Obon.

A few weeks ago, a classmate of mine brought me an art pencil set from the line his company, Obon, produces from recycled newspapers. The pencils themselves are fantastic. But the best part is sharpening them. The shavings are beautiful. If you sharpen the pencils slowly and carefully enough, the end result is one long, intricate chain of paper. You can see the colors and letters from the papers used, and I find them very inspiring. I've talked before about wanting to make jewelry and these should give you an idea of what I have in mind.

I know that was a lot of pictures but I took close to 60 so I edited down from there. The shavings are very small, about the size of a nickel. The largest one is barely bigger than a quarter. The photos aren't as sharp as I would have liked, and it's hard to see all the many layers of paper. But how cool would metal jewelry like this be! It's made up of delicate strips but the end result is something very solid. They also make me think of topographic maps with all of their lines and curves. The other thing I love about these is how they have a mind of their own. I have no control over what shape they're going to take, how wide or narrow the strips are, or how long they'll last before breaking off. Each one is entirely unique. I hope someone else finds these as interesting as I do! I've been holding on to them in hopes that I can find something to do with them. Until then they will continue driving my roommate crazy.

I borrowed my other roommate's camera to take these and it made me that much more impatient to get an actual camera. I know that good pictures are the number one thing missing from this blog and I miss photography so much. I prefer the older, fully manual film cameras. Partially because that's what I learned on and that's where I'm comfortable, but also because it takes more on the part of the photographer to get a good picture. You can't rely so much on technology. On top of that, the darkroom process is so exciting. There's so much room for experimentation (and for error). I can't wait to get back into some classes eventually.

On another note, my week is officially over! I want so badly for the sun to come out tomorrow, and even though that's not gonna happen, a girl can dream. That's all for this post. Toodles.

-LG