Print is alive, and creepy.

I'm so incredibly inspired today to start some bookbinding. F.B. Steampunk group posted this insane and incredibly detailed artwork by Brian Dettmer. He painstakingly hand carves out-of-date medical texts into works of art using surgical tools. They almost appear to be alive, like they are crowded cities with multiple organisms all waiting on the brink of taking a breath, so that they may begin to move. There's so much potential energy in these pieces. The photos do not do them justice (as pretty as they are) I really want to see the exhibition for them whenever it's around. Some art needs to be experienced, there's a level of physical depth (like the actual depth of the piece) that photography sometimes never captures. You have to see these pieces in person to full appreciate the details and the space it uses. This article is very visual with very little text (just the way I like it) and I highly suggest checking it out since there are tons of very pretty photos of amazingly detailed work.
So, now that I have your attention with pretty art, did I mention that I'm super inspired to try some book binding? I picked up a book via B&N called Book Craft. It's a pretty basic book making, well, book, and takes you through the supplies, to traditional and non traditional bindings. The whole back consists of art book images and more crazy in-depth methods of binding. I have a plan for some old record covers that I salvaged from my dad. He was going to throw away some record albums, but I saved the covers (they're bound books). The art on them is so amazing, there's the Barber Shop of Seville, Don Quixote, Mahler's complete works and some Russian name I can't for the life of me spell. My goal is to repair the spines and fill them with blank pages to make up-cycled sketch books. My only problem is that they are huge covers and buying the paper to fill them is going to be expensive. So I'm thinking of finding some inexpensive recycled paper that I can fill the books with. Staying a little Eco-friendly. This is definitely a project for the future, I just don't have the time or money right now to do it.
Well since I can't make the books right now, I'm continuing to knit the second caplet. Here's how it looks so far: (to the left) yeah, beautiful right? Well hopefully it'll be done really soon. This pattern is modified from the original, and I'm typing it instead of hand writing it. I die a little every time I have to type up one of my patterns. I don't always remember why certain steps were important since I don't make notes to myself. I'm lazy. It's easier to type it up and I can edit them more efficiently instead of using an eraser and getting little shavings all over the place.
Oh yeah, for MangaNext, I made 4 sets of greeting cards! And I remembered to take photos of my process! Check it out! I think they look really cute. Only managed to sell one set (thank you Eric). They're Penguins!! If anybody remembers the Facebook post I sent out to a bunch of people, I asked if anybody wanted a card and sent them out. Those were basically my testers. Now that I know people like them, I'll be making more Penguins, Mugs, and whatever else I have carved. As You can see I'm not terribly organized when working and I have a rather small working space. I don't use the designated Sewing/Studio room for this kind of thing, mainly because my tv's in my room. What can I say, I like to watch movies while I work. I had to hand paint each and every one of those cards, that's why they're $9-$10 a pop. When I minute managed myself, I found that it only takes me about 3 hours to complete the process, and only 22 minutes to print 22 images. I'm pretty proud of myself. These are kinda like my babies, but as if the babies came out as 18 year old kids and all I want is some peace and quite and am encouraging them to go to college far far away. Yeah, my babies.

Speaking of babies, my freak plant did something, well, freaky. I have a lithops, a type of split rock, they originate from South Africa and look kinda like a brain. That seems to be a reoccurring theme. Anyway, the first picture (on the right) is what it looked like when I first got it. And it was growing just fine. It was really nice and pudgy and green. Then all of a sudden (I wish I had photos of this) the right half started to turn brown and shrivel up. The left side followed about a week later. So while I'm freaking out since I'm convinced my plant is dieing, I see this pimple-like bump on the side of it. Eventually I was able to gently pull back the dieing parts, and found this (pic. on the left) inside (it's a photo from a few days ago.) It's a Freak Plant I swear! All of the websites said that this species propagates through seeds. Lies!! And god forbid Home Depot or Lowes know anything about what they sell beyond flooring or plumbing. I'm now flying by the seat of my pants here. I now have two separate baby Lithops plants. I need to re-pot them on a nice day into something made of terracotta and shallow. Oh and I'll add a few buddies for it to hang out with! Alright, I've got a plan.
Well I'm out of things to write about. I'll post again super soon. Oh yea if anyone wants a pack of those cards I made, leave a comment below.
See Ya'll Later!