My ZIA Sketchbook Exchange...

It all began one day this past February when I taught a

Zentangle Inspired Art (ZIA) class

at my local Art Club.

 A good time was had by all...and as a result

ten of us decided we would enjoy

exchanging sketchbooks

with each other.
We decided we would complete two pages
in each others book
 and then pass the book to the next artist in line.

Pictured above are several of the group members

who were present the day

of our first exchange April 16th, 2012

We chose to use the

wonderful Maruman Japanese fold sketchbooks

for our exchange.

Japanese fold sketchbooks expand like an accordian

and are fabulous for this type of

a communal exchange.

I love the size and paper quality so much better

than the Moleskine Japanese fold books.

The Maruman books

have

a nicely toothed paper

which can take a lovely watercolor wash and

are simply delightful to work in.

I highly recommend them.

We bought ours online from Jerry's Artarama.

We each chose a theme for our books.

My theme is a

Zen Inspired Imaginary Garden

filled with luscious flowers drawn larger than life

and filled with

rich patterns and textures.

We made little instruction pages for

each artist to follow.

The tags above and below are the guidelines for

my book.

Click on any of these images to enlarge.

My pages also had a little fold out piece

with an inspirational quote attached.

 Above is a photo of my first pages in my own book
with the quote showing...

and...

...here are the pages with the quotation flap folded down...:)

The last photo is of the back cover of my book,

 the little packet of instruction guidelines for my book,

and

the ribbon tie to hold it all together.

Sooo...
to bring the project up to speed...

we are now on our fifth round of exchanges...actually

it will be taking place this Friday in Arizona.

I will post all of

my art in my friends books in the next few weeks.
The themes each artist has chosen
and
 their finished pages are simply wonderful.
There is soooo much good art

going on here...

and I am lovin' absolutely every

minute of it!
Mmmmmmm !  :)

“In art...
the hand can never execute anything higher
than the heart can inspire.”

~Ralph Waldo Emerson