Day 3. Return journey book

Day 3. Took the day off and went to visit my parents. Passing through Stockholm to buy a few necessities - flowers, german specialities, a cast iron pan, a digital watch, a spatula, blueberry soup...

Don't throw anything away - make art with it, like El Anatsui. Thank you Annika Ekdahl (one of the intitiators of th Broke and Brave project) for the tip!

Day 2. Hints of spring

Day 2. Hints of spring. Roadside findings during hunt for owner of run-away dog.

Day 1. Found and bound.

Day 1. Found: beer cans in the forest. My first contribution to the

BROKE & BRAVE or The Not Just Another Ordinary Week Project (a Facebook project initiated by Annika Ekdahl and Birgitta Nordström).

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BROKE & BRAVE or The Not Just Another Ordinary Week Project.

From April 11th to April 17th, we invite you to take part in an art activity that doesn’t cost anything and doesn’t leave behind a pile of transformed materials.

You can chose 2 levels – or maybe try them both.

The BROKE level:Browse around the area where you live/stay/work or a place you temporary visit until you find something. Make something of that item. Take a photo. Upload it to Facebook*.

The BRAVE level:Browse around the area where you live/stay/work or a place you temporary visit. Approach a stranger. Ask: ”Hi, I wonder if you can give me something?” If you get something as a gift (don´t accept money!), make something of that item. Take a photo. Upload it on Facebook.

DO THIS ONCE A DAY!

*Look up Annika Ekdahl, Kyrkhult, on Facebook. Go to the Broke & Brave group and ask to be a member. Upload your image – with info about date & place & level (broke or brave) – every day during the week.

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I like the way Maria Lewis deals with tins and cans and other overlooked materials.

going places

My weekend was very intense but satisfying. I left sunny Stockholm on Saturday and arrived under very grey skies of Göteborg 4 hours later. We still have snow outside our house - in Göteborg there was spring in the air. Strange how, just a few hours away, the climate is quite different.

I was in Göteborg to work, so on Sunday, I held a small book case/box workshop at Rum för Papper. I brought out my camera too late, we were wrapping things up, so no-one's longer at the table... Must get better shots next time. On Monday night I was back in the shop, holding an "inspirational evening" for a company. They made a small handstitched book each.



Sunday evening was spent with Birgitta in her home on the island of Hönö. She's a wonderful textile artist. We got to know each other when she attended one of my bookbinding workshops at HDK. She's working on an art project and I'm to design a booklet about it. The project involves weaving - a new world to me.










On the other side of the world, my brother left Tokyo with an unreal feeling. He made it back to Sweden on Sunday night and I was very happy to see him again, on Monday. There are no words to express my feelings for the Japanese people. But my thoughts are with you.

thoughts for Japan

Today I'm leaving for Göteborg, but my thoughts are with the people of Japan. The images from the tsunami are terrifying, the force and impact from all that water is incomprehensible. I'm especially concerned with my brother, who is trapped in Tokyo on business. Airports are closed for the time being, and they don't know when they'll be able to fly out. But mail is working and he and his collegues are, under the circumstances, okay.

Posting some wallflowers and hoping that Mother Nature calms down.

room for paper

...is Rum för Papper in Swedish. I held a small bookbinding workshop there 2 weeks ago and this coming Sunday it's time for a box workshop. Participants will make a box for a treasured book they own.



Staying with Lena & family as usual :) Staying up way past my regular bedtime, talking and talking... And admiring the nice ways of softspoken, well-mannered beautiful Svante...


...returning home to our own pooch, badly in need of a trim and one or two lessons on how to behave ;)

literary flowers

I made some small flowers for Kaleido. Eternal flowers, no need to water :)

paper workshop

This past week was extremely cold, -21°C, but also extremely beautiful. I had a hard time seeing the beauty of it on Wednesday when I was to give a 2-day workshop at Nyckelviksskolan, and neither trains, commuter trains or buses went. At all. Everything stood still.

I finally got there - though 2 hours late. But we soon got down to business, working with papier maché on Wednesday and paper pulping on Thursday. I was surprised by all the ideas that popped up, there's no end to what you can do. I'm as inspired as the students are. And as always, great group of people, this time Hantverkspedagogerna.

Now I'm off to Göteborg, to Rum för Papper!
Have a great weekend!

all boxed up

I'm making many boxes - or maybe they're rather called book cases - these days. I enjoy doing them, it's satisfying work. You start off with some cardboard and end up with an elegant casing for various objects. In this particular case, historic documentation about a manor was placed inside, together with a copy of an old map from the 16th century. It was to be a birthday gift to the husband/owner of the manor.

hand made and nature made

This is how the paper pulping I worked with a few days ago turned out. I like the shape very much and the rough/smooth surface. The PVA that was mixed in makes it very sturdy, although, holding it up against the light, I can see I missed a few spots...

Yesterday evening a group from the Uppsala University Library came to visit my studio. I showed them paper objects, coffee constellations and drawings. They bought a few art pieces for their art lottery they hold once a year. Very nice group of people!

Winter still holds us in a firm grip.

And it looks like it's going to be a looong winter.


Pearls in Rosas hair.

fall workshops

Posting some shots from various workshops I gave under the fall of 2010. During my exhibition "Bladverk" in September, in the Kaleido gallery, I held three evening workshops. One of bookbinding, one of papier maché and during the cultural night "Kulturnatten" in Uppsala; one drop-in workshop in stab-binding for both children and grownups.




In October I visited Göteborg again, for a cosy Sunday of bookbinding in Rum för Papper. I'm due there again soon: next bookbinding workshop is Sunday 27th of February. Check out their website if you want to sign up! The shop alone is paradise for paper lovers...

sticky business

I'm testing making objects out of paper pulping - it's great!
In a few weeks I'm doing a 2-day paper workshop for ceramique students at Nyckelviksskolan. One day of papier maché and one of paper pulping.
The process of preparing the pulp was easy; shred paper into a bowl, soak over night, simmer on the stove for 20 minutes, mix in a blender, stir in some PVA... ready. Ideas are piling up inside my head...




My copy of the 3x3 Illustration Annual No. 7 finally arrived. It's a heavy, beautiful book filled with amazing, inspiring illustrations. There are sooo many talented people out there... Anyway, it's nice to see my own illustrations there on the page - they made it through the tough competition :)

Greetings!

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to you all!

I haven't blogged for several months due to a full-time day job I've had during this period. But now I'm back!