Okay yes. I’ll admit it. I am slightly addicted to Pinterest. What is Pinterest? It’s a virtual pinboard that allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things we find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

I love browsing to find new ideas for patterns color combinations to use in my art. I find so much inspiration there…

Are you using Pinterest? How do you like it? Pin any Rhodia lately?

Last call! Interested in participating? Read on, then fill out the form below by tomorrow Jan 18th. We’d love if you would share this opportunity with your friends! Questions? Please submit via comments.

• 12 people will be chosen to participate and will each receive a large orange dotWebbie in which to create. You do not have to be an artist/writer to participate. This 1st swap will be open to US residents only. (Future swaps may be expanded outside the US)

• Each participant will create on a specified amount of pages within the book and then is responsible to package and mail each book to the next person on the list at monthly intervals. (USPS 1st class mail or Priority shipping is recommended at a cost of roughly $5-7 per book) The participant address list will be structured in a way that should allow the shortest shipping time (and cost) between each person. In the end, you will get back the book you started which will be packed with interesting things…
  

• The theme of the swap is “Favorite Things” and can be widely open to interpretation via: thoughts, ramblings, short stories, poems, lists, art, doodles, clippings, printed photos. We ask that content be safe for public consumption.

• There are 96 sheets (192 pages) in a large Webbie. Your minimum contribution in each book will be as follows: Fill 6 pages on one side. (Leaving the other side blank) Start something on 1 page to be completed by the next person, finish something on 1 page that the previous person started = 8 pages per person (6+1+1) x 12 = 96. You MAY fill 12 sheets (6 pages both sides) if you desire.

• Participants agree to scan/snap/snag/upload/tag images to a group Tumblr blog documenting their process which could include: content, you & your Rhodia, your creative process.

• You own all the rights to your original content in the books and on the web. By submitting images to the group blog, you grant us permission to share them (with attribution) to the Rhodia Drive Blog and also our Facebook page. We encourage you to share your content via your own blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc.

If you are reading this via e-mail or in certain feed readers, you may need to visit http://rhodiadrive.com/ to see the form.

It’s here! Time to roll our our first ever Rhodia Journal Swap: “Favorite Things.” Interested in participating? Read on, then please fill out the form below by Jan 18th. We’d love if you would share this opportunity with your friends! Questions? Please submit via comments. 

• 12 people will be chosen to participate and will each receive a large orange dotWebbie in which to create. You do not have to be an artist/writer to participate. This 1st swap will be open to US residents only. (Future swaps may be expanded outside the US)

• Each participant will create on a specified amount of pages within the book and then is responsible to package and mail each book to the next person on the list at monthly intervals. (USPS 1st class mail or Priority shipping is recommended at a cost of roughly $5-7 per book) The participant address list will be structured in a way that should allow the shortest shipping time (and cost) between each person. In the end, you will get back the book you started which will be packed with interesting things…
  

• The theme of the swap is “Favorite Things” and can be widely open to interpretation via: thoughts, ramblings, short stories, poems, lists, art, doodles, clippings, printed photos. We ask that content be safe for public consumption.

• There are 96 sheets (192 pages) in a large Webbie. Your minimum contribution in each book will be as follows: Fill 6 pages on one side. (Leaving the other side blank) Start something on 1 page to be completed by the next person, finish something on 1 page that the previous person started = 8 pages per person (6+1+1) x 12 = 96. You MAY fill 12 sheets (6 pages both sides) if you desire.

• Participants agree to scan/snap/snag/upload/tag images to a group Tumblr blog documenting their process which could include: content, you & your Rhodia, your creative process.

• You own all the rights to your original content in the books and on the web. By submitting images to the group blog, you grant us permission to share them (with attribution) to the Rhodia Drive Blog and also our Facebook page. We encourage you to share your content via your own blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc.

If you are reading this via e-mail or in certain feed readers, you may need to visit http://rhodiadrive.com/ to see the form.

