Time to Relax

I just returned from a fun family reunion and spent a couple of days at this beautiful lake. I also had the opportunity to meet Sue Bleiweiss in person. I think we hit it off quite well and hope that our paths cross again sometime. Sue is a very talented lady and you're going to be seeing her work everywhere.

This is what I found when I got home. Don't they look delicious? The tomatoes are so abundant this year, the cages can't support the weight of the plants. The metal has completely given up the fight and has bent over in half. Besides tomatoes, I'm also growing a few varieties of peppers, green beans, garlic, lettuce, and several herbs. What do you have growing in your garden?

Lucky, Lucky Me

Sue Bleiweiss pulled my name out as one of the lucky prize recipients in her latest give away. I chose one of Sue's beautiful journals that has writing on the outside similar to my t-shirt.We both used the same curved syringe to do the writing. It's a fun technique to play with, you should give it a try.

The journal has three signatures inside, some pages are painted with metallics and some have been left white. I can't wait to start filling it up with something special, but I'm not sure what yet. Thank you, Sue; you are very generous and I LOVE it.

I would like to start teaching some classes locally. I'm planning to teach a variety of stenciling and printing techniques. It's a lot of work to get all the samples and directions made up. I hope it works out.

Kathy and I are driving to Long Beach in the morning to the first IQA show. Many of our friends are already there; Susan Italo is giving demonstrations on how she makes her beautiful jackets and I'm hoping to meet up with Ruth Rae in the QA booth. I want to check out the Stewart Gil paints I keep hearing about. I'm excited, it's going to be a lot of fun!

How much money do you think I'll spend? Hmmmm . . . that would be a good contