Always Some Work To Do

Here's a photo I took several weeks ago. It's the window of one of the Spanish Village studios. The artist who use to have that studio was my art teacher when I was in high school. She's no longer living, but she was an inspiration to me during her lifetime and continues to be one now. I miss not being able to talk to her.

But based on the inspiration she instilled in me, I was working today even though I didn't go to my studio. After I went to the gym this morning, I spent about an hour working on sketches for the purpose of creating etchings. I spent the time creating small drawings, ones measuring 4 inches by 4. I created about ten new sketches. I have to wait for a day or so and then go back and look at them with a fresh eye.

After sketching, I set out to find a book on making chains for jewelry. I have a great deal of wire that was given to me. It is too thick to go through most of the beads I use. So I want create jump rings and makes some chains. Unfortunately, I never got a book with directions for making the various chains. But after searching three different bookstores, I did find one that will work. It doesn't have a huge selection, but enough to work for now. If I get really ambitious, I'll try to find one on the internet.

The third thing I did was spend some time reading about making books and embellishing existing ones. I'm very taken with books and am always working on at least several sketchbooks and journals at the same time. In fact, I have an idea for a new book, one in which I collect all the paper in my life. I've started to save some of it recently. I can see that it could be a useful exercise periodically to see how life has changed and how it stays the same. Perhaps this weekend, I'll spend time creating a book in which to put my "papers." I also will go on with my etching plates and my jewelry. That will keep me busy.