Strengthening Cultural Connections: A Maine-New Zealand Collaboration

Can you tell I have been doing lots of academic reading with long titles and colons in the middle?

Well, it's happened again. My little ATCs have gone on a long journey from Maine to NZ (for the price of $3.50, it was a super cheap flight), crossing a continent and an ocean and landing finally on a beautiful green island in the talented hands of Mary Anna of Make It Smirk! We agreed this would be a 2hr for 2 hr swap: I would crank out as many cards as I could in 2 hours (plus a few that I had made before and seemed ready to go on a trip), and she in turn would make something for me in 2 hours.

Here's my new Quilting Tiki:
A tiki, I was informed by the handy wikipedia article Mary Anna included, is a kind of totem of the Maori culture, usually a neck pendant made of greenstone. This is a Quilting Tiki, "an old-fashioned kind of guy who does his by hand," according to the notes from Mary Anna, and he "also appears to have a problem with his foot, but...there is a leech on hand to help him out." (If you are not getting the leech reference, see this post.) She had only safety-pinned the foot with leech on it, in case I got tired of the reference, but I went ahead right away and tacked it down!
Can you see that he has a sewing needle in hand? He also comes equipped with a zipper, so that he can consume my quilting scraps and become fat. Although right now, there are not so many scraps being produced around here, more like piles of paper waste (from the volumes and pages I am reading for school) and somehow I just don't think that will look as nice. Thank you, Mary Anna!

Here are a few ATCs that Mary Anna has now:
It still seems funny to me that someone I have never met can tickle my funnybone so often through her blog posts. Knowing she has a quirky sense of humor inspired the above cards.

And one of my favorites from the Fish Cookery Book:
Be sure to admire Mary Anna's newly organized and spruced-up sewing room. I am totally envious and her photos are beautiful.

I love swapping, even small swaps. If you want to join the fun, leave a comment and let me know you're up for it.

Calvin Coolidge and his unusual boat name

Remember my new favorite old book that I have been using in some recent ATCs? They come from this wonderful treasure trove, The American Heritage Book of Fish Cookery (1980), full of black and white photos of fisherpeople with excellent captions and weird-sounding recipes. I see there's a used one on Amazon for 59 cents, if you fall in love with it from this post. How can I cut up a book, you ask? Well, if no one has checked it out from the library in 8 years, why not turn it into something people WILL look at?

For example, that lady above in her apron is brandishing a fish that is in the process of eating another fish. The caption calls her Granny Turner, of Bear Island, Ontario.
And here is our 30th president (1926-1929), Calvin Coolidge, described as "one of our most enthusiastic presidential anglers" by this source:
And here's a close-up of the name of his jaunty vessel:
(For those of you reading from outside the US, those two words have Other Connotations here. Did they have the same connotations back then? That would be interesting.)

And check out these hotties, described as "...the lean, hard men who put out after bluefish were notorious for being just as strong, wild and quick tempered as the fish they sought..." Yum.
We also have these lovely ladies in their hats, preparing a fish breakfast on the West Branch of the Penobscot, here in Maine in 1885:
Finally, here is Edward Llewellen with his 425 pound giant sea bass, caught off of Catalina Island in California in 1903:
Here is what it's like today, with snow blanketing our window screens:
The shoveling down to the chicken house was heavy and wet and up to Jonas's waist, he reports.

Happy Valentine's Day

The boys came home with their beautiful Valentine's folders from school today. School has a policy about handmade Valentines only, which I love. Here are some of my Valentine ATCs---don't forget to snuggle your loved ones today!

And thanks to Carol for pointing out this amazing design-your-own fabric site, Spoonflower! Just when I think my brain is overfull of the best creative things I could possibly dream up to do in this lifetime...Another great one comes along and somehow my brain doesn't explode.
One thing more that I love: APA's latest bag! Find a gorgeous photo here. Her colors and fabric choices are always a knock-out! She is bold, that one, and I admire her for it. Alewives Girl, do you have this pattern at my favorite fabric shop?

