I was reading an article about work capacity. It’s a physics
concept that I haven’t thought much about since I was in high school but it’s
one of those great concepts that really can apply to so much more than just
physics. The article that I was reading was about working out and being able to
more than the next person when you need to but I was thinking how can I apply
that concept to art, because really it doesn’t matter too much to me if I can’t
relate it to art.

So I got to thinking what can I do to increase my work (art)
capacity. I came up with 4 items to do so. For the next 4 weeks I’m going to
post a new work(art) capacity item.

#2 Compartmentalize.

Psychology tells us this is bad, factories tell us this is
good and efficient. The main thing to
ask yourself with this section is how can you break your process up? Can you break it into steps? For instance with book biding I cut my paper, fold my paper,
make covers, create spine designs, punch holes and sew. So there are a lot of
places where I can take my process and break it up into pieces and do all of it
at once. For instance, I’m able to cut a lot of paper at once and then fold it
to the number of sheets I need in an evening. The next evening I’ll make
covers. When I work on books I usually have 2 or 3 custom orders going and a
dozen or so getting ready for etsy. I save a lot of time by not pick up between
steps.

These are simple examples of things I do to
increase my work capacity so I can make more books.

Next Week: Organize

Normally when I do custom work I take a lot of pictures of it. Much of my custom work is one of a kind and my most creative. Occasionally I let them slip out of my grasp without photos but I didn’t with the penslip I made for Olivia. I snapped quite  afew pics of it before I sent it on it’s way. So here are some money shots.

I like it when I make people happy I don’t usually get to see the look of happiness in someone’s face when they receive my work. I don’t get to know what they do with my work or how they fill it out. I had someone local who bought one of my journals a thick chunky book in metallic pink. It was great to pass that off to her and see her face, then she brought it in filled with watercolor, ink, pastels and her works and thoughts. It was amazing to handle a large chunk of her life and my work so lovingly used.

Then I make the other things that use up the scraps and my odd moments, things like penslips. They originated as hack on some one else’s idea of a way to keep your pen with your notebook. I took that idea, translated it to leather and eyelets and there you have a penslip. I have several that I use on a regular basis and I’ve tweaked my design to make them better. These are the functional little items that make life easier but I don’t usually get a lot of email or fanfare over, when I do its neat-o!

One of my "regulars" Olivia asked me to custom make her a PenSlip to go with the red Moleskine planner but something not plain. I considered hand distressing some black leather with pewter eyelet- it would look stunning on the red planner, but it wasn’t  very special. It needed to represent Olivia. We’ve worked together several times before and I know she likes earthy tone and colors. So I sat on it waiting for inspiration. I got out my black moleskine wrapped some brown cowhide around it glued it for the time being and primed it. Leather takes acrylic like crazy, acting like raw canvas if not primed. I looked at the colors and items on Olivia’s website and blog. All earth. How could I get that earthiness into the PenSlip?

I looked to the PenSlip again, looked around to my tools. Saw the V-Gouge, thought to carve the leather. Started with a few basic leaf shapes and then incised the vein, rubbed in green to fill in and dye those veins, then headed to the rest of the PenSlip. I thought a deep dark blue would look good against the bright tomato red of the planner. I laid in the blue added a touch of red and let it set. I then hit up around the leaves with some interference paint, making the leaves glow,  it doesn’t show up in the photos or the video as it does in person. I knew that eyelets wouldn’t look good with it so I decided on asymmetrical stitching in red linen.

I made a few BIG jotters last night. They measure about 8×11 inches have 52 sheets of Wausau Ivory 24lb acid free paper and are hand stitched. I made 3 sets of 3. They will be up on etsy asap. Some have black nylon thread and some have black nylon and red linen thread. I also bought a new tool to make them, a leather sewing awl. The needle is a little coarse for my liking so I’ll have to make it a little more fine and work better.

HEre are some pics:

Made in a similar  way as my small jotters but bigger.

So I took a look at this website a papersource craft and was inspired to make my own.
Here’s theirs:

I haven’t taken pics yet but I took a small priority mailer, cut the sealed end off, made 2 scor marks in the center 10 cm from the edge and the trimmed excess 10 more cm from the scores and then trimmed a flap, slipped in 2 hedgies and away we go. Simple, can be reproduced easily with better materials and is strong. It hold 2 hedgies in a variety of ways and with a couple of velcro dots would be wonderful. I’ll get some pics of mine up a little later.

What can you make with an old envelope or 2?

I was reading an article about work capacity. It’s a physics
concept that I haven’t thought much about since I was in high school but it’s
one of those great concepts that really can apply to so much more than just
physics. The article that I was reading was about working out and being able to
more than the next person when you need to but I was thinking how can I apply
that concept to art, because really it doesn’t matter too much to me if I can’t
relate it to art.

So I got to thinking what can I do to increase my work (art)
capacity. I came up with 4 items to do so. For the next 4 weeks I’m going to
post a new work(art) capacity item.

Here’s #1: Get regular sleep.

This might sound like a no brainer or if your like me and a
night owl, not a morning person and able to stay up late something you want to
do that but lets talk about regular sleep. I could quote any number of studies
that prove that getting regular sleep is better for your creative and work
brain but I’m going to go with my observations: the work I do lat at night and
when I’m tired isn’t as good. The quality isn’t there. It’s sloppy. Sloppy work
creates more work later. Eliminate the tiredness that creates the sloppy work
and you eliminate the extra work that is created by the sloppy work. Not
getting enough sleep is a vicious circle because you feel like your getting
more done and maybe that first night you are, but what about the next night and
the next until finally Saturday rolls around and you’re so sleep deprived you
sleep until noon. How much time are you loosing to not sleeping by getting in
that extra hour every night when you waste 5 hours by sleeping in on Saturday?

I’m not saying you shouldn’t ever stay up late and get a
little extra work done but keep in mind that sometimes when your well rested
the next morning or afternoon your going to get more work done in the long run.

These are simple examples of things I do to increase
my work capacity so I can make more books.

Next Week: #2 Compartmentalize.