It's been a wild one...

... in the house and in the studio this week.  Seems like the loosening of restrictions has brought a number of people to town.

With a visit from our daughter and grandson, to a friend from a long drive away, it's been exceptionally busy here.  The friend, Louise Olinger, was in town housesitting for a week, so we managed to play for two mornings in the studio.  Louise is an accomplished watercolourist, and her website is pure delight, with enough eye candy to keep one occupied for hours.   Louise' wish was to play with mixed media, so the glue cave got a great workout

as did the studio tables.  You can likely tell from the photos that she is a bundle of energy and great fun to play with!

We were so engrossed that I mostly forgot to take photos, and only managed this one of the bookmarks she was creating.

I did remember to take a shot of the tags I created - some hours after she left!  

As I was tidying up the studio in the aftermath, I found some suspicious things lurking about - not sure where they came from, but they are obviously in the works.

I do recall working on this, the fifth in the Line Dance series, as I work towards a final design for a larger piece.

And the dryer sheet paper somehow mysteriously collected an array of circles - pretty sure it was after midnight, because they didn't appear until the morning.

All in all, it was a colour-full week, and you know that's my favourite kind of time!  Happy week, my friends, and do catch me up on your doings in the comments!

Did you know...

...that I love to colour?  I do, and so do many of my friends.  To that end, we held 'A Colourful Party ' at Puffin Design this week, and it was a blast.  With twelve+ in attendance, we went at it to our heart's content.

Loving the unique patterns on this one of Eileen's

Granted it wasn't all colouring - pretty sure the drinks and snacks added to the fun, and who doesn't like to choose a fistful of colour?

Gay, Lisa, Sue & Shelly peruse the choices

I was pleased to have a couple of gents in the group, even if I had to co-opt one of them!

Sue, Shelly, John and Joe, with Bart waaaaay in the back.

Joe and Shelly colouring up a storm while Maureen and Jasmine choose their weapons.

Eileen, Laura, John and Lisa tear into it.

Sue, Jasmine, Lori and Gay are hard at it right from the start

Alison stopped in for a bit of a visit.

Colour pow!

Working with oil pastels.

You could feel and see the love in the air

It was Laura who noticed that many of the colours on the mandala sheets matched the tops the participants were wearing - how fun is that?  I immediately had to look at mine, and sure enough.  I was wearing purple, and colouring in three shades of it.  And check out the shot below - matching everywhere!

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John, with his infinite patience, was working with very fine-nibbed pens!

I think the addition of the cross-slashed lines in the centre of this one by Laura adds a huge amount of pizazz.

TJ's colour choices are in total harmony with what she's wearing.

Maureen adds a pop of red - on the page and off it.

The evening reminded me of wonderful parties from the past, where friends would gather on a cold winter weekend to soak in a hot tub alternating with a mad frenzy of colouring in the warm and cozy house.  By the end of a weekend, our walls would be covered top to bottom with mandalas in every shade of the rainbow; the energy was palpable.

Why not hold your own colouring party?  There are a ton of colouring books for adults on the market (although I confess to a bit of bias towards the one at the top right of this blog - they're available at Puffin too).  And if you want to get in on the next one at Puffin, email me with your preference of daytime or evening slot, and I'll let you know the details when available.

I count...

...it a good day when I can spend  time in the the studio, and now that I can play while I'm at work, that happens nearly every day.

This week I managed to finish a crate

 and a book sculpture.

 I  embossed teen-some tags for future exchanges,

 and nearly finished a fun foam tangle drawing (Gelli plate here I come!),

as well as a painting (just a sneak peak here).

 I started laying out pieces for a gold themed painting,

 and gazed cross-eyed at a pair of shoes waiting patiently near two bottles, all in progress.

I also inked half a dozen mandala designs for my next adult colouring book.  Go, Win, go!

I'm a happy creator - how about you?

I'm in here...

...somewhere, although it's hard to find anything (or anyone) in the studio right now.  How did it get so messy?

From completed journal pages (Gelli prints used to the max),

to some that are barely started (that's a fabulous card I received from Laura Leeder there on the right),

to journals being made from Gelli prints,

miniature bottles being crackled,

and bottles and glasses getting their first coat of colour, it's riotous inside.

I've been experimenting with printing on Gelli prints and I like this reminder about how to keep centered. Perhaps it will even work if I take the advice.

I'm in the throes of creating a new colouring book for adults, so there are mandala designs everywhere.  I can't quite figure out where the 3,000 copies of the first book went - did you take them?!

By now you've probably got the picture, and if not, here's the definitive one.  Has anything changed since the last time you saw a full studio shot from here?  Don't you think it's a good thing that I rarely teach in my home studio any more?  Fitting four students in here without using a crowbar would be a miracle.

Why not send me a link in the comments below so I can see your studio madness?  I'd love to know I'm not alone.

Studio eye candy...

...abounds, so even when I'm tight for play time in the studio, I can always find colour and pattern that gives me joy.

Alcohol ink-painted wallpaper

Signature in process

Tag background

Background for journal page

Painting in progress - textured edge

Dried leaf mandala from my stash

Another background for a journal page

Fun foam stamp being created for a YouTube tutorial

 I've often been accused of channeling a bumblebee, because  I get up close and personal with my photos.  What do you find in your studio when you cast your eyes around?  Are you a big picture type, or a close-up fanatic?

They're everywhere,

those mandalas.  When I move back into mandala mode, as I do frequently, they are everywhere I look.  I see them in nature when I'm out walking, or in quilts, on clothing, and in the studio.  The push me to make them in every form.

I draw them,

I turn wine bottle caps into them,

and do the same with beer bottle caps,

 time and again,

 over and over.

Discarded costume jewellery becomes a mandala

and so do CD's.

I've painted them, photographed them and created a colouring book dedicated to them.  And it's nearly out of stock.   I suspect that is the reason for their reappearance in my life right now.  It may be time to do a new version of that book. 

Did you know that mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning 'sacred spirit'?  Where do you see them, and what are they telling you?