The material on this ATC is from my new favorite, recently-weeded book from Rockport Public Library, entitled: The American Heritage Book of Fish Cookery. Really weird and old sorts of recipes and excellent quotes and black and white photos of fish and fisherpeople. Like a person holding a fish eating another fish. Or a person holding a fish that is 450 pounds. I promise to take some pictures to show you before I cut the whole thing up.

Celebration, then Sickness

ATC Valentine: "So---That's where that guy eats!"

Warm strawberries for a sick boy.

Well I have been the Mama trenches these past days, home with a sick Sylvan. We have read off and on(sometimes from My Father's Dragon, one of my all-time favorite read-alouds), listened to Mary Poppins on CD twice (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious on repeat for awhile, because it brought a smile), one tiny puzzle, lots of coaxing to keep drinking fluids, some auditory hallucinations on his part, putting up towels to cover the windows and taking them down, re-supplying the sick table with books, washing mud off the toy tractor treads so they could be brought in and driven on a sick lap, etc. Thanks be to my loving partner who knows how much I need sleep to function, and let me sleep by myself in the guest bed last night.

What I've been knitting, while being with the sick one.

A gingko leaf bookmark and present.

So, before all this, last weekend I had my birthday. And it was lovely. The perfect sort of day filled with family, a few very special folks, and a lot of crafting.
We weren't that many in number, but we certainly made quite a bit of mess. We had a fabric ATC table and a collage ATC table in the next room.

One of us made a special ATC for Maine's senator, Susan Collins.

The theme was Valentine's Day, could you guess? (And if you need still more Valentine's inspiration after this post, check out Tollipop who is offering a Valentine's freebie! Adorable.)
We ate cake twice.
There was this, a cake appetizer: gingerbread muffins with whipped cream and crystallized ginger.
And later we ate this,
Old-Fashioned Chocolate Layer Cake from Cook's Illustrated (March/April 2006) frosted with my mom's own recipe for peppermint frosting (crushed up peppermint dust added to white frosting), which gives such a pretty pink color.
The cake was perfect and moist.
Is it any wonder we didn't have much appetite for the lovely birthday dinner? Which thankfully was all prepped and ready to be eaten the very next day. Yay for a crafternoon birthday party!

Art Date Hooray!

"Sarah's friends were doubtful about their chances of getting in." (That's a St. Nicholas chocolate coin wrapper on there.)

The kids went to school. The table was cleared and wiped, set for breakfast for two, with a candle. The woodstove was toasty. The cinnamon oatmeal was providing the aromatherapy. Kimberly came and we ate and chatted, then chatted and made ATCs together for a few hours. It felt like a day at the spa. It's amazing how the cards make themselves when you're not paying attention.
This series of three has little tea bag fortunes, with a word or two written inside:

This is a note to self, when my nagging becomes something...else, not necessarily physical. But words do take on different meanings, when the tone is considered. My tone is sometimes aggravated, annoyed, or irritated, especially when I have delivered the same message multiple times:
"All the comforts of your home:"
"Most likely to stick it to the man:"
"We're sorry..."Some of these will make their way into the envelopes with the ATC Jam cards, returning to their collaborators!

And because of my nourished morning, I am not yelling at the monkeys who are playing loud, roughhouse games in close proximity to me.

Maine Libraries Conference

This is what happens when we close for two whole days at Rockport Library. People still come and return their books!

On Saturday, this pile by the bookdrop greeted Jenni and me when we came into the library. And you know what, folks have been very gracious about our closure. Many have voiced support that they are glad our staff is being supported this way. One patron told me she didn't know about the closure and got very concerned when she saw our closed doors, hoping it wasn't a result of tighter budgets. Well, it's not! But please, please keep telling your town officials and legislators how much your library means to you.

The conference was relaxing and wonderful and busy and my brain is still digesting what I heard about there. (And I am still catching up on my sleep.) I attended workshops on Web 2.0 (more than just Facebook, del.icio.us, LibraryThing, but also Voice Thread and more), Nonfiction Readers' Advisory (RA is what we do when we help you find a book you are looking for), ALA's Kids @ Your Library Campaign, Y.A.D.A (a youth/adult initiative to build a better community for empowered youth in Lewiston), and that's just the beginning.

