Recently I’ve run into people making things with old book covers, or as they call them, “book skins.” Here are the first ones I found, Suzanna Scott’s art quilts. She says
In my attempt to use all the parts ‘n pieces of old books stashed away in the studio I’ve stitched together these mini art quilts using salvaged “book skins”. The subtle coloring of the cloth bindings on old book covers enticed me to see if I could remove the cloth from the book boards and….voila!….a new collage material.
Happy 2015! Every year Pantone picks a “color of the year” and for 2015 it’s “marsala,” described as a “naturally robust and earthy red”, the rich wine hue is meant to embody “the satisfying richness of a fulfilling meal” and emanates “a sophisticated, natural earthiness”. It seems awfully old-fashioned to me, what do you think?
My guillotine has a metal guide. When I moved, the little spring, washer and nut that hold the guide to the ruler disappeared. I’ve been using a clamp to hold it in place. But the clamp causes the far end of the bar to lift up, so then I had to use tape to keep it down…
I finally called the guillotine manufacturer and bought the spring, washer, nut…
I took pictures of them, then carefully put the parts on the guillotine to figure out how it all went together. Immediately, the spring launched into the air, bounced on the floor and ended up under the cabinet next to the guillotine.
As I started to take the baseboard off, I remembered we had a retractable magnet (an indispensable tool!).
I waved it around in the slot under the baseboard and the magnet picked up the spring for me. I gingerly put it back on the guillotine and managed to get the guide back together without another mishap.
My sister visited over Thanksgiving, and when she looked at my matchbox Miss Emily’s Desk, she asked why I didn’t use Dickinson’s handwriting. The obvious answer is that no one has made a font of her hand. But that got me thinking that I have on my list to see what it takes to make a font of my own handwriting. Turns out it’s pretty simple to make a so-so font (kerning and baseline problems being the first glaring issue) for free at PaintFont.com. I also took a look at Dickinson’s handwriting, which is very unique.
(From the Emily Dickinson Archive)
And found this by Emily Babcock, “A page of a booklet of communications from the Prophetess Anna and a native spirit named Carifick P.” (1843) on this blog. He says “Here, each letter appears to be related to the Latin alphabet but written in the shape of a flower.”
![Emily Babcock, [A page of a booklet of communications from the Prophetess Anna and a native spirit named Carifick P.] (1843)](http://www.greenchairpress.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/communications-from-the-prophetess1.jpg)