Perhaps you remember my friend Alex. He’s the one that’s been stashing Rhodia in various geocaches around central Pennsylvania. Same Alex whose cajon I painted. He’s been making and selling a ton of these paracord bracelets and when I saw him start to add these various colored “ribbons” in the center, I asked if he could make an orange with two black ones which would make it look like the Rhodia logo. Viola!

Interested? He’s charging $8 + shipping. Message me at stephanie@rhodiadrive.com with “Paracord Bracelet” in the subject line and I will forward to Alex.

I am currently participating in two different sketchbook exchange projects and it got me to thinking about starting a similar “journal swap” project. 12 people, each provided a large dotWebbie, would fill a specified amount of pages in the journal then mail it to the next person on the list. A theme would be chosen for the project and the participants could fill their pages however they choose – random thoughts, poems, art, collage… Along the way, the participants will scan/snap/upload project photos to a group Tumblr blog for all to see. After each book has cycled through the hands of all the participants, the book you started is returned to you – now filled with all kind of interesting stuff!

Is this something you might be interested in participating in?

I will post the specifics for participation after the new year.

I met artist Don Colley at NAMTA’s 2011 Art Materials World conference and trade show.  He was demoing at the Faber-Castell booth and happened to walk by ours during a break.  His work with colored pencils was so life-like it could practically walk off the page.

Don had used some of our larger datebooks for sketches because they lay flat.  I promised to send him a Webnotebook to sample, and asked him to let me know if he liked it.

I got this email from Don the other day: “Hi Karen, I recently finished drawing in the sweet little orange leatherette covered Rhodia web notebook you sent me. I took it on tour with me this Fall and got some fun pages.  Thanks again for the little book, it was well suited to cross country travel in planes and on buses. Happy Holidays.”

Please visit Don’s website – Buttnekkiddoodles-Drawing from Life in Chicago and Beyond.

Thanks, Don! Hope to see you at NAMTA 2012 in Orlando!

After making the decision to leave my “day job” 3 years ago to lead a creative life, I worked at home amongst many distractions. My snoring husband, hollering bird, the lady across the street that (screams) sings Donna Summer’s greatest hits over & over…

I helped to write a book sitting at a computer in my kitchen (we eat in the living room) and then later graduated to working in the bird’s (tiny) room on a desk that belonged to my husband when he was in grade school. Many of the thousands of mandala doodles that I would make were created with a sketchbook “in hand” as there wasn’t really any table space for me to work on. When I started painting I’d spread a drop cloth over a 5×5″ space and sit on the kitchen floor and paint. I created my mandala workshop sitting on my bed, back against the headboard and books spread all around me. Working on my blogs became easier with a laptop, though there still isn’t a comfortable surface at a comfortable height.

No more.

As of Black Friday, I obtained 236 square ft. of work space all to myself when I was chosen to become a resident artist at a visual arts and education center called The Banana Factory in Bethlehem PA. Located in an old re-purposed warehouse and a stone’s throw from the old iconic Bethlehem Steel blast furnaces, The Banana Factory is a non-profit organization benefiting local youth and which houses 2 art galleries, a hot glass studio, mosaic studio, photo editing studio and is also home to 28 artists in residence – some quite well known such as Doug Wiltraut, (watercolor) Olaf Starorypinski, (photography) Rigo Peralta (surrealist painter) and Virginia Abbott (sculptor.)

*Some of the artists work on their sites may not be safe for work.

I’ve got 24/7 access to my studio but will likely work during the day with my door open to visitors. I still can’t get over how much stuff I moved out of this little house and into that studio. It might appear to some that I had been hoarding art supplies. :o)

Now that the house isn’t filled with stacks of sketchbooks and notebooks and stuff everywhere, all that’s left is for me to make the decision whether or not to use the studio to write as well. Part of me likes not having a computer there, but I know that I’m not art creative all the time – I go in spurts and when I’m not making art, I’m writing blog posts, adding art to my Etsy shop, researching new material for my workshops and planning new ones. I’ll figure it out.

