Practicing Adobe Illustrator skills, finally figuring out the distribute tool Much of my focus over the last few months has been on happily revisiting projects, skills, and ideas that I didn’t have enough time to dig into more deeply in the past. Oh, and just about everything I’ve done falls into that category. Sometimes I get a question on an old post that brings me back to a project. There’s always some catalyst that draws me back in. Here’s what I’ve found: even if I don’t feel like something was left unfinished, I find plenty more to wonder about if I have the space to revisit. Re-entering ..read more

Last week I received an email from someone who is interested in the history of the Chinese folk art commonly referred to as Zhen Xian Bao. The writer wanted to know more about the history of the form before diving into a hands-on learning journey. This is also how I began when learning about Zhen Xian Bao back in 2015. The book that guided my inquiry, A Little Known Chinese Folk Art Zhen Xain Bao by Ruth Smith & Gina Corrigan, is sadly and somewhat famously now out of print. If it ever becomes digitally available will share the link. When Susan Share and I taught our in-depth classes abou ..read more

The people who’ve been joining me for the Seminole Patchwork with Paper series were just treated to learning this chain-link pattern during session 9. They were also treated to hearing me go on and on about how difficult it was for me to decipher this pattern. Then yesterday Greta, a regular participant, emailed, asking if I would share how I decipher the patterns. I’m going to attempt to answer this here. The most straightforward way to learn a pattern is to have some one else explain it, which is why I’ve referenced books. Below is page 36 from The Complete Book of Seminole Patchwork by Bev ..read more

Nikki Webb, Seminole Patchwork with Paper Here’s what I like about the Seminole Patchwork with Paper sessions that I’ve been offering for the last five weeks: eveything. I was hoping that by offering these classes that the people who participated would buoy each other up. This seems to be happening. It seems to me that when one person sees another person creating, they want to be creating too. I’m getting all sorts of notes from people. Across the board people seem to like the time set aside in each session to hear something about the history of the Seminole people. Quite a few people were awa ..read more

I’ll just say it. I’ve been having a hard time connecting with the pattern motif from this past week’s Seminole Patchwork with Paper session. The pattern is made with two separate groupings of paper, cut in the Seminole way, and then alternated with each other. I liked the colors we used in class, red, white and pink, but then I went on to just making a mess of any other color combinations. It’s so easy to make a big mess. Things finally began to turn around. It’s no mystery why they turned around. Clara and Susan both send photos of what they were working on. Clara’s was a color study, Susa ..read more

The Seminole Patchwork with Paper series is gliding along. Next session is this Saturday 1pm EST. The people who want to join in need to bring 6 strips, all three units wide, specifically, 3 red strips, 2 pink strips and 1 white strip, one sheet of black copy size paper if you have some, as well as all the tools that you brought to the first two sessions. If you need to catch up, here’s the link to the Seminole Patchwork with Paper playlist. To cut the paper strips you will need the FIRST page pdfs. You’ll also need one copy of SECOND page lines to use during the workshop. The zoom link will ..read more

Seminole Patchwork with Paper decorated Box OH! I’m delighted by the turnout of our on-line community in the first of my mini-workshops on Seminole Patchwork with Paper. Next session is Saturday November 25, zoom doors open at 12:53 pm, and we start promptly at 1:00. The zoom link will be https://us04web.zoom.us/j/73281685909?pwd=SUgwZGc2R096VndpSXpraVRPdURVUT09 Be sure to bring the TOOLS listed in my previous post. If you want to work along with me you will need to precut the strips according to the system I described in the first session. If you missed the first session, you can catch ..read more

Last week’s post announced that on Saturday November 18 at 1 pm EST that I am beginning a weekly half-hour of open workshops, to share methods of making paper designs based on techniques developed by the people of the Seminole Tribe who live in Florida. The zoom link will be https://us04web.zoom.us/j/73281685909?pwd=SUgwZGc2R096VndpSXpraVRPdURVUT09 Doors open at 12:53 pm, EST, ends promptly at 1:30. I you want to work along with me, here’s what you need to bring with you the first week: 3 different colors of standard copy paper size cover weight (about 65 lb, 172 gsm). I will be using white ..read more

The Seminole Patchwork Book by Cheryl Greider Bradkin; Simply Seminole by Dorothy Hanisko; The Complet Book of Seminole Patchwork by Beverly Rush with Lassie Wittman My friend Beth handed me a book, The Seminole Patchwork Book by Cheryl Greider Bradkin, a few months ago, telling me that she thought I’d like the decorative work inside. Yes, I liked it. I like squares. I’m fascinated by the surprises of diagonals. I’m captivated by repeating patterns, especially geometric ones. I also like the challenge on working out things that are hard to understand. Seminole patterns check all these boxes. T ..read more

Gift bags often have lovely graphics…for bookmaking Oh! It’s nearly gift bag season! Uh-oh, you can’t have your gift bag and fold it too. Have you ever noticed that sometimes you need an usually long piece of paper to make some of the structures that Hedi Kyle creates in her book Art of the Fold? Some of us have piles of large papers around, others, not so much. This post is for the not-so-much crowd. Hedi Kyle’s School Book Cover with Pleat Some time ago I made a video tutorial which I didn’t make public, about making Hedi Kyle’s design for a school book cover with a pleated closure. As expec ..read more