While chattering away this last Wednesday at our COMFy anniversary chat, I brought up the idea of an art book round robin between interested artistic and creative COMFy members. We were talking about the vendor's Dross Box idea and I think the trigger was Apple's comments about making her own books.

The general idea of an art book or art journal round robin is something like this:

Everyone chooses a book. This might be a handmade book, a store bought empty journal, an old book you picked up at the thrift shop that you want people to paint and paste right over the worlds. A list of members and "circled is made and everyone participating sends their selected book (along with the theme they have chosen for their book if there isn't a group theme already selected) to the next person in the circle. Each member then adds art to a designated number of pages (usually 1-4) and then mails the book they are working on to the next person on the list. The books revolve around, usually a deadline is given not to hold onto any one book for more than two weeks or so, and eventually you get your book back filled with beautiful words and images.

More ideas popped up on the chat and suddenly the idea of making this our very own "Faerieworlds Yearbook" took shape. The theme for all books would be Faerieworlds and Faeries. Each participant would bring their book to this year's Faerieworlds and Apple (or was it Maralily - oh dear, someone will remember) said they'd carve out a spot where we can stack the books. Inside each book, on the first page or two, would give information on who owns each book. People would drop off their own book, hopefully early on the first day of the festival, and then everyone would return sometime during the weekend to sign ("reserve") several pages of each book. On the last day of the festival you would pick up one of the books (not your own) to begin.

I liked the idea of doing at least three pages each. One page would be a "yearbook page" - a photo or drawing of yourself with some personal info. The other two pages (or one or three, there would be flexibility in case someone had an idea that was slightly different) would be their contribution to the FW/faery theme. You might do a sketch or painting, collage work, more photography, poetry you love or create, an artistic journal page describing your experiences and/or thoughts. Anything that is visually appealing and true to the theme of the book.

When you finished working on the first book you brought home you would send the book (by mail or take advantage of folks that live nearby by passing books on by hand) to someone else. Eventually all the books would be completed by all the signed participants and be returned to their original owners and we will all have a beautiful book filled with magic and art and the energy of this amazing group.

I'll try to keep the group organized by -
keeping a list of participants online that is accessible to everyone (probably a yahoo list or tribe something of that nature). Participants will be able to access names, emails, mailing addresses, and any other contact info (phone #'s) of other participants to keep the books moving 'round. I'll send out reminders and encouragement to folk.

Here are some things to remember if you want to play.
You will be committing to finishing each of the books. Your time may vary but as a general rule of thumb I'm expecting that each book will require a few hours on an evening of your time. Or, if you are doing something that requires layers of work (painting a color before writing over it, or letting glue dry on added bits and sparkles) you might be spending a few minutes here and there over several nights. Multiple this time commitment by how many people are in the group. If six of us play, that's six evenings. If twenty of us play, that's twenty evenings. There are ways to make the time less while still giving your best efforts. If you're worried about time, you could plan ahead, do similar things in each book and just add a few personal touches when each book arrives.

You also are committing to the cost of mailing each book on to the next person. Since these are books, they will qualify for media rate through US mail, which is extremely economical compared to regular mail.

The journal round robins I've known or had friends participate in have all been 95% successful. There is always that one person that gets overwhelmed and books logjam and then they feel guilty and the guiltier they feel the more they hold onto books and ... argh! It's only human nature that there are occasional problems. And sadly, from time to time (although rarely) a book disappears. But this sort of thing should be less likely in a group like this where we all stay in touch all the time. And if something comes up in someone's personal life, chaos and crisis lurk in the dark woods everyone walks on occasion, the best thing to do is pass the book on unfinished and plan on having it sent back to you when times are sunnier, or if necessary bowing out gracefully. We'll all understand.

So, that's the idea. I'm thinking we can be less structured about where to send each book as we finish it, to accommodate the fact that there are clusters of people who live nearby and who can take advantage of that to reduce the need to mail. But I can work that into the list once I have mailing addresses by putting those participants in a row together.

We can toss ideas around a bit more too, before anything is finalized. We came up with a lot of great ideas just discussing it on the chat. There's also the alternative of passing out pages to folk and everyone taking them all home and then mailing them off when finished. People would then BIND their own pages, creating a book. That would reduce the chance of losing books or having them get piled up somewhere along the list. And it would allow people to do similar processes for all the pages at the same time - i.e. painting back colors, gluing or adding photos. We'd lose media rate but the resulting pages would be lighter, perhaps even cheaper to mail. Not as sturdy as books, but ultimately perhaps better because of the creativity needed to put them together in unique and beautiful ways.

So far I know Apple, Maralily, Jasmine and I think Lyra have said they want to play. Who else wants their very own Faerieworlds Yearbook!?

"Hi Hawk - it was really fun sitting next to you in 3rd period Spell Casting. Remember junior prom nite? Owmygawd! Your Tink Tux rocked!! Faerieworlds 2009 4-ever! XXOO - Your friend, Laume"

Well, okay, maybe not exactly like a yearbook.....