It's Time for an Interpretive Dance....

(Isadora Duncan, early 1900s)

The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (1958)

I saw this film once a few years back, and was totally entranced. Czech director Karel Zeman made the most wonderfully peculiar films, using a combination of live-action and animation techniques (you really need to see it on a larger scale than this to fully appreciate how deliciously weird it is). In The Fabulous World of Jules Verne Zeman seems to have been influenced by Jules Verne, Art Nouveau, and heaven only knows what else.

A Bit of Inspiration

Whilst I was doing my outing and abouting at some of the local antique stores and thrift shops, I added a few more things to my horde of book-building materials. The thrift shop owners must think I'm completely mad at times. Whereas a normal customer would pick up a leather purse and check to see if the zipper works, there am I, muttering to myself, myopically squinting at every inch of the thing, mentally transforming it into a book or two. But I did come away with some very nice things.

Including this wonderful patchwork piece. An apron  made up of little bits of leftover material, all of it looking to be early 20th century vintage.  So now this apron, made up of recycled things, will have its pieces become part of my books. And so it goes.

Edith Piaf -- La Vie En Rose, 1954

Ah, Edith Piaf.

Did you notice the rapturous expressions on the faces of her listeners in the audience? Wish I could have been sitting alongside them.

{A poem to read out loud: When You Are Old}

When You Are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,

And loved your beauty with love false or true,

But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled

And paced upon the mountains overhead

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

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-William Butler Yeats

Louise Brooks - Diary of a Lost Girl (1929)

New City, New Studio

After living a somewhat gypsy-like life for the past while, I'm finally all settled in a beautiful old neighborhood. My new studio is light and airy, and I have all my lovely book making things about me again, including my stash of antique linen thread.

And some of the trunks I store my bits and bobs in.

The all-important inspiration corner.

And even more thread for sewing books.

It feels so good to be settled again. Even better, I now live near the quaint old Hyde Park area of Boise, which has many antique shops full of lovely old fabrics and things which are giving me some interesting ideas....but more on that, later, dear reader.