You know, like fly fishing.

It’s an enjoyable hobby and for a hobby primarily dominated by men (not many women tie flies). It’s considered an art form by many fly fisherman. After all, a well-tied fly will last a long time and bring in many catches.

How fly tying works is pretty easy.

First, you pick out your fishing spot.

Second, you hunt around a bit, looking for what bugs are on the riverbank.

Third, you mimic what you see–you tie flies based on what’s naturally occurring.

And it’s a pretty trusty formula to follow for helping ensure you have a great catch for the day.

You can read book after book all about fly fishing. While there are good guidelines to follow that detail what fish like what flies, nothing beats matching what’s actually out there around your fishing spot.

This is what makes fly tying so awesome. You are copying nature.

Now for me, I’ve never actually gone fly fishing. I love to tie those flies though.

Flies are made from a combination of thread, fur, feathers, chenile, hair—anything that you can wrap around the hook.

Pictured above is some dubbing. Dubbing is really soft hair–think the undercoat of an animal. It’s super soft. You pull a little out and twist it back and forth between your thumb and forefinger until it wraps around the thread. Then, you wind the thread around the hook. That’s how you make a soft body like many bugs have.

Below, you’ll see I tied down a feather to the end of my fly. That makes the tail.

I cut off the excess, leaving what you see below.

I then attached a few deer hairs to the head and tied them in a way so they’d spike up, mimicking wings.

To finish a fly, you dab a little substance called ‘fly head cement’ to the head. This keeps the fly from unwinding. Many hardcore fisherman only use knotting.

There are some good old standards in the world of fly tying.

Below, you’ll see a wooly bugger. A treasured favorite. Good for about any fish.

And below, a fire ant.

Check out the San Juan Worm below. He’s super easy to make, but not one of my favorites.

This is one of my favorites. It’s based off an emerger. I call it “Cole’s Green Emerger.”

Fly Tying is a great hobby for women. Women are much better at fine detail work, and our hands are smaller and more delicate. Many male fisherman struggle with tying their own flies because they break threads and struggle with working on such a small scale.

If you sell your flies, they can fetch up to $6 each so it’s  pretty profitable hobby too.

Plus, if a loved one is a fly fisherman, they’ll appreciate the flies more than you know.

This saying is so important to me that my husband and I had it written along two sides of our chuppah at our wedding.

There are treasures to be had.

Finds to discover.

Trinkets to claim.

Look at this. It’s a carousel. Made of some metal of some sort…zinc maybe? No idea. It’s certainly not a recent creation.

Look at the details. Doesn’t it just capture you? Pull you in?

If I had had this around when I was a child, I can guarantee that this would have inspired many a daydream.

The dern thing is even decorated. Look at the little flags, waving in the wind.

When I find stuff like this, I always wonder Who bought it? How much did they pay? Why did they buy it? How did it end up at a thrift store?

Maybe that’s why this is so magical. Because I don’t know any of those things. I only know that it was something somebody somewhere threw away. Something someone else saw no value in.

Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

This is an etegami done by Deborah Davidson, from Sapporo, Japan.

I found her blog a few months ago and discovered this ancient Japanese art form called etegami.

According to Debbie, “Etegami (e=”picture” tegami=”letter”) are simple drawings accompanied by a few apt words, and they are usually done on postcards. They are meant to be mailed off to one’s friends, rather than hoarded. Though etegami has few hard-and-fast rules, traditional tools and materials include writing brushes, sumi ink for the outline, gansai blocks for color, and soft absorbent washi postcards. They often depict some ordinary item from everyday life, especially items that bring a particular season to mind.”

I think this is something I’d like to take up in 2010. It’s so simple, yet look at the results. I wish the scan could relay the texture to you; the paper is thick and rippled and it traveled all the way from Japan to my hot little hands. I believe this is either a tangerine or a persimmon; and my Japanese is a little rusty (ok, non-existent) so I have no idea what the translation is.

There’s so much to be had in the world of letter writing. I hope you partake.

*edit, please see comment from Debbie below!

And worth every penny.

The cover was ripped off the book, so the title page is now the cover. This amazing book will tell you your horoscope, teach you how to tell fortunes, decode your dreams and explain palmistry to you. For just $2.

This isn’t referenced on the title page, but there’s a section on reading tea leaves.
If you see a Guillotine in your leaves, you can expect a severe accident or an encounter with the law. You think?

In palmistry, the meaty part just underneath your thumb on your palm is indicative of your ability to love. The bigger this area, the better.

And if you dream about books, you can be pretty sure that “a discussion will be held which may lead to a quarrel.”

And for those of you with a birthday on October 22, here’s your fortune: A shrewd judge of affairs with a strong materialistic trend, leading to wide success in the business world. The men enjoy the company of lodge brothers and belong to many organizations. The women are interested in athletics.

As a side note; doesn’t this typeface resemble Garamond? I think it’s lovely!

The asterisk. We all use it. Most of us use it to pretty-up a blog post or as an alternate bullet point.
But, as with all glyphs, there’s more to it than just that. The asterisk was first used in European typography as a special symbol to mark birth dates, and it’s first use is traced back 5,000 years to Sumerian pictographs. Today, it’s mostly used in footnotes.

When you’re designing something that involves an asterisk, keep in mind that different typefaces have different asterisks. See image above for proof. Use these variations to your advantage; you’ll be able to find one that’s just right for the job.

Wikipedia has a thorough article on asterisks if you’re interested (or just super nerdy).