Something new...

...hits the studio (and house) occasionally, and this bookmark is a case in point.

I created the old one early in 2018, and it's been thoroughly brutally utilized since then, having marked places in book after book after book.  Even in normal times I'm an avid reader, and the pandemic increased that exponentially.

Of course there's little that gets thrown away in the world of mixed media, so there is a journal spread in progress to honour the hours of pleasurable reading this bookmark has made possible.

This past week I've been having to push myself to even get into the studio, so the other piece is an in-progress one as well.  An artist tissue piece, it also started its life in 2018, and went no further than the hideously ugly stage.

It's looking somewhat more presentable now with a total wash and wipe-back of turquoise, an application of oil pastels and a further judicious wash of Paynes grey in some areas.  There may be hope yet.

I like the feeling of sunlight peeking through the forest, and it's got me thinking about summer hiking.  How can that be a bad thing?

I also - don't laugh - spent a full day doing a prototype for a slipcover case for my piano hinge skewer book. Those of you who read this blog regularly know how spatially challenged I am, so that won't surprise you at all.  I've made one before but found it as challenging for my brain this time around as it was the first.  I actually managed to mess up the dimensions four times and goofed the fold once.  I'm so glad that it was waste paper, as I think I can manage the concept now.  Maybe.  😃  Perhaps if I spent a full week making these cases, they'd stick in my mind.

Hope you've had a great week - I'm looking forward to checking out your posts!  

It's been a busy week...

...here, and not all in the studio.  From Christmas baking and shipping,  to sending cards out and wrapping my head around a technique unused for some time, I'm been in a wee bit of a tizzy!  This artist tissue technique is fun, totally uncontrollable (like me, right?!), and just meant for abstract play.

Artist tissue, washes of acrylic and oil pastels

And in case you thought I'd missed the video this week, you'd be very nearly right, given that I accidentally deleted it from the camera, and had to do a repeat.  There's just something about technology and me that are at odds.  In any event, I managed to do another, so from start to finish, here's a video about playing with artist archival tissue paper and acrylic washes.

Artist tissue, washes of acrylic

This last week was also about calligraphy - some friends and I took a class on Thursday last at the college, and yesterday was a practice day. . . there's a looooooooooong way to go, I'd say!

And while Eileen was here yesterday to work on this (she's a pro, given her earlier training), I neglected to get a single photo.  Baaaaad Win!  We were having too much fun, I'd say.

Tell me about your week - what have you been up to?  Creating?  Baking?  Wrapping?  Making?  Let me know in the comments!

The No-Fear Gang

Fear?  No such thing in The Arts Station this past weekend!  Those ladies took to the playbox like they never got out of their childhood.

Jordana and Kathleen tear into it

Becca and Anna are intent on their play

The floor of The Arts Station was covered from one end to the other with a stupendous range of starts,

Clockwise from bottom centre - plastic wrap, music skin, plastic wrap, alcohol drop, who know's what, more alcohol (can you see a pattern emerging? - wine was a big topic on the weekend) and a UFO on black.  In the centre, an artist's 'sandwich' made with mulberry paper and strips of painted dryer sheets.

each one a uniquely different interpretation of the techniques covered.

Love that blue/green tartan start and the beginning of something fishy!

I know I added 15 pounds to my weight with all those colour calories exploding in the room.

Every time I turned my back there would be another layer of mouth-watering colour on something,

 or another start (or ten),

or someone praying for release from the agony?

Becca gets right into it - on the floor!

Want to see some close-ups?

Luscious, mouth-watering brayer paper (aka leather or gesso paper)

Oh those palette paper transfers!

Drywall compound goes upscale

Plastic wrap technique

Another version of brayer paper

And a version of the drywall compound that happily repeats a complex pattern

The artist tissue technique goes soft and abstract

Layer upon layer - one technique over the other

Plastic wrap technique, with a palette paper transfer over top

Doesn't this say jazzy to you?

Collaged mammoth meets tea and coppers

The palette paper transfer on a start just energizes it all

I suspect that their mixed media play days will not stop here - they're all too much addicted to the 'What if?' possibilities now!

Kathleen, Jordana, Anna and Becca display a small amount of their weekend output

Of course it wasn't all fun and games - I had to eat real calories in Fernie too!  If you're visiting there, I highly recommend the Tandoor & Grill Restaurant at the Stanford Inn (The Arts Station had arranged my accommodations - lovely place)...the food is beyond amazing;  I'm now totally addicted to their mushroom pakora and the vegetable curry, along with the chicken tikka masala I had the last time I visited.  It would be impossible to recommend this restaurant highly enough!

So here's to lack of fear, and calories in Fernie - bless them all!