Summer in the Studio

Today I sit in my studio and a cool breeze blows. It is an uncommon, yet so lovely, coolish August in Michigan. Typically the pond is low at this time of year, the grass a rain-starved brown, the heat and haze of hot summer prevailing. Not so today. It is mid-70's, refreshing and energizing. The proof copies wait at the printers, and I wait for word from them.

A couple views of the proofs.

As I wait, I have still been productive. See those stacks of folded papers in the background? Those are 2009 Israel Journal "cast offs" that I have been using to make prototypes for the 2012 Israel Journal.   My first choice has always been a leather cover, which seems natural for a travel journal, don't you think? So, using left-overs and cast-offs, and some leather I had purchased a couple of years ago, I have begun playing with construction design for the new journal. Here is what I have come up with so far:

The dark thread (third from the top) just arrived yesterday, and is what I had in mind all along. I like it. New leather samples should be here any day now. All this behind-the-scenes stuff is pretty exciting in my little 40 acres piece of woods! (And the luscious smell of leather doesn't hurt either.)

    

One more thing I haven't mentioned yet. There will also be notecards, for those who still send wonderful little notes via snail mail. Two different sets (8 cards each) will be available. The images on the cards are from both Israel Journals. Set 1 from 2009 Journal, Set 2 from the yet to be released 2012 Journal. These are also at the printers, but will look like this:

So....

Just wanted to let you know that the days are busy and the work is progressing. Thank you for your kind interest. I will keep you updated and would love to hear from you!

   Shalom, 

        Colleen