class act

I'm back from Vermont. As is typical, I went thinking I was going to do one thing and ended up doing something completely else-wise to what I thought I intended. I like what I've got, and I'm forming a post on't, but first...

Before heading to Vermont, I took Rayna Gilman's gelatin printing class at the Country Quilter. I was a little anxious about this Vermont escapade, and these see-and-do classes tend to give me performance anxiety, so I was not the most ebullient participant*, but now that I have the basic idea, I think it will be fun to Try This At Home. Here are some of the results: Above right, fragmented gelatin plate, ink lifted off with a crocheted placemat, successive colors on a commercial, pale gray, printed fabric. Below left, a mishmash monoprint surprinted with the crochet pattern, printed on commercial marbelized fabric. Below, right, the same marbelized fabric, print made from embossed paper and commercial stamps (circle and spiral).

I think the most successful piece is this one: metallic mesh, torn paper, and feather resists; commercial text stamp on the gray fabric.
And the most interesting things were most accidental. When I pulled the paper resists off the plate, some of the layered residual paints came with it:

*The most ebullient participants

wereJane Davila and Vivien

(Whose Last Name I Don't Know).

Apologies for being slow to report on Vermont, but it feels like a lot to process. Now I know why some of the folks who do the Yaddo and McDowell things find themselves paralyzed by a sense of The Enormity of What I've Done. I wasn't exactly paralyzed, and I don't want to make too big a deal out of the Profundity of a Weekend, but there is feeling of something having shifted.

Sally forth

15cm/6 inches x 30cm/12 inches
Watercolor, watercolor pencils, conte crayon,

ink jet printing on 140-lb watercolor paper
Figures collaged with Liquitex liquid matte medium.

The clothespin people are almost ready for their adventure. This is something of a departure for me, no textiles. The shortie in the tall-and-short pair right of center needs some definition, and IRL (as opposed to the onscreen scan) this needs a unifying something -- which may be why Tsukineko has given us Walnut Ink. Then it's drying time again, they're gonna leave me . . . But then they'll be back. With some buddies.

In the meantime, tomorrow (Thursday 7/31) I'm taking a class in gelatin-plate printing at the Country Quilter in Somers, then off to Vermont with my drawn-on-looseleaf sketch, a carload of supplies, and much free-floating anxiety. Heigh-ho.

venturesome

I had planned to take a class in paint flinging at the Great River Arts Institute in Vermont next week, but apparently I was only registrant so it was cancelled. Instead I've rented a studio -- how weird is that -- and am going anyway. But what to do? what to do? in my rented studio for two-and-a-half days? I've had this sketch for a hundred years (since it's on looseleaf I suspect I was doodling instead of algebra-ing, or some such). I have a hankering to do Something Big -- physically big -- and I think it has possibilities.

The clothespin people are just about ready for their adventure. They're in the book press -- a stack of 2 The Beautiful Cookbooks, Hiroshige's 100 Famous Views of Edo, and An Atlas of the Universe -- being flattened. The covers are so close to done that I think I will finish them tonight during the ball game. . . and then off to Ohio they go. And then I can post them. I can't say that I'm done being anxious (several people in the exchange are much more accomplished I am) but the fun part of this exchange is dominant.

exhale, dinah

Ever the poky one -- it takes me so darn long to think of something -- but I am now ready to post Dinah's book to the next participant, with this page newly attached:

30 cm/12 inches wide x 15 cm/6 inches high.
Hand embroidery over commercial print fabric,
mit tiny, shiny bits

Now, I need to see what I can do with this . . .and the meroitic alphabet . . .and the clothes pin people . . .
But not tonight. One triumph at a time, that's my motto.

check, it's in the mail

I got an acknowledge- ment of receipt today from one of the folks in my postcard group so, as requested, here's a look at the FRONT of the one I saved for me.

I'm not quite done with my contributions for the book exchange, but I'm thisclose. I decided against beading for the black and white and red page in Dinah's book. Since the books are going to be bouncing around in the mails in three countries on two continents, it occurred to me (in the nick of time) that it might not be the best idea to have lumpy, sharpish things sticking up from the pages. Enter Sequins. The slow-drying glue will have finished working its magic by tomorrow, then I can post a picture and post the thing itself -- yes really -- on Tuesday.

book exchange, now underway

Earlier in the week... okay, in the month... I got the first of the books for the exchange. Aside from being relieved of anxiety about the size of the pages, I was inspired by Dinah's use of my newest favorite colors:

Tonight, I finished the stitching for my page in her book. Tomorrow, I'll do a little beading, and then, on or about Saturday -- I think I can, I think I can -- post it to the next person in the round. Here's a bit of what I've got so far (hand embroidery over a commercial print):

first edition

This was interesting -- making an 'edition' of something.
Here are the 20 postcards for the exchange I joined drying in one of the bookcases (also a glimpse of high and low reading material that has, so far, survived my six-bags-full "get rid of the books!" frenzy...).


I had my usual trouble figuring out how to finish the pieces and wrestled with the backs more than is reasonable. Next time, I think I will print the backs on the computer, especially if I decide again to use a longish quotation as the message. Penning in "People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things around us --Iris Murdoch" twenty times was more exercise than I'm used to.

Meanwhile, the first of the books for the Australia-sparked exchange has come in -- and I learned that I completely misunderstood the size of the intended pages. So this is a case where procrastination is good -- the pages are half the size I imagined (but twice the size my sputtering research suggested). So I can now get started on that in earnest.