SoJ Web Report | April 22, 2010
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| Photo by Mike Conway |
| Glenda Ketcham, right, shows attendees her work at an exhibit of IU staff members’ creative works Wednesday. The one-hour event was at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center. |
Ketcham, the school’s graduate admissions coordinator, showed her work in digital design at a campuswide exhibit of the creative work of IU staff members Wednesday at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center’s Grand Hall.
“I explained to people who stopped by my table what digital scrapbooking is and how you do it,” said Ketcham, who has been helping prospective graduate students put their best work forward for 23 years. “The session went very well, with a lot of staff members participating and showing all kinds of crafts, from beadwork to crochet to paintings.”
Ketcham showed her finished products – the books, scrapbooks, cards and other items she’s designed over the last five years, when she shifted from paper and paste scrapbooking to creating themes on computer. On half an eight-foot display table, she showed the simple beginnings of digital scrapbooking as well as her sophisticated products.
Much of Ketcham’s process will seem familiar to journalism students. She uses Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to enhance her own photos and to draw her own elements. For her projects, she takes photographs of her grandchildren, often dressing them in clothing to fit the theme she has in mind, then draws pieces in Illustrator to enhance the project. She then “journals,” or writes her thoughts about what the children were doing that day, or a story one of them told her, that serves as the central piece of the work. She produces the entire project electronically, then prints out the final work.
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| Photo by Mike Conway |
| Ketcham sells her creations, from simple art pieces to entire themes, to other digital scrapbookers. |
Ketcham’s hobby has blossomed into a business. Early in her digital experience, she shopped online to buy elements or themes, but realized she was creating her own materials that others may be interested in buying.
“I do sell digital themes online, themes I create and design, ranging from pages to whole albums,” she said. “Some people buy the whole theme, then drop in their own photos and journal pieces. Others buy just pieces, such as a flower or other art element they use with their own designs.”
The business side of her hobby supports her own habit, she says, and the biggest payoff for her is how her grandchildren enjoy reading the books and other materials their grandmother has designed around them.
“Mothers always think they’ll remember when baby took a first step, or know how they felt when they did something for the first time, but they don’t,” she said. “But you do remember through the reading. And the children love to read about themselves when they get older.”
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