Suggested materials: tapestry needle, heavy duty awl, book cradle (optional), paper cutter, ruler, glue, double sided tape, 1/4″ and 1/2″ ribbon. Mini Accordion Fold Sketchbook: chip board cut into 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 “, (9) sketchbook sheets of paper 5 1/2 x 14″, (1) watercolor sheet of paper cut into two 5 5/8”. Large Modified Single Pamphlet: cloth or leather remnant 17 x 9 1/2″,  (14) sheets of paper of your choice.

Click here and head on over to the Sketchbook Revival Facebook Group. Share your sketchbooks!

Misty Olsen

Life is a journey meant to be enjoyed.  Through art we explore our personal journey while enriching the world around us.

Like many people, for most of my life I thought that to be an artist, one needed to “at least” be able to draw a stick figure.  I couldn’t draw a stick figure.  Therefore, I could only wistfully dream about what it would be like to hold a paintbrush, a piece of chalk, or an inkpot filled with possibility.

Some twenty years later, I took the risk of signing up for an art class.  This amazing teacher, Barbara, took my hand and showed me that I might not have been able to draw a stick figure but I had a passion hidden deep within me that translated into something very real.

I became living proof of Barbara’s message that everyone can be an artist.  In her honor, with the passion woke within me, I started teaching mixed media classes throughout the Midwest at both national and local chain stores.

Awakening my passion for art and teaching woke yet another passion within me: to explore and preserve the natural world. More than anything, I wanted to unite all my passions.  I needed to find a way to bring nature into my creative practice.

I withdrew from teaching and enrolled into my local university to study my own art practice on a deeper, more advanced level.  I realized that the natural world provides a symphony of subjects and a plethora of products for natural creativity.

My adventures took me from the swamps in Florida to the Arctic marshes of Alaska where I researched the vast array of efflorescence of each region.  Now you can find me teaching classes utilizing nature as inspiration and demonstrating how to create our own unique art supplies.  I teach self-harvesting techniques that honor natural habitats and offer a limited selection of wildly harvested inks, paper, pigments, and handcrafted art journals.

I honor your journey.  I honor your creativity.  It is both an honor and a privilege to assist you with both.

http://mistyolsen.com/