Spoonflower custom prints anything you design onto premium cotton fabric. So you can create your own quilts, aprons, potholders, baby clothes, hats, curtains, purses, and anything else you can think of!

There is no minimum yardage order, and each yard is $18.  For a truly homemade personal gift, that sounds pretty interesting to me.   All the details are available on the Spoonflower website.

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Spoonflower: for custom-printed fabrics

Lloydenas & Mervins Idea about Night gardening in their best clothes never really caught on

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Altered photos, altered yesterdays

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An animated altered book!

Book Arts Links

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Book arts links from our archives!

In the past few years, I have made several trips to China. I became fascinated with the history and the people of that country, and for the past three years have been studying Mandarin. I have been been practising Chinese calligraphy and have developed a keen interest in Chinese painting and brush techniques. I have produced five Chinese style-accordion fold-out books, eight wall panels and two fans, all of which focus on the social and environmental problems resulting from China’s extremely rapid launch into the current world of mechanization and industrialization.

My book, “Caged,” centers on the Chinese love of caged birds and shows members of the Chinese populace imprisoned, like birds, in poverty and poor living conditions. (The bird-flu scare happened to break out while I was juxtaposing photographs of chickens with women whose job was to watch over them.) The drab life of the poor, who are a significant percentage of the population of China, stands in great contrast to the colour and wealth of cities like Shanghai and Beijing, cities visited by Western tourists who only see urban industry and development.

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Book artist: Margie Kelk

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A sneak peek at the Ties That Bind project

Artist: Allyson Rice
Women’s Coloring Books

Coloring is the best kept secret out there for stress reduction!  Playing with color is deeply relaxing, meditative, incredibly fun (with no artistic skill required, but plenty of room for your own personal artistic touches like writing or collage images, etc), and it’s completely addictive once you start. This book, designed specifically for women has a colorful glossy cover that’s very visually appealing, and beautiful 9×12 inch art tablet sized drawings, with inspirational and sometimes humorous writings to go with the drawings. Great as a gift to yourself, or a friend or relative who needs a little “me time,” a mom who wants to color with her kids (but wants something other than Disney characters or Spongebob..), for a friend laid up with health issues, a stressed out CEO, etc. Throw in pack of magic markers and it’s like a mini-retreat without leaving home. Women LOVE this book!!  People have bought it for women from their 20’s to their 70’s, and it’s been an overwhelming hit with all of them.

Here is a sample from the book along with the thought that goes with it.  I love this one:

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Women’s Coloring Books by Allyson Rice

Artist: Ray Bliss Rich
Website: Sumi Art

I make my hand bound books and journals from scratch… first making the paper by recycling old cotton denim blue jeans and plant fiber. I use some non-traditional materials as inclusions in my paper to make a more interesting sheet; including feather filaments, iridescent mylar threads, and ground up bits of mica. I also under beat some fibers for an organic look and feel. My unusual papers give my books and journals a very distinctive look.

My books and journals are bound in Japanese styles including stab bindings, hanging journals, and fanfold designs. They include specific titles, guided journals, and blank journals.

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Book Artist: Ray Bliss Rich

I’m a Danish Textile Artist, living in England with my American Husband. Since early childhood I have been making things. Through out my life, I have never stopped creating. Creating and making things makes me happy. It energizes me. I love building up surfaces from scratch with focus on the texture. I often use very basic and recycled materials in my work.

I find it very appealing giving discarded items a new lease of life. It challenges me. Probably due to my Danish background, I’m very attracted to light to medium tones and colours, often combined with a minimalistic, clean design.

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Book Artist: Birgitte Hendricks

Internationally shown artist Joshua Barber paints modern-day icons. Whimsical and stark, his figures illustrate the poignant pull of love and separation in everyday human interactions. Joshua Barber’s paintings have been exhibited in Britain, New York and Los Angeles and featured on the Vice President’s 2004 holiday card. His work has also been exhibited at the prestigious Virginia Museum of Fine Art’s “Art After Hours” for the last four consecutive years.

Joshua wrote to tell me about the Sketchbook Project:

They accepted sketchbooks from across the world to be in a group show in Atlanta, DC, Boston, Philly, Chicago, St. Louis, and NYC. The theme was, “people you know” while my submission was Ghosts we know.

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Book artist: Joshua Barber and the Sketchbook Project