I'm having a lot of fun at the moment, starting a number of new book projects. It is a delightful stage to be at because everything is wide open as I research develop and experiment with content, techniques and materials.
I'm reading a lot about meditation, mysticism and spirituality as I develop themes and write the poems for the new series I am starting on. I spend hours leafing through books about making books to get ideas for structure and experimenting with new techniques as my plans push me beyond my techincal comfort zone. I'm making images with camera and photoshop and sketch book and pens and then exploring ways of incorporating images into the books.
I get to go through all my various piles of paper (under the bed, on shelves, in boxes and drawers...) and then when I'm sure I don't have what I think I want I get to go shopping! Yesterday I went into Wellington and had a delightful time taking advantage of the Warehouse Stationary's back to school sales to stock up on pencils and big pads of cartridge paper and spending 25 minutes at Gordon Harris choosing two different sheets of green paper (same shade, different weights). It wasn't so delightful at Spotlight where I located the clear vinyl I use for the Treasure Hunt books (lots of South Island treasures waiting to be incorporated) in a matter of seconds but then had to queue for at least 30 minutes while the women in front of me a) had short lenghts cut of 8 kinds of quilting fabric in shades of yellow and gold; b) bought lengths of fake fur which takes forever to cut properly c) purchased several metres of blue tulle and 70! metres of blue ribbon and 30 metres of silver cord and insisted on challenging the measurements with the frazzled sales clerk so she had to start counting again. By the time it was my turn a massive queue had built up behind me of sighing, jostling ladies. Luckily the slowest thing about my 1 metre purchase was unrolling the vinyl which gets a bit sticky in the heat. My trip to town also involved leisurely browsing in two libraries resulting in a gorgeous teetering stack of books. Oh happy days.
Sadly I must go back to work today so it will be the middle of the week before I can pick up again on my creative endeavors.
1 comment:
Oh wow, your blog is great and made me miss NZ! My former parter (of 10 1/2 years) is a Kiwi, and I grew to love the culture. I lived in Wellington (well truth be told I was stuck in the suburbs in Lower Hutt for most of the time) for about 4 months. :)
What a wonderful country!
I love poetry, and yoga and books and a lot of the things you post about (LOL about the Warehouse stationary sales..) so I'll definitely stop back.
Let me know when your poetry book comes out (or post an exerpt for us curious folks).
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