A fresh start!

When I was little, maybe 5th grade, I was given an assignment in my art class: I was to draw a self portrait. I was a bit overwhelmed by the task. Drawing had never been my strong suit, but, like all 10 year olds, I was ready to face the challenge! I penciled every line with great care, erasing when I needed to redraw, carefully positioning my hand so as not to smudge the page, until my self portrait was finally coming along. As I was working, my teacher stops by my desk, leans into my portrait, leans back, looks at me, and says, "mmm....no....the nose is all wrong." She erased the nose I had so carefully drawn and in its place draws a horrible pig's nose.

I was devastated.

I was crushed.

Not only had she erased the nose that took me hours to get (sort of) right, but was she insinuating that I had a pig's nose?! From that day on, not only did I have a complex about my nose but I was convinced that I was hopeless when it came to drawing and that, therefore, I had not one artistic bone in my body.

It wasn't until I was 26 that I started thinking about giving the art thing another go. Since drawing was out, and given that I had always loved to buy journals and beautifully made books, I decided to buy a book called Cover to Cover by Shereen LaPlantz and learn how to bind my own books. A couple of years later and after much practice and determination, Tomoe Book Arts was born!

Bookbinding is a fascinating process. Most people don't realize how much work goes into making the very thing they use everyday. I have all these great new ideas for journals and albums that I want to make this year. It has really been fun learning all these new techniques and I'm so glad I got into art again! Make sure to check back often for pictures of works in progress!