Four years ago on this date, we were in Portland, Oregon, on The Trip of a Lifetime. We spent a whole month in the Pacific North West, which is nowhere long enough…
Of course, I took along some art supplies – not too much, because you can only have so much luggage. And because I would be lugging it myself between cities. I prepared a little cloth wallet with some basic jewelry making pieces, plus some cheap erasers and a set of Japanese wood carving tools to make stamps. I also took some blank calling cards – nice white card, quite small sheets. Very light! I also had some double sided tape, tiny scissors and a pencil or two. I forgot to pack any stamp ink, however! 
My aim was to do (at least) two stamps for each place we stayed, looking for memorable but simple images to carve on my erasers. First stop was Seattle (not counting a few hours at LAX). On our first full day we took a ferry ride to Bainbridge island. I didn’t do any stamps, but I used the business card of the lovely bead shop as the front cover of the book. It has a simple accordion-fold spine, to which the cards are attached with double-sided tape.
Inside, the first page shows the famous Space Needle (of course). On the back of each card, I wrote an extract from my travel diary – a sentence or two relating to the image.
We did a lot of other things in Seattle, of course (Sculpture Park, Pike Place, the Aquarium…) but the highlight for me was the Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses exhibition at EMP. The image I chose was of a broken guitar, not only played (and smashed) by Kurt Cobain, but repainted several times, in keeping with the punk DIY ideal.
Next week – Portland Oregon. I hope I’ve found the missing stamps by then…In the process of looking for them, I found the wrapper of the delicious Theo dark chocolate bar I bought at EMP. I made it last so well that there is still – shhh_ one square left…and only 3 years out of date!
sukies original 