I’m just so freaking happy!

This is a short video from my move-in day.

You can see lots of pictures of my studio & of my friends at the Banana Factory here.

From Anne’s Etsy listing: “A bright green gecko slithers down this great little notepad cover. It’s designed to fit a Bloc Rhodia Pad No. 12 and also has a pocket in the back for loose little papers. When the notepad included is full (or empty, depending on how you use it), simply slip it out and replace it with a new one — the durable cover will keep on going!”

Anne B. designs and makes pocket protectors, book covers, wallets, trays, and more using vinyl fabrics, especially oilcloth and sparkle vinyl. Sturdy construction, meticulously stitched appliques, and awesome extra details make her stuff unique, durable, and very vinylicious.

The Rhodia No. 12 is a long-standing favorite of Anne’s. She’s been toting one around for over four years now, but only recently thought about making a swanky cover for it. While she totally digs the look of the classic naked orange Rhodia Pad, she thinks having a unique reusable cover is even more fun.

Check out all of Anne’s cool vinyl products in her Etsy Shop: annebvinyl

One of my favorite blogs is Art Journaling – a photo blog on Tumblr. I can scroll through the images forever & ever… so much inspiration, so much feeling of connectedness through all the different peoples art expressions. When I started to journal, I’d occasionally draw in my books but now I do it a lot more- to the point of dedicating whole journals to the cause. I especially have fun painting and coloring the backgrounds in which to return at a later date when the creative bug bites.

Have you ever tried art journaling? If no, take a look at some of the images on this site and let me know if they leave you feeling inspired….

Want to learn more about art journaling? Check out these sites:

Daisy Yellow

Teesha Moore

Art Journaling as a Creative Process

Sandra Strait, author of the popular Zentangle inspired blog Life Imitates Doodles recently reviewed our new Rhodia WebPlanner.

(The WebPlanner) “has Rhodia’s signature silky smooth paper, and the overall look aims at elegance rather than flash.  You’d think elegance would be difficult when some of the print is orange.  However, combined with gray print, it has a surprising sophistication.”

Sandra – we just love your tangle designs in our Rhodia products! Please visit her blog for the full review – maybe even stick around and peruse her amazing tangle designs which are all accompanied with step by step patterns on how to create them.

I save old magazines and now and again, I cut them apart. Pictures go in one box, words in another. Then one day I pull them out and start gluing them into one of my journals. What I end up with, is often more than I imagined possible. Beautiful, inspirational… Messages to help ground me when I’m feeling down.

This project was inspired by my friend Kim who teaches a Found Poetry workshop. You can see another piece I created here.

It’s kind of an odd story on how I came to meet Sterling Witt. I’d heard of him because he had been nominated for a local music award, but he isn’t local to the Lehigh Valley or even Pennsylvania. Apparently there is a rule that allows any artist that has performed more than six times in our area to be eligible for a nomination for the Lehigh Valley Music Awards though I’m not even sure how Sterling, a singer/songwriter/visual artist from a small town near Kansas City, MO even found his way to the Valley in the first place.

I must have first seen something about him on Facebook then clicked a link to see what he was all about. His music is playful & catchy, his voice deep and soothing, but his art, his ART!!! AHHHH! I loved it immediately! Though he works in a completely different style than I am familiar with, his vast body of work in various media, combined with a somewhat seemingly relentless nature towards artistic self-expression, reminded me of… me!

So I just had to meet him.

He was back in our area at the beginning of this past summer and after exchanging a few pleasantries at a local benefit performance, Sterling, (who I discovered plays an upside-down acoustic guitar, a right handed guitar strung for a lefty) agreed to meet with me a few days later to discuss art, life, the universe, and everything.

Dressed in his usual black T-shirt & jeans, black hat perched atop his head, he shows up at my house and we spend a few hours talking – at first as total strangers, about the creative process, how to overcome self-doubt as an artist, risk taking, and the glorious life of a creative soul.

