and then we set it on fire

I know what you're thinking -- isn't Dorothy Caldwell renowned for her embroidery? Yes. Deservedly so. I'll get to that.

The supply list asked for some odd things -- a hammer and a large nail, a candle and matches, incense -- but did not ask for a sewing machine. I was very distracted by this omission.  Was bringing the machine assumed? What if I'm the only person without one? But the class is, after all, called Human Marks, and nothing electrified was needed.

With the candle -- preferably, as it turns out, a cheap candle that smokes -- we made traceries on paper. On the beautiful Arches paper that was in the class kit, the smoke came up very delicately. You can see it under and between the sewn-on doo-dads on this page.



Smoked Arches paper



One of the women in the class first did a watercolor wash, then smoked over the wash, and then scratched into it. I thought this was extraordinarily beautiful and tried it at home on bought-at-Michael's Strathmore watercolor paper. (Sorry this is a bit out of focus, I'm having some trouble with my eyes which is giving me trouble with my camera.)



Left: smoke alone. Middle: watercolor wash.
Right: smoke over wash and scratched.

The smoke-over-wash is darker in real life, but this gives the general idea:

 I think the Surrealists called this "fuming."