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August 11, 2007
D'oh!
I had a HUGE “D’oh!” moment this morning.
Let me explain. No that will take too much. Let me sum up.
Yesterday, I felt a hankerin’ to do some art. I haven’t done any in a while, I’ve been working on other things (like syllabi and lesson plans) and not doing any creative stuff, not in the hands-on fine art kind of way. There’s just no time, especially since I have to clean up immediately after every art project because I don’t really have a studio space. For messy work, I use the kitchen counter, which must also be available for meal preparation. For the other stuff, I have an office, but I can’t just leave things lying about on the floor all of the time.
So instead of working, which I sort of think I should be, I took yesterday off and did art. Specifically, covers for my journals.
I bind my own journals. I’ve discovered that I can’t find any with the right kind of paper and the right kind of binding, so I just decided to do it myself. I’ve been binding books since April, and while I will not claim any kind of expertise in the field, I must say I kind of like the results. I’ve filled three big journals—96 pages—since I started making my own. I just finished the third one this morning, and if I want to keep up my daily writing, I need to bind some more. The signatures are ready, I just need to bind the books.
I’d decorated a couple of covers in the last week, but hadn’t bound anything yet. And I know for a fact that I will not have time to make any books during the semester. It just will not happen. So yesterday I decided to get down to it and make some covers. The great thing is how different they all are, all sorts of different boards for the background and all different kinds of embellishments, from paint to stickers to buttons to pressed leaves and flowers. I’m really pleased with the variety.
And because I’m a geek, I’ve given them titles. Roll over the pix to see what they are.
(The D’oh! Moment is coming. I promise. I haven’t forgotten about it.)
The cover in question is this one:
It’s a piece of copper matboard. I printed a copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnet XXX on parchment resume paper, and after almost setting myself on fire and practically burning down the house in an attempt to scorch the edges, I decided to try for the same effect using watercolor paints. I tore the edges really roughly, rather than neatly, and used yellow, tan, brown and black watercolors to simulate aging and damage. It worked out really well, I think. Once I glued it to the matt board, you couldn’t tell which was on top. It looked like the sonnet was underneath the copper and had somehow been revealed.
Then I added some pressed autumn leaves and a little pressed asparagus fern. After that, I put the whole thing under sparkly gold net because that keeps the ends of leaves and petals and branches from breaking off. I liberally covered the entire thing with glue, to be sure the net stuck and protected the whole piece.
In doing this, I solved a problem I’ve struggled with ever since I started doing collage work. The papers I use for backing invariably warp and curl as I’m working on them. The moisture content of the glue causes it, and as the glue dries, the paper stays warped. This is troublesome because I can’t press the pieces while they’re drying. 1) I’ll end up with the pressing object glued to the top of the thing I’m trying to flatten and 2) it will take forever and a day to dry with no access to air. So I’ve been living with the warping.
Until yesterday.
Yesterday, it was as though the clouds parted and the sun shone down and lit the lightbulb above my head with a “ting” that set off a full angel chorus. I weighted the edges of the gauze with bricks. They were exactly the right size to fit around the cover and when I removed them this morning, that sucker was completely flat.
I was so proud of myself. Both for having an inspired moment and for making something as beautiful as that cover. And in celebration, I tried to see if I could still read the sonnet. What with the paint splashes and glue smears (moisture makes the ink run) and the netting and all, that sometimes proves a challenge.
Which is when I discovered that the sonnet was missing a line. (D’oh!)
I figured it out when the rhyme scheme got wonky. Somewhere in the process of transferring from pixels to page (of course I didn’t type it in myself) I lost a line. And Never Even Noticed. I never noticed that it didn’t rhyme. Never noticed that it was only 13 lines instead of 14. Never noticed any of that stuff.
Then again, I didn’t feel that I needed to proof the Bard’s work. If there’s anybody who doesn’t need proofreading, I figure it’s William Shakespeare. For one thing, all of the typos have been caught and addressed already in the last 400 years, I’m thinking. So proofing his work? Not on my list of necessary activities.
Proofing my work on the other hand, that should be mandatory.
Anyway, It’s too late to do anything about it now. The cover is done and it’s too pretty to toss. Plus, I could never replicate it. I don’t have the leaves or the fern, and even with super-careful work and the best intentions in the world, I couldn’t duplicate the paint splatters. And in the end, it’s not that big a deal. I mean, I’m not trying to sell it. It’s just for me. And I’m taking the long view.
I will have to change the title, though. I was going to name this notebook Sonnet Thirty. Now I’m going to have to call it Sonnet XXX, Abridged.
Posted by sally at August 11, 2007 10:31 AM
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