As the conversation continued, I was mesmerized by this person but I’m not even sure by which part – I think mostly for the fact that I had the opportunity to share space with someone new that I would come to recognize as both as a peer and also as a role model. The opportunity to trade notes about our borderline obsessive need to be continuously creating, (art, music, words…) and to find we shared such beliefs as “Like Attracts Like” made me feel as though we were never really strangers at all…

Sterling comes across as incredibly authentic and as living his truth. Sweet, humble and completely accessible, this man is completely fearless with his art and overall personal expression – he is always keeping an eye on his long-term goals and it definitely motivated me to have an encounter with someone more goal-orientated than I am.

I presented Sterling with a pile of paper and various art supplies at the end of our chat which made him quite happy. Once back home, he sent me a note about how some of the drawings in the video below were created on the paper I gave him. (You just know there was Rhodia, Clairefontaine & J. Herbn in that mix….)

You can find Sterling on the web – be sure to check out both his art & music – as each are simply amazing.

The video below was the first I’d learned of Sterling. I loved this music & these women so much I bought three posters of them to hang in my house. (Chloe, Zooey & Odeya) It was such a joy to show Sterling how Chloe hangs over my desk and continues to offer inspiration…

Our friend Gail Young recently sent me an e-mail about these Koh-i-noor woodless pencils which I have yet to try. Her thoughts?

• Soft but not smudgy.
• Blend beautifully.
• Colors are coordinated; often inexpensive ($9 for 12) sets don’t do this.
• Packaging: terrible. Plastic holder that’s a waste with a cardboard slide cover. Pencils are impossible to remove without nine-inch-nails. Cover difficult to slide back on.
• But to me, they’re an A-, since they’re beautiful.

Additional reviews of these pencils can be found at:

Pens’N'Paper

DebraLois.com

CraftCritique

Shoplet

You can purchase these online from Artist and Craftsman Supply or check with your local art/craft store.

Daisy Yellow blog has long been an exciting source of art inspiration for me. Tammy’s art, and the infectious way she shares it via her various projects and creative prompts makes it easy to jump right in and start creating. In the following video, Tammy demonstrates and discusses creating a two-page art journal spread in an Exacompta journal.

Pastel Chaos in the Exacompta from Tammy on Vimeo.

This second video shows Tammy flipping through a half-filled Exacompta sketchbook, and I’m sure you will quickly see one of the main reasons I am drawn to Tammy & her work.

Flip-Thru Exacompta Journal from Tammy on Vimeo.

Not familiar with the Exacompta sketch book? You can read my review on my personal blog.

I started out wanting to write a post about calligraphy but as what often happens when I go to search You Tube is that I get distracted by shiny things and one thing leads to another… I ended up at the following video watching a man create calligraphy with his feet.

If I asked you to try and paint calligraphy with your feet, your response might be something along the lines of “Preposterous!” Yet this young man is able to do it because he doesn’t know any other way. He just does it. He doesn’t think, “Impossible!” He just tries and tries again until it works.

I see things like this and it makes me think about how often we place walls up against what’s possible instead of tearing them down to conquer the impossible.

Maybe the first step is to believe that anything is possible.

When I was first wanting to try watercolors, I somewhat skipped over the student grade paints which are more binder than pigment, and bought the artist grade paints I read would work best in the long run. Since the artist grade paints are higher quality, (more pigment than binder which means better coverage, better mixing) I think they are easier for a beginner to use- but they will cost more. I believe there are quite a few people who have tried then given up on watercolor paints because they didn’t seem to act as expected – and that’s likely due to the paints being used – not due to operator error.

Before purchasing my first tube, (I buy them individually) I did oodles of research to figure out which colors would be the best for a beginner palette. I started with tubes of red/blue/yellow in cool and warm shades, (cool/warm mix best with the same but it’s not set in stone.) and then I started to get a little crazy with convenience (pre-mixed) colors.

