Nine Red: June 2016

Thursday, June 9, 2016

Back with a Book, Baby!

I'm back! Do you even remember me? Ha-ha, I hope so - I know it's been SO long, and I really am sorry about that gap, but I hope that my announcement excuses me just a teency bit.. So, some exciting news, it looks like.... I wrote a book?!?! Just about a year ago, just as I was hanging up my hammer for the season, I was approached by Interweave (an awesome craft media company) with their idea of me writing a how-to book on string art. I was so flattered, honored... and REALLY intimidated! I'd never written a book, but they reassured me they'd walk me through it, so I said yes... And here she is, the finished product, over a years worth of many peoples hard work; DIY String Art by Jesse Dresbach:

What do you think? It really didn't feel real until I was editing the preview of the book... and then it really hit home when I had the physical copy in my hands. I'm really proud, I learned a TON, and I couldn't have done it without the help of so many people at Interweave, especially my fantastic editor Stefanie... she was in charge of taking my giant pile of directions & patterns and transforming them into a beautiful book that actually makes sense. And man, she nailed it.. (pun intended, ha!) So before I get into a few preview shots of what's been my last year, here's an amazon link to the book for those who have been asking about it:

It's also available on the Interweave website, as well as many booksellers & other fun retailers out there. Keep an eye out! I appreciate everyone's support (and major patience!) on this journey.

So there are 24 designs in the book, and I did almost all brand new ones. I had to keep a few of the classics that people have asked about how to do (Retro Sea Snail and Retro Crescent Moon have been MAJOR pattern requests!). Take a look at a few faves:

The geometric fox was a new one, and instantly a favorite.. so fun to make! This book project totally reinvigorated my string art love, allowing me to get really creative and branch out. In the book you get all the patterns of course, and tons ( I mean TONS) of directions & support. All nicely laid out into sections:

Here's a peak of the table of contents listing the projects:

And for wonderful book eye-candy time, here are few of my favorites from the book:

You can see some of the harder to explain-with-words projects get a little step-by-step picture action like our friend Ginkgo up here. But once you get the hang of it, I'm confident you can tackle all these projects... and you'll be a pro in no time! :)

Well that's what's been going on in my life, hope you all have been busy with fun projects & gearing up for summer! I'm happy to get a lot of my free-time back, and I definitely look forward to posting again. As I've mentioned before it might not be as regularly (see my gripe-fest at the end of this post) - but it will definitely be more than every 18 months! Whoah, time really flew there...

For the in-between snippets you can find my social media links below, & a huge HUGE thank you, for hanging in there with me.

xoxo,