Have you ever seen a tunnel book? I hadn't either, so in this episode my guest Mel Anie and I set out to create one. Listen in to hear how we did. Links Mentioned How to Make Raspberry Jam by Mel Anie Mel Anie's Instagram: @tumblingfumbling The B0ardside Stoke Fest Laura Quinn Bending the glass with a tea light YouTube by Laura Quinn Making Handmade Books: 100+ Bindings, Structures & Forms by Alisa Golden Some of the above are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission Photos of Tunnel Books Mel's Book Thomas' book Transcript Thomas: My guest today is Melanie. Mel is an artist and author living in the UK. She's active in the mail art community and runs the Society of Letters. Her correspondents are from all over the globe. Mel has also published Five Foot Story House's debut book called How to Make Raspberry Jam, a lyrical journey of anguish and joy. You may reach her on Instagram @tumblingfumbling. Hello, Mel. Welcome to the podcast. Mel: Hi, Thomas. Thank you so much for inviting me. I'm so excited to do this with you. Thomas: Oh, I'm excited too. This is wonderful. Before we get started on our ideas for You and I Make a Thing, I'm curious, do you have a current art project that you're working on or something that you're excited about? Mel: Well, I think at the moment I'm focusing on writing my big piece. That's like the core, most constant aspect of my creative practice. I've been working on something for about two years and now it's starting to take shape, but I have lots of little side projects. which a lot of those are participative. So for example, mail art correspondence in the past has been a big part of that. Yes, like you pointed out, it's mostly international. Whatever my project is, it's usually conversations. So at the moment there's a walking project going on. I do a lot of walking and I've started up a small online salon, but that's a really new thing. We've only done that once. And then sometimes these side projects, they turn into bigger things, more ongoing things. And I'm also joining a poetry writing group this month. But I've never really intentionally written to a form, so I don't think I've actually properly ever written poetry, so that will be a whole challenge for me. So yeah, those are some of the things I'm doing. Thomas: You are busy. Mel: How about you? Thomas: Well, I participate in a local art collective called The B0ardside. And we hold backyard art shows with music and whatnot. But there's gonna be a local community festival here in the neighborhood called Stoke Fest. And The B0ardside are going to have a booth at that festival. And I'm going to be leading some sort of do it yourself activity. Stoke Fest is all about surfing and the ocean and whatnot, so I'm kind of thinking of doing something with surfboards and surfers and like a little kinetic art project or something like that. So, you know, bring a bunch of materials and then invite people to build little kinetic art pieces with me. So that's, that's what I'm focused on right now. That's coming up on November 11th. And… Mel: I wish I was closer. Thomas: …you know, whenever there's a date coming up, it's always sooner than you think it is. Mel: Yes. Thomas: So, I'll be focused on that here pretty quickly. Mel: Yeah, that sounds good. You've sent me some of the B0ardside zines in the past. They're really neat. Thomas: Yeah, I enjoy contributing to them. Thank you for asking. Mel: You're welcome. It's always nice to know what people are doing. Thomas: Mel, I ask you to come up with three ideas of things that you might want to do that you've never done before, and I've done the same. How about we talk about them. Do you want to tell me what one of the things might be? Mel: Okay, yes. So one of the things I was thinking of is making some sort of food art assemblage. So they are maybe something like a croquembouche, which is an assemblage of profiteroles. Thomas: Right, right. Mel: Some kind of assembled piece of decorative confectionary in the sculptural form, or some sort of dish that is given to you between courses, something that entertains and also serves as a conversation piece. Thomas: Wow, I've never even considered making food as art. I mean, people do it all the time, I know that, but I've never thought about doing it myself. That's a wonderful idea, that's so out of left field for me. Mel: Ha Thomas: I'm loving it, it's like, make a croquembouche, and each little thing might be a different color or a different shape or something. Mel: You could do so much. I mean croquembouche has been on my bucket list as such for quite a few years. I don't make food art or anything like that. I'm not a baker. I have made profiteroles many, many, many years ago. But yeah, so that's something that I really like to do. And for me, I thought I would like to be able to finish something in a short time frame. You were talking about a month, and so I was thinking, let's see if I can ...