After having this palette for several years, I’ll tell you that I ended up not using many of these colors. I discovered I liked working my abstracts with a few specific colors and the rest have pretty much become neglected. My advice to anyone wanting to work with watercolors is to buy artist grade paints (I like Daniel Smith’s brand) and buy just a few colors at a time so you can mix & experiment. Watercolor paints are easy for anyone to use but can take a lifetime to master.

If you would like to see the names of the colors in my palette, see the original image on Flickr.

Image Above © Stephanie Smith – All Rights Reserved.

Once in a while I hear of someone getting stuck- not knowing what to do with those pristine blank pages in a new journal. Last week when I asked people what they would do with a new Webbie if they were a lucky winner in our recent contest, they responded with some truly wonderful ideas. If you didn’t get the chance to read through the comments from that post, I’ve assembled them all here for you – maybe you might want to even print it out and slip it into the back pocket of your notebook for inspiration? Much thanks for everyone who responded.

B Irwin: I was thinking of starting a new manuscript, but practicing calligraphy by writing out verses from my faith is tempting, too.

JustJay74: I will use it at work to jot down all my notes and ideas.

Sam C.: I hope to use it for my architecture drawing class in the coming school year

Marco: I will write down my adventures in hiking the Appalachian Trail

sara: I’d love to make another “everything book” I make my own list and calendar pages. I try to keep all my notes together.

Colin: Remind myself that a life worth living is a life worth recording.

Aisazia: Probably a mix between an art journal/idea journal where I just jot down or sketch out ideas.

Sandra Strait: I’d use my webbie to create and organize zentangle patterns, doodle fantastic creations, and look to it to inspire my creativity!

Richard Hein: I would us it to write out lyrics. I am a composer and the words are just important

Fr. Matthew Thurman: I just filled a large blank Webbie with one year’s worth of Sunday sermon notes. I’m ready to start a new notebook and a dotWebbie would be the ideal new notebook to provide a little order to the same purpose. I’d like a format that would better allow outlining when I write and the dots would be an unobtrusive guide to that end.

Gentian:Either for drawing or calligraphy practice

Lanzman: Probably write in it. Take notes, most likely.

Rori: I would use it as my daily log book! AND I’d be able to use it with my Lamy Safari!!

Estivalia: Iorana! I’m going to Easter Island, so I’ll use the DotWeebie as an art/travel journal to preserve the memory

Oni: I would use it for everything from ToDo lists to watercolouring

Tori: It will be the perfect sized journal to take with me on my trip to Ibiza.

Francisco D.: Imma use it in my calculus class this fall! Nothing like having detailed notes in a durable binding that I can reference whenever.

Troy Mayfield: Well, my red Safari will be used to capture story ideas, calligraphy practice and other inane stuff.

Economy Pens: … to write love letters and poems to the Mrs.

Johnny: Would be an excellent book to practice my calligraphy in plus general hand writing improvement.

TubbyMike:I shall use it at work to draw boxes and arrows for the process maps I design. Dots are excellent for this and I can re-draft before committing it to the computer. I always like to start with pencil and paper.

Peter: I’d probably use it as a sketching/ drawing notebook when I’m about.

Aaron: Study notes and mind maps for actuarial exams.

Emoo: Probably a pocket sketchbook or one to write my little fictions in. I’ve been really drawn to writing (as opposed to drawing) again lately.

M: I would use this as my new travel journal.

Kelly: I will use it to record things I want to tell my children. My six children are mostly grown (with the exception of the two little ones I adopted from China) but I feel that they don’t really know me at times. I want to tell them things I’ve learned, things about me, things about life, things to do, things to not do. And what could be a better way to record such important information that in a new Rhodia!

Brent: I will use it to document the stories my father tells again and again. When he embellishes I’ll ask him to verify from a previous telling. Of course, he is 90 years old so maybe I’ll let him slide a little.

charles hadden: a reading journal or teaching notes

Johnny: Had a nurse tell me they use dotted notebooks in her nursing home to help the elderly with hand/eye coordination. Sounds like a good idea.

