New Joggles Class

I signed up for Susan Sorrell’s next course, “Personal Symbols,” at Joggles. I have no idea what to expect but, if it’s anything like her previous classes, it will be fun and interesting and it will cause my little brain to think about things in new ways.

Dead Oak Leaves on Branch

Today’s temperature reached the low 60s. This has been such a warm winter. Here are a few dead oak leaves still attached to a branch. It won’t be too long and I’ll be outside drawing the baby oak and sassafras trees just sprouting. I can’t wait for spring…

Nature Journal Sketch: Dead Oak Leaves

Roses

The supermarket sells individual roses for $1.00 each!

Nature Journal Sketch: Roses

String Printing

Here’s another lesson from the monprinting course, string printing. I drew a simple oak leaf shape and used that to make my printing plate. I stamped once on fabric, then stamped again, slightly offsetting the plate (hehe, I meant to do that!). This is an interesting (fun and freeing) technique but, I have to admit, I think I like the painted printing plate better than the fabric piece!

Printed Fabric


Painted Printing Plate

Stash Sunday (1/22/06)

This week’s theme is about things we have bought on-line or through the mail. Here is a wonderful, vintage (1958) hand printed fabric I recently purchased on EBAY. I fell in love with the design and color combination (hot pink, orange, plum and lime green). The lime green looks almost fluorescent. The piece looks more like it was produced in 1968 (Hippie era), but printed on the selvage edge is “PAISLEY” GENE MCDONALD HAND PRINT COPYRIGHT 1958.

Vintage Fabric

Painting on Fusible Web

I’ve been playing a little more with the monoprinting lessons. Here is my first attempt at painting on fusible web. The leaves were traced from ivy drawings in my sketchbook. They were then bonded to fabric (dyed awhile back using transparent paints and sea salt). This technique may have possibilities for future experiments. I’m thinking about adding veining details with thread, then adding a thin piece of batting and backing fabric - and quilting.

Shaving Cream Prints Revisited

Hey, I'm getting jiggy with it...somewhat...



Shaving Cream Prints on Lutradur

Shaving Cream Prints

Today I decided I’d better go back through my monoprinting lessons and try to do some of the projects I missed. Here are my first attempts at making shaving cream prints. The one on the left was made on kona cotton, the one on the right, lutradur. My results fell a little short of expectations but the process was fun and something I will definitely revisit. And I can use these as backgrounds for other techniques.

Shaving Cream Prints

My Poor Poinsettia

Here is a drawing of my sad and spindly poinsettia. I always purchase these holiday plants with such good intentions of caring for them diligently. But they invariably end up straggly and starved for attention…

Nature Journal Sketch: Poinsettia

Stash Sunday (1/8/06)

This week’s theme is “Novelties.” Here are some cat buttons I’ve collected over the past few years and a cat-printed fabric.

Cat Buttons and Fabric

The Storage Barn is Here...

The barn finally arrived yesterday afternoon. We were expecting it before Christmas but “better late than never,” as they say… We are very happy with it as it will really help to relieve some of our storage problems. I mentioned before that it is small (only 10’x16’) but, as you can see from the interior photo, the roof is pitched very high (10’) so we’ll be able to create a storage loft. We need to start looking for a weathervane to attach to the cupola – something with a cat, maybe? And I can’t wait for spring so I can plant the window boxes. I’ll need to plant something that thrives in the shade…





Storage Barn Progress Shots 1/7/06

I'm Still Here and a Caution

I thought I’d better check in to say hello. I haven’t had time to work on anything creative in the past few days as I’ve been helping DH in a growing phase of our business, courtroom presentations. I’ve been time stamping, that is, synching video depositions to their corresponding transcripts. It is very time-consuming and (eek!) I really have to concentrate on what I’m doing! But watching the depositions is fascinating. I have many more hours of testimony to go through by the weekend and then we will create “clips” to integrate into a multimedia courtroom presentation.

The case we are working on involves a freestanding range that was tipped over onto two children as they used the door as a stepladder to reach something on top of the stove. The children were badly burned because there happened to be boiling food that fell on them. I know some of you have small children and grandchildren. Please check and make sure your stoves are anchored to the floor with brackets. This is a potential hazard that I never would have thought of if it hadn’t been for working on this case…

Stash Sunday (1/1/06)

Here is some red for this week's theme. There is velveteen, wool, crepe and knitted suede. The buttons on the card are vintage glass. The other buttons are modern plastic. While I was pulling fabrics for this photograph, it came as a bit of a shock to me that, as a Santa maker, I have so little red in my stash. I'll definitely have to remedy that... I love red!

Seeing Red