Beach Scenes

My local art association's new theme for its next Nouveau Art Exhibit is "Scapes" and of course, I've done beach scenes. The first is about 19 x 18" and the second is larger 34 x 26" I think. both are abstracts. The first is rough edged. The second is good old piecing which takes an exorbitant amount of time. I haven't titled them yet. I have time to compose.

I've made a personal value to not buy any more commercially printed fabrics. I have so much in my closet, in my drawers, in my bins. I prefer to dye, paint, stamp, stencil, print my own but I feel the need to use up what I have bought. I did use commercial fabric for my brayer play in a previous post and plan to paint, stencil, print, etc. other commercial cloth in the future. Time will tell....

Christmas doings

I've unearthed a couple of Christmas quilt tops that I have had around forever. I somehow got the bug to finished them up this year. I had originally planned on making this one a full sized quilt but decided to quilt it up as a lap sized one instead. It fits beautifully on the guest queen size bed. I'm working on another which I will upload an image as soon as I finish quilting.

Here's my current set up for leaf printing using a foam rubber brayer, fabric paints. I ink up both sides of the leaf, lay it on the fabric (a cotton with script), lay a book page on top and rub with my finger pads. Two prints for the price of one.And this is what I did with the fabric prints: postcards and note cards!

Brayer Play on Fabric

Played with the technique I learned at the nature printing workshop - but on fabric. I didn't like the Jacquard paints - to squishy. So I tried the block painting ink I had on hand. I liked the results better. I will be experimenting so more with different paints: liquidex acrylic ink and versatex among others.

Happy Thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I have much to be grateful for: my family, my home, my health, my friends, my art.... oh I am thankful that I have too many blessings to list for you. Have a wonderful day.

Back Home

Getting through the 3 weeks of mail, playing the laundress and catching up on my email are quite the chores. My trip was varied and grand. I thoroughly enjoyed my daughter, son-in-law, and grand dog, Baxter in Lexington, Kentucky. My brother-in-law and his wife visited - an extra treat. Then we traveled to Annapolis, Maryland for husband's 40th reunion from the Naval Academy. A very busy and fun time. Then onto Little Switzerland, NC. to Wildacres Retreat and the Nature Printing Society's Annual Workshop. Great people, great art, great nature, great food and accommodations. I had a ball!!!

The workshop was held over 6 days: We arrived on Monday to gather. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday were classes. Thursday was a free to explore the area day.

On Tuesday, I spend the day making paper. I've done papermaking on a small scale when I taught. There's a learning curve to making paper but I got in a lot of practice. These two are just two of many. This first one I printed the leaves on once the paper was dried.

This second paper has a leaf laminated between 2 very thin layers of pulp and dried.Wednesday was the "Wild and Free Brayer Play" with Bee Shay. And we were wild and free. My kind of play. We loaded up our brayers with ink, inked a leaf, moved the leaf over onto our paper and rolled the brayer. The brayer could also be rolled again revealing yet another leaf impression. After making over 100 pages of prints, we glued and collaged a cardboard journal.

This is the journal opened so the front, back and spine are visible.This is one of the pages. I love them all.

Friday's class was with Bee Shay again " One Day, Two Journals." Using old book covers, we collaged the fronts and backs - I collaged the inside covers as well. We spray painted the pages. Afterwards, we made the spines and sewed in the 3 signatures and added the closure. I used some of my brayer prints and some I had made at home. My last class was with Lynda Goldberg, "Nature Printing with a Press." Monotypes. I didn't quite get into the groove but this is something I will explore more. We inked up the plate, laid inked up leaves on top, laid a paper on top and ran it through the press. These 3 are passable. I've got a lot of experimenting to do. And then transfer that experience onto fabric.

I can't wait until next year. The Nature Printing Society's Workshop will be held in Charleston, Oregon. I'm hoping to teach beginning leaf printing on fabric besides taking more wonderful classes.