On Thursday night I set up my table of art supplies (magazines, papers, scissors, stamps, markers, etc.) for any willing and interested librarians to come and make ATCs with me. There were about 15 folks who stopped by and maybe 10 or so who sat down and made a couple of cards. They liked it when I told them how low/no-cost and intergenerational ATCs can be. Andy told me the next day she even dreamed about ATCs after making her very first card! And I sold 5 copies of The Great Library ATC Swap!

We heard state senator and Freeport Library Director Beth Edmonds speak, as well as Kate Braestrup (our patron!), Rosemary Herbert (also local and a mystery author), and Ellen Wittlinger (YA author who addresses GLBTQ issues as well as just plain universal teen issues). And while there were certainly highlights from all of our speakers, Ellen's speech really moved me. Her books, in the words of her husband, are about "how art saves us." So much more than just more teen problem books.

I came back inspired to call myself a part of this community of Maine librarians.

ATC News

This week I am taking ATC-making to the Maine Libraries Conference in Bethel, Maine. I will have a table with supplies at the ready during the schmooze time on Thursday night. I am hoping some colleagues will stop by and take an art break, as I am sure our brains will be overloaded from a full day of inspiring programming. I will have a copy of Robinsunne's book to show (and maybe a couple for sale...), The Great Library ATC Swap, and will be happily chatting up the success of our program at Rockport Library!

And do you know the really exciting part? I will be away overnight and having a delightful break from all of the reminding/cajoling/nagging/lunch-making/grocery shopping/huge piles of laundry/morning meltdowns/evening irritabilities, etc. It's not really as bad as all that, but I am ready for a break.

100th Post Milestone is not too far off...
And I would like to do something special to celebrate.

Recently, I participated in my first-ever ATC Jam. This is how it works:

• One person makes three backgrounds, writes his/her name on the back, and then passes those three cards on to the
• Second person, who adds something similar to each of the three cards, writes their address on the back of the three, and passes them on to the
• Third person, who adds the finishing touches to each of the three, then sends them all back to the original person.
• The original person sends each of the other two people a finished card! So we each end up with one card from the edition.
  

The cards, when complete, should not necessarily be identical triplets, but look identifiably like siblings of the same biological family; in art-speak, we call this an edition. So, you can see in these backgrounds I have started that they are all similar. You might decide to add a colored-pencil border around your three, when you receive them. Or perhaps the same rubber stamp flower to each card in the set.
Here's where you come in. I have some folks in mind (Jes, Robinsunne, Carrie, Erna, Emily, Ana, Kimberly/Carly, Jenny/Ella, Milly-Molly-Mandy, Tricia, Joanie) who I would love to play with here, both making art "together," and then sharing it with other friends. Kind of a more fun version of a chain letter. And I always love receiving real mail in my mailbox, even better if it's art in there! Would you like to receive a set of three backgrounds to add to? It's easy because you are responding to what is already there, not just a blank card, and you are also only responsible for a small part of creating it.

Leave a comment if you are interested in trying this out with me, with your email address or other contact information if I don't already have it.

If your name is listed above, consider yourself invited to participate, but still leave a comment to RSVP. And if your name is not listed...Please consider this invitation is for you, also! I would SO LOVE to send off three backgrounds to those readers who stop by from exotic locales like Kuala Lumpur or Australia!

ATC and Art Journal News

The above ATC is glued right into my Art Journal...

Our Saturday Swap did an ATC Round Robin. So much fun. We all started a card and then passed it on after five minutes or so. The results were really surprising and interesting! It was also a great exercise in letting your art go...into another person's creative hands. Whose art is is really? Hmmm.
And the Press stopped by! Check it out here (you'll have to scroll down a bit, or read the whole thing, it's a cool glimpse of our diverse community!).
The above card was made collaboratively by me and Ella on Friday night, and glued right into the Art Journal. So here are some more pictures from that project, first mentioned in this post. This is Robinsunnes's new book, and YES, they will be for sale! I will keep you posted. Check out her blog to see some images of what she's been doing with hers lately! Leave her a comment if you're interested!