Die, procrastination - DIE!

I'm celebrating this week - I've had the Coptic stitch on my list of 'things to learn' for so long that it's lost in the mists of time, and this past week I finally managed to get the lead out and try it.

It's tiny (5 3/4" x 4 1/2"), and has enough flaws to qualify for "Book Fails in Canada' fame, but I've made a list, learned a ton, and look forward to trying it again.

I enjoyed making the signatures as well, using gel prints for the base, going mad with alcohol inks on white-on-white wallpaper, and generally drooling over the results.

Because this was a practice book, I paid no attention to the prints on the signatures, and then had to come up with something to tie them together colour-wise.

While it works as a prototype, it does so mostly for future possibilities.  I may have to up my alcohol ink stash, perhaps!

In any event, I am gleefully celebrating the death of this particular procrastination issue...a few thousand more of these and I'll have the skill to put together that tall stack of signatures I showed you last week.  That is cause for elation indeed.  

You know how much fun we have...

in the studio when guests come to play, and this time we really overdosed.  You know what can happen when there's alcohol involved, and this time was no exception.

Alcohol inks are a versatile medium, as you can see here:

Gay got right into blowing through a straw
on the white-on-white wallpaper.

Eileen loves to draw, so she worked a great deal
on the plastic coated paper.

Lynne went a wee bit drop crazy for a while.

Linda went to Paris on a colourful rainy day.

There was so much lusciousness going, I'm just going to zip it up, unlock my jaw and let you take a look.

See the star in this piece of Lynne's?  She used a crayon as resist.

Here water was spritzed on the wallpaper first to create a unique look.

Inks dropped on paper and spritzed with a fine spray of 99% alcohol.

Linda's dripping and spritzing for the rainy Paris look.

Gay's luscious colour.

One of my subtle pieces on the plasticised paper.

Eileen's woodpecker looks fabulous...

...as do her landscapes.

Look at this blue/green mouth-watering piece by Lynne.

Love the look on Gay's face here - hardly having any fun at all!  😉😉😉

Truly, we couldn't have had more fun if there had been drinking alcohol in play...the colour was yummy, and the experimentation was wild, wild, WILD.

In case you think I'm doing nothing but purging and playing, I have a couple of finished paintings for you this week...remember I said a while back that I was working on a stack of twenty or so?

'I'll Meet You at the Crossroads'
12" x 9" mixed media on cradled wood panel
© Win Dinn

'A Notable Woman
12" x 6" mixed media on cradled wood panel
© Win Dinn

That's it for this week!  Do tell me what you've been up to this past week - how are you getting your joy on?

I've got a great stash...

of alcohol inks, and you know what's happening to the stash.  It's 'use it or lose it', so I've been playing with them on wallpaper this week, and I've got a gaggle (or is that a giggle?) of friends coming on Friday to do the same thing.  You gotta know we'll be inked up to the eyebrows!

I love the way the inks run on the white-on-white wallpaper.  Here's a quick video of the technique

and some results of my play.

I turned that first one into a flower - it was the exact shade I needed for a journal page.  You can see the start of it here, sitting on the wallpaper.  It's quite a transformation, right?  

I can hardly wait to see what our giggle does with them on Friday!  What's your colour hit this week?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.