Leah Virsik

I was super touched when I came home to this incredible mail art package today from Roben-Marie. I’m always amazed at people who really listen and then give you the perfect gift. Inside this beautiful envelope were three large spools of variegated thread. I met Roben-Marie at An Artful Journey in February in DJ Pettitt’s Mixed-Medley class. One of the things she shared with me was her free-motion sewing foot and she had this incredible thread that I knew I had to have. Thank you Roben-Marie! You’re incredible!

Below is a signature from my book that has my free-motion attempt. It was really fun and I could see the potential of actually sewing letters.  Looking forward to using my new variegated thread… will post more photos of the my book soon. For a sneak peak of some pages visit my flickr.

Raid Your Office Supplies! Make Your Own Simple Handbound Journal
Time: Sunday, April 18, 2010
9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. (we’ll take a short break for lunch, bring a bag lunch if desired)
Where: Frank Bette Center for the Arts
1601 Paru Street, (at Lincoln) Alameda, CA 94501
Fee: $45 members, $60 non-members. Plus $10 materials fee
(pay materials fee at workshop)
Click here to sign up via PayPal at the Frank Bette site.

In this class for beginners, you’ll create your own 3-section “pamphlet stitch” journal from commonly available office supplies including file folders, envelopes and accounting papers. You’ll sew the sections, attach eyelets to the spine and secure your book with an elastic band or a button and string. You’ll then add elements to the cover and inside to make it your own. Take home your own unique handbound journal and a one-section mini-postcard book.

What to Bring: ruler, scissors, glue stick, pencil, a cutting mat and a bone folder. Also, bring a 4″ x 6″ postcard (or a piece of cardstock) for a mini-book cover. Optional: If you have them, bring a Japanese hole punch and a bookbinder’s awl. Bring any elements you’d like to include in your book to personalize it. Some examples are: rubber stamps, stickers, paper clips, ribbon, scraps of paper and decorative paper. I’ll have punches available for punching tabs, tags, circles and squares. White inside pages, various lined papers and envelopes will be provided.

About the instructor: Leah Virsik enjoys making books and painting. She has a passion for paper and bookbinding and daydreams about art when she’s not actually making it. She creates books out of new and repurposed materials and works with paper, fabric, plastic, metal, acrylic and collage. Learn more about her and her work by visiting www.leahvirsik.com.

“Purple Green Polkadots” mixed-media 4″ x 6″ ©2009 Leah Virsik

Some of the latest of what I’ve been working on. I love the postcards because they’re fairly quick and a body of work is presenting itself… almost magically.

Raid Your Office Supplies! Make Your Own Simple Handbound Journal
Time: Sunday, February 7, 2010
9:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. (1/2 hour break for lunch, bring a bag lunch if desired)
Where: Frank Bette Center for the Arts
1601 Paru Street, (at Lincoln) Alameda, CA 94501
Fee: $45 members, $60 non-members. Plus $10 materials fee
(pay materials fee at workshop)
Click here to sign up via PayPal at the Frank Bette site.

In this class for beginners, you’ll create your own 3-section “pamphlet stitch” journal from commonly available office supplies including file folders, envelopes and paper clips. You’ll sew the sections, attach eyelets to the spine and secure your book with an elastic band or a button and string. You’ll then add elements to the cover and inside to make it your own. Take home your own unique handbound journal and a one-section mini-postcard book.

What to Bring: ruler, scissors, glue stick, pencil, a cutting mat and a bone folder. Also, bring a 4″ x 6″ piece of cardstock (or postcard) for a cover for a mini-book. Optional: Bring any elements you’d like to include in your book to personalize it. Some examples are: canceled stamps, rubber stamps, stickers, paper clips, ribbon, old receipts, shopping list, scraps of paper and handwritten notes. Limit these things to 5 1/2″ high. White inside pages and some ephemera will be provided.

About the instructor: Leah Virsik enjoys making books and painting. She has a passion for paper and bookbinding and daydreams about art when she’s not actually making it. She creates books out of new and repurposed materials and works with paper, fabric, plastic, metal, acrylic and collage. Learn more about her and her work by visiting www.leahvirsik.com.

Roots and Branches Revisted II and envelope, mixed-media, 4″x6″ ©2009 Leah Virsik.

Make Your Own Artful Mail
In this workshop, you’ll collage, paint and sew your own postcards, make your own various-sized handmade envelopes and learn how to make a button and string closure for an envelope with eyelets and brads. The pieces you’ll create can potentially be mailed, framed, hung or put into a book at a later date. The possibilities are endless!

When: Sunday, February 28, 2010 from 11:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Bring a bag lunch, we’ll break for a half hour to eat.

Where: Frisbie Street Art Studio, 204 Frisbie St., Oakland, CA 94611 (Click address for google map) Frisbie St. is an alternative art space in Oakland, CA for artists to exhibit their work and for the community to gather to enjoy and create art together.

Heartscape and Envelope, mixed-media, 4″x6″ ©2009 Leah Virsik.

Cost: $55 (includes $10 for supplies) Reserve your spot by sending a check to Leah Virsik, 3934 Madrone Avenue, Oakland, CA 94619 or online via PayPal to leah@leahvirsik.com. Payment is processed as it is received. You will receive an email confirming registration. You can cancel up to a week prior with a refund of fees paid, less a $10 cancellation fee. Sorry, no refunds on cancellations with less than one week notice. If the class is sold out or canceled, your payment will be returned.

What to Bring: ruler, scissors, pencil, bone folder, glue stick and/or double-sided tape, eraser (I like Staedtler Mars Plastic)

Optional things to bring: a favorite envelope size to use as a template, punch, awl, cutting mat, fabric scraps, yarn, sewing machine, thread, favorite art supplies, paper for envelopes and collage: good ideas are scrapbook paper, wallpaper, junk mail, maps, large book pages, patterned paper, magazines, etc.

What will be provided: envelope templates from A7 to itty bitty, crayons, watercolors, brushes, glue, watercolor paper for postcards, a sewing machine or two, punches, fabric scraps, paper for envelopes, glue stick, double-sided tape, magazines, spray glue for thin papers, needles for sewing

Questions: Email Leah Virsik or call 510-418-9383

About the instructor: Leah Virsik enjoys making books and painting. She has a passion for paper and bookbinding and daydreams about art when she’s not actually making it. She creates books out of new and repurposed materials and works with paper, fabric, plastic, metal, acrylic and collage. Learn more about her and her work by visiting www.leahvirsik.com.

Workshop Size: Limited to 7 people

Parking: There is street parking available, please allow ample time before your class to find a parking space.

Purple Scrap Fabric Booklet, mixed-media 4 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ x 1/2″ ©2009 Leah Virsik.

I’ve been having some resistance to writing… this is what I started writing last week:

I’m working on updating my website. I’ve decided to use the Satorii theme. I’m hoping to make some minor changes with it. I think actually developing my own theme would be more work than I’d like to do at this point but I’m excited about the work I’m doing now.

Egmont Van Dyck asked me to speak at the East Bay Artists Guild next year. Totally flattering! The same day Alyson B. Stanfield asked if she could could feature my art in her blog and someone called me about my class. I had to stop and think and realize that I’ve changed. I’ve created this world of creating art and teaching and it feels really amazing, like I’ve “made it”. I’m wanting to say that so when I look at other people “who’ve made it” I can be reminded that it’s a cycle, a process, a journey. It’s about “making it” everyday. Those wins along the way are really important to acknowledge.

I got a subscription to Uppercase, something I’ve been wanting to do for awhile but when it came down to it I bought it because Geninne Zlatkis’ studio is featured. Very inspiring! ReadyMade magazine also came and I enjoyed the Denyse Schmidt article and her patchwork quilting. Oh, and her envelopes! I came home last night and made an envelope template inspired by this and this. I found a book on the Renaissance with great images that I’ve been making into envelopes and Tom brought me home some Japanese wrapping paper. Too fun! Cutting out paper is very satisfying!

Small Mixed-Media Fabric books, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

It really is the end of November and Art Every Day Month and I can’t believe how much I’ve created this month! Thanks to all of the AEDM participants, Leah Piken Kolidas, my friends and Tom for all of your support. It wouldn’t be as much fun without you!

Click on books to connect to my Flickr account.

Watercolor Polkadot Button book, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

I was cleaning up my office and put away my sewing machine and ironing board and I know now that I can’t put them away at least for long. I missed them way too much. I have three more little books like this coming together really soon. They are so much fun to make. They’ve come out of AEDM and my mail art postcards.

Art Every Day Month has been such a blessing. I want to make work that I need to make, to connect with it, to find out what it needs, where it wants to be… and it really feels like I’m doing that. I’ve passed the point of no return in many ways. So much of it is just trusting that I’m on that path. Today I was looking for and found some great yarns I had purchased several years ago from Article Pract. They’re going to be used in the other books I’m making. It’s funny how things connect. The scraps of fabric that I’ve had over the years fit right in to the projects I’m working on now.

I had a lot of fun teaching Erin and Dave how to make books. Tom came in and took photos of us. I got a lot of good feedback from them. It’s such an emotional process for me… to teach. I’m quite attached and want things to work out for my students. But at the same time I also know with my own process that classes can be valuable for different reasons in different ways and so often not for the product I produced in the class. So I think more practice teaching and less attachment will help.

Book Cover Beginnings (in progress), originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

This in progress “Book Cover Beginning” actually looks better on the screen than it does in reality. It doesn’t have as much contrast. I really like the resisting qualities of crayon underneath watercolor. I’ll be folding this paper twice and creating a 1/2′ spine for the pages to go inside. I want to try a new stitch. Looking forward to learning.

I really appreciated this quote by Natalie Goldberg posted on Leah Piken Kolidas’ Day 27 Check-in for Art Every Day Month “Sometimes when you think you are done, it is just the edge of beginning. Probably that’s why we decide we’re done. It’s getting too scary. We are touching down onto something real. It is beyond the point when you think you are done that often something strong comes out.” In Leah’s post she says: “Today is the 27th day of Art Every Day Month. So close to the end of this particular journey. How would you like to wrap things up? What would make a beautiful ending for you?”
In so many ways, I do feel like this is the beginning. I’ve touched upon what it’s like to blog very consistently and to notice what it’s like to do art regularly. I appreciate the chance to document it in such a supportive and encouraging environment. I don’t want to stop but I also want to transition into a new way of being around my creating and maybe it’s just continuing… and discovering what’s right for me.

I had a really nice Thanksgiving yesterday with family. Good food and really nice people to be around. Erin and Dave brought fresh vegetables from Chino Farms. Yum!

A2 Envelope Blue with stitching, originally uploaded by Leah Virsik.

I finished piecing my squares together… my quilt top. Wierd. Guess I can’t believe I did it, attempted it even. A lot of work. I folded it up and I really like the way it looks in its folded position… similar I think to my earlier days of painting where I liked a certain area of a piece and not the whole thing. I’m actually getting used to the quilt as a whole, it’s growing on me. It’s a really different experience building colors in a piece by piece basis and then discovering it looks so different as it becomes larger. Well, then maybe there are ways to approach quilting that are more strategic, more big picture. Hmmm… anyway, I just want to make pillows now or little bags or curtains. You get the picture. Much smaller things. Kind of like the postcard series I’m doing I guess.

I love listening to stories. Enjoyed this To The Best of Our Knowledge radio program entitled Channeling Creativity, especially the interview of Lynda Barry.

Oh, found fun things at the estate sale today for $3. Watercolor paper, canvas paper, a strip of a painting someone did, two altas books and envelopes. Looking forward to playing!

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