New Tools and New Plans For a New Year

This tree looks about the way I feel: kind of worse for wear. But I was back at work today, and I was feeling really pretty good. It was a fairly warm day for this time of year. There were a few days when it was really cold in my studio, just as cold as it was outside. Now I have lots of extra clothes piled up in my studio to put on if I get cold.

I spent the day preparing my calendar for the new year and generally getting organized. I'm always trying a different version of calendar/journal. The one I have this time makes me feel optimistic. I'm combining two months together, a day on a page, with 100 sheets of lined paper for writing and drawing. On the daily pages themselves, I can write down appointments and other things I want to remember. I can also use those pages for pictures that I save from magazines. Each page will be used in any way it works best for that day. It did occur to me that I could use it for my blog pages, and I might do that, but I'm not sure that's the best solution. I could also use those pages for drawing.

After I finished my calendar and did some organizing, I spent the rest of the day working on my copper cutout idea. Before I got sick, I had drawn a whole group of circles on a piece of copper. I had started to cut them out and make them into little medallions. But today when I looked at the copper with circles on it, I thought I could use a part of it to make a line of trees. I cut out a piece and then began shaping it into trees with open space between the tree trunks, the leaves all joined together in an undulating line above. I'll work on it tomorrow.

I've decided to create a copper "base" on which the trees and other objects will rest. The base will be a flat piece of copper with one of my poems etched onto it and also some suggestion of a landscape features like a canal, bridge, and so forth. Then the cutout trees will stand on the base and can be rearranged to suit the observer. I can see the idea going in a variety of different related directions. There could be all kinds of environments like seascapes, farmyards, interiors of buildings, buildings in a cityscape, groups of people. I think it sounds like lots of fun. I can also see a line of trees superimposed on a bracelet for example or a pin, or individual trees or whatever as "charms" on a necklace or bracelet.

I got a heavy-duty hole punch that I can use for making holes for rivots. I won't have to use a drill press or even a drill. I'm happy about that because I can make holes so quickly and easily. It will give me a way to make bracelets much more quickly and easily. So I'm definitely moving forward in the New Year.