by Terra Osterling | Oct 23, 2011 | Block Cutting and Printing, Creative Pursuits, Experiences, Finding the artist in me
Writing is my craft, but block cutting is becoming a creative outlet. It is the art that set this ship sailing – a quiet, solitary process. A little physical, a little analytical, and a lot of faith. Last Fall I took a Block Cutting and Spoon Printing class at...
by Terra Osterling | Jul 17, 2011 | Inspiration, Lessons from Faith, Original Short Fiction, Publishing, Storytelling, Writing
Milkweed is an invasive plant, one that can grow to five feet tall and then releases its seeds in a snowstorm of burst pods in late summer. They proliferate and their roots grow deep. I know this because I used to pull them out every growing season, the milky white...
by Terra Osterling | Jul 10, 2011 | Creative Pursuits, Experiences, How I got "here", Letterpress
My last Letterpress project did not turn out as I had hoped. My Alphabet set in Onyx, plus numbers and symbols, was, I decided, about as exciting as an eye test. My classmates’ Alphabets are a funky arrangement of large wood type in “Condensed Gothic,” a clever poem...
by Terra Osterling | Jun 19, 2011 | Creative Pursuits, Experiences, Finding the artist in me, How I got "here", Letterpress, Storytelling
My mother was once told by a school evaluator that her kindergartner had a “slight fine-motor disability;” I have never been able to color inside the lines, I am not to be trusted with dispensing superglue, and it takes me a few tries to put my house key in the lock....
by Terra Osterling | Jun 12, 2011 | Experiences, Inspiration, Lessons from Faith, Letterpress, Motivation
This week in Letterpress class, I finally printed a real project. It is a bookmark to commemorate a mission at my church, the Giving Tree. You might know the Shel Silverstein children’s book of the same name, about giving, pretty much until it hurts, out of...
by Terra Osterling | May 29, 2011 | Creative Pursuits, Experiences, Letterpress, Writing
Mechanical Precision My left hand is numb. I am not used to gripping a composing stick for three hours. My kid-sized hand does not curl around it comfortably, so the metal edge digs into the webbing where my thumb meets my hand. But this is how it’s done – you...
