Sitting at my dining room table with coffee, scissors, glue, paper, listening to NPR, making.
Unpacking a box of paper, rubber stamps, and cards, I realized it had been almost two years since I had glue on my fingers. These items were boxed at the beginning of 2012, as I packed my entire house in preparation for my home renovation. I think the surprising part was when I realized I’d made it all the way through 2013 without opening it.
As a child, my mom frequently had valentine making parties at our house. Adults and children sat around the table together; drawing, painting, and collaging.
Then, as a teenager, I filled notebooks with images from magazines, poems, drawings, and stories. These books evolved into items made and sold in my apartment in college and then later on my Etsy site. Whether making items of paper or fabric, the common denominator was a collaged, layered, handmade feel for each of the items.
Over the past couple of years, my creative outlets have been more dependent on the digital world than the tangible one. Instead of cutting up magazines, I pin items on Pinterest. Instead of printed photos and stories, they go straight from my iPad to this
blog or through email to a writing instructor. I haven’t actually touched something I’ve made for a couple of years.
It was with this realization that I sat at my table yesterday, unrolled scrolls of printed paper, and started cutting and pasting, in the old fashioned sense.
Check out Fresastudio.etsy.com
smagik 