Love Books,
Any written material passing through my hands is informative. It makes me stop, take a moment to breathe, and read. So much of what is in the details of my changing world is in printed form right before my eyes. I need to take it all in, savor it, and then express it, in art. But to have a book, to hold a book in my hands is to nurture all of me. Reading changes me. I want to continually change and truly that is why I read. Right now I am reading, “The M Word: Conversations about Motherhood” by Kerry Clare (Goose Lane, 2014), with “Craftivism” by Betsy Greer (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2014) in the wings. I know both of these books will impact me. I am one of those readers who no matter how many bookmarks I have I always need more. With a bad habit of leaving them inside one book and moving on to the next, I find
REALLY LOVE BOOKS BY FRANCIS PEETS
I am consistently on a quest to improve my life. If I want to learn anything new, change, or grow, I need to read. I pride myself on being a life-long learner. I want to create what my mind imagines, so I must nurture and support my creativity with books and reading. My imagination is precious. It is the greatest of my artist’s tools. To grow and evolve as an artist, I must read to my artist’s soul so that it never stops dreaming. The world is changing at lightning speed, and my inner artist yearns to know more so I may express more and share more. One way I can nurture my inner artist with new ideas for creating beauty in daily living is through reading.
t ool s & mat eri al s
16
Green#RAFT s Spring 2015
t
Basic sewing supplies
t
Embellishments (optional)
t
Recycled paper/tags/ cards, etc.
t
Rubber stamps
t
Sewing machine greencraftmagazine.com s GreenCraft
17
myself endlessly searching for yet another bookmark. Empty handed, I end up using a receipt or whatever piece of paper I can get my hands on. But when I go back to reading, I am always somewhat disappointed to see a store receipt or a shopping list and not a pretty bookmark holding on to the last word I read. My world is full of beautiful and interesting papers in advertising mailers, consumer packaging, and purchased papers. There is paper being used all around me. I collect it. I save it. I can’t help but create with it. Paper, like the pages in a book, brings me great joy. Just the mere sight and touch of it, texture and color, message, or the image it holds, pleases me. I find paper in the most unusual places — events I attend with printed information and handouts to share, a special store with a pretty business card to remember it by, a note card at a florist. It’s all just a matter of what my imagination can come up with to re-use it in some other creative way. Upcycling with found papers encourages me to stretch my imagination to see how I
technique With a few pieces of colorful marketing materials, business cards, and found pieces of other bits of paper and tags, a sewing machine, rubber stamps, and a little time, it is easy and fast to create unique bookmarks. Choose a theme for your bookmarks. Add some stamping. Spontaneously machine-sew papers together. Embellish with tags, write onto tags, or add any other desired details. ◆
can reuse consumer packaging, recreating something useful. One of my biggest pet-peeves is when I come across a book that has been mistreated and altered by a previous reader. Entire pages and corners folded down, shouting out neglect and damage makes me sad. I admit, at times, I nearly do the same, but something inside me just won’t allow it. I challenge myself to remember which page I ended on rather than disfiguring a book. I treat my magazines the same way! Books, magazines, any reading materials for that matter, are energized material. Paper breathes and expands and reacts to its environment. Bookmarks keep them beautiful and new. What are you reading right now? 18
Green#RAFT s Spring 2015
Francis Peets is a self-taught artist and crafter who works with paper and found materials remaking consumer packaging into useful art items. She works with intention using whatever materials are on her desk at the time and spontaneously creates. Her passion is to work with less and use what is in front of her, simplifying while learning.
greencraftmagazine.com s GreenCraft
19