After
looking through photos of my latest mini books, K emailed asking "i
noticed your adhesives-- do you not worry about using archival materials?"
No, I don’t.
I try to take advantage of inspiration as soon as it hits. If a vintage map catches my eye while I’m flipping through some of my old books, I’ll make a greeting card with it right away. If I think of a neat cover for my latest mix cd, I open up Photoshop and get to work on it. (See the one above? hot air balloon image from www.balloonfestivals.com.) When I sit on an idea for too long it feels forced and inorganic when I come back to it later. And whatever I create doesn’t feel like me.
When it comes to supplies, I have a similar attitude. I use what inspires me and usually that’s what’s easy to use or easy to reach. Maybe I should worry that there’s too much acid in my pretty little masking tape (not sure?) or my favorite pen or that the beautiful decorative paper I was compelled to buy is going to ruin my photos. But my photos are all digital and safely backed up and my bigger worry is that I won’t use the pretty paper that’s piled up in the corner of the room, or that I’ll never print my photos and have them on physical display.
In the spirit of letting inspiration take hold, I made a new book last night. I’m not sure what’s going in it, but I didn’t want to wait for an event or a theme to put this book together. I’ve been loving blues and reds together lately, so I combined some of my favorite shades. It helped that I went to an event at Paper Source and got to take advantage of sale prices. Yay!
What are your favorite supplies? Do you worry about their archival quality?
***I've
decided to run a series on books over the next few days (weeks? until I run
out, I guess). I'll share some of my favorite books to carry around, what
supplies I bring with me on trips, some easy book-binding techniques, and what
inspires my favorite pages.
Feel free
to use any tip or technique I share on the blog in your own work. If you find a
way to make it profitable, by all means, use it. If you really like an idea
that I've shared, I'd love a link back to my blog or the post where I shared
it; if you like lots of my ideas, consider adding me to your blogroll. If I
share something that I didn't come up with myself, I will point you to the
source; if I point you to another website or blog, please be considerate about
how others want their work attributed.If you make something super neat using an
idea from my blog, I'd love to see a photo of it! Thanks and enjoy.***