Gwynne: Use it for random brain detritus!

For one of the last treats on my Greenport vacation, I went to Aldo’s for a double expresso and one of his great pecan scones.

Heading outside towards the back patio, I spied a large Rhodia pad with “NOFO” sketched on the cover.

Of course, I went over to say “hi” and asked, “How do you like your Rhodia pad?”

The man looked up and said he liked them, loved the feel of the paper, and wrote all his music in them.  He bought them in bulk at Dunkerley’s in Southampton.

He looked familiar, and then I realized I was talking to Josh Horton, the former Supervisor of Southold Town. While he was in office he helped to save more than 1,000 acres of open space and farmland, which makes him a hero in my book. He is also a staunch advocate for the preservation of the area’s maritime heritage.

Josh Horton also plays in a band, Corky Laing & The Memory Thieves, and for the last two years has organized the NOFO Rock and Folk Fest, held at the Peconic Bay Winery in Peconic, NY.  This year it will be held July 30-31. The lineup includes Foghat, Elvin Bishop, Corky Laing & The Memory Thieves, John Sebastian, Commander Cody, and several more national and local talents.

We chatted for a bit, including how much we both missed having a Dunkerley’s store in Greenport. A Staples and Office Depot were built in nearby Riverhead, and their business dried up. Happily for us, Dunkerley’s continues to boom along in their Southampton location.

Josh said he would send me a photo of his NOFO Rhodia pad, but I forgot to give him my card. Anyway, if any of you will be out on the North Fork at the time of the weekend festival, please be sure to go hear Josh and his band, and say hi to a fellow Rhodia aficionado.

NOFO Rock and Folk Festival 2011

Corky Laing & The Memory Thieves

Aldo’s -

Dunkerley’s

Today is the first day of the rest of your life. It is also the first day of the 2nd half of 2011. Today I decided to set a very specific intention for the rest of the year. Having felt burdened for the 1st half of the year by an emotional heaviness, I am first and foremost consciously choosing to let go of that which isn’t serving me and focusing on that which will nurture my growth. I find whenever I mindfully attach intention to any project or situation, it significantly increases the quality of whatever I’m looking to achieve.

Just for today, grab your journal or writing pad and think about something you wish to accomplish. Write it down and then think about your intention for that goal. Perhaps you wish to save money to take a vacation – so “Save $1200 for vacation” might be the goal, but the intent would be, “By creating some much needed time off and away, I can rest and return to my busy life with a clearer mind.” Write down your intention and feel free to return to it for inspiration and tweak it as needed. You may find it helpful to write your intention on pieces of paper to post in places where they will remind you of why you are working so hard to achieve your goals.

If you’d be willing to share your goals, feel free to post them below. Putting them out to the world is a great way to solidify your intentions.

Have a safe and wonderful holiday weekend!

Mandala by Stephanie on Clairefontaine Pollen paper.

This is Joyce Pepos’s writing retreat in Mount Hood, Oregon. (I *LOVE* this!)

From Joyce: “This sweet writing space is located on an old logging deck of 40 years back – which we have turned into a meadow of wild flowers and a large outside fire pit – we also have built a Labyrinth which is dug into the ground five feet deep and 35 feet wide… awesome!

We have a 13 acre retreat on the mountain here in Oregon – besides our main lodge we have 5 separate buildings – Art studio for my husband along with a huge wood shop – a Library/media building for exercise/reading/tv – a Sauna (which is dug into the ground and the building is covered in Montana Rock) and a jacuzzi sits outside in a dug out rock garden.

We are both just retired and my husband has created this spectacular woodland garden with hiking trails through the 13 acres. I am happy to share our love of nature, art and where my Rhodias live.

Please visit Joyce’s blog and read this post about her love of Rhodia.