one made to leave or even seem irritated.

But one time the mail man didn't get back on.  We waited for what seemed to be a couple of hours before we finally got up from our seats and moved around.  The bus stayed where it was.  A bus that seemed to have no driver.  At this point I decided that I was going to be a mail man today since the real one wasn't going to come back.  I grabbed his mail bag and stuffed it with as much as I could (though I'm really unsure of where I got the mail from since there was none on the bus).  I left his mail clothes on the floor, under the seat, where he had left them (why he wasn't wearing the clothes didn't seem to bother me at the time).  So I set off to give out mail to shop after shop on the tiny and narrow street.

After awhile I ran out of mail, but instead of going back to the bus to load up more, I kept going and just decided to collect the mail the shops wanted to be sent out.  I was enjoying myself, it seemed fun for some unfathomable reason.  I got to one shop where I could hardly get the lady at the counter to give me her mail since she was "too busy" (and pompous) then tried to get me to put all the stamps and stickers on it.  I started yelling at her, throwing things off the counter on the floor, rolling around on the counter, and basically making a fool of myself, though in the dream it seemed as though I was teaching her a lesson.

And apparently getting over that fast, I moved on the the next town, which was equivalent to the next block of the street.  At one of my last stops of the "town" I called out into a large store opening if they had any mail to be picked up.  The response I got was "who wants to know?"  Then my studio professor from school walks around the corner, gives me hug, and asks how I'm doing.  I responded "I'm a mail man for a day!"

And then I woke up. . .

Last nights dream - Conan's battle

It started out in a very open area; something like you would see in a large concrete building used at fairs to hold the animals and overly large vegetables.  Concrete floor, concrete benches, concrete walls, and large “things” placed around the area.  Some distant family members were sitting in a circle near by talking and giggling.  They wanted me to come over but I was waiting for a friend who was just about to walk around the corner.  But my god did she look bad.   She looked as if she had gained about 200lbs.  “Bad day” she yelled as she then turned around to go back around the corner.  When she came back again she had gotten ride of about 100lbs or so.  I find out now that she had some sort of allergic reaction so we (still in this concrete building) look around for something that would help.  I knew of something, it was reddish, which would work. 

We get over to this bug station, which has boxes full of thousands of bugs of all different sizes.  The man standing there helped us look through the boxes.  When he found the bug we were looking for he took it out, held it over her hands, and then squeezed the juice out of it on these 3 red dots that were on her hand.  After she rubbed it in, what the hell, she was just fine. 

So of course now I move to another, completely different, part of a dream where I am now a guy.

We are walking down a school breezeway that is lined with stacks of book.  I have picked up a few books that I’m discussing with the people I’m walking with as we approach a stairway on the right.  Instead of turning right to walk down the stairs I jump off the ledge onto a desk of a professors where I then started to shake and turn his computer screen.  After a couple seconds I stop and start to walk away.  As I leave I started transforming into this small fuzz ball creature with long stick arms and legs.  There were lots of us, male and female.  It turned into a mating ritual where a female picked you, fused with you, then popped out a small baby fuzz ball.

After that endeavor, I transformed back into a person, this time looking kind of like Conan the barbarian; Large, not much clothing, long black hair, and very tall.  He was walking around, trying to put up his hair to get ready for a competition when he ran into his father.  They were have a broken family argument.  The father was trying to find out what was bothering Conan, why he was so upset with him.  Finally, when Conan would still not tell, his reflection in mirror came to life and started yelling at his father.  “its you, its all because of you.” The real Conan then interrupts to point out that his father had missed part of his hair while putting it up.

The competition then starts.  Many people enter a circular track that’s 2 stores surrounded by a very large octagon black fence.  Four rabbits are held in cages around the top floor of the rink.  The point of the game is to catch and somehow smash the rabbits.  Since there were four rabbits, which meant there could be four winners who went to the next round.  Conan’s archenemy was there, who looked like a really large Donkey Kong, about 3 times as large as Conan. 

The match began and Conan and Donkey Kong ignored the rabbits and went right for each other.  Donkey Kong eventually grabbed Conan from behind from around the chest.  Conan prepared to be slammed into the ground but instead Donkey Kong started to tickle him.

At this point I woke up frustrated because I hate tickling and I couldn’t get it to stop in the dream . . . .

Week One - beer box book

This is made from a beer box and old sketch book paper.  It's blank on the inside.  This is one of my favorite type of sketch books to make and to use :)

My Engagement Ring

The Book Challenge

The book challenge has now officially begun.  Kathy Steinsberger and I are going to each create one book a week for all of 2012.  That is a total of 52 books!  We will post an image of each week's book as they are finished and post updates on how things are going on our blogs.  We must have each week's book posted by midnight each Sunday.  To see Kathy's books, check her blog at paper buttons.  Make sure to check in each week to view our progress.

Welcome to the year of 2012!!!