December...and almost year end!

It has been a long time since I wrote something in English. I have had a busy year (what's new?). I have managed to teach a bookbinding course and a calligraphy course - both had new content than before. I love the fact that I have people coming back to my courses, and I want to provide new teaching material so they are moving into new areas of the disciplines. However, you can hardly call yourself a trained calligrapher or bookbinder after a 6 week course for four hours once a week...There is no problem to repeat what you have learned. I also need to practice the same thing over and over to keep my skills at a certain level, and I have felt that I do not set aside enough time to do just that. There's joy in repetition...as Prince says in one of his songs :)

I hope, as I always do, that 2011 will provide me more time - but knowing myself it will fly by too. Already, I have planned not one, but two courses in the spring, and a third one in the fall. I enjoy it though and I get the sense that so do the participants too.

Now it is time to make this years Christmas cards. I have no idea what to make, but since I do make a lot of monograms I think I will try and make a lovely symbol or word inspired by monograms, perhaps.

One last thought, I hope the book I sent off to Brugge made it there and that the jury loved the book. I had an accident as I was finishing it initially...but I managed to rescue it and changed the binding style and materials for it. I found a little piece of vellum lying around, and I found my course file notes from Roehampton where I learned to make limp vellum bindings from Jen Lindsay (exelent teacher!) and made a nice book using calf skin strips to sew it on which were threaded through the slits in the vellum. I was going to post a photo of the book here, but I will do it later :) Good things come to those who wait,  huh? Have a wonderful winter day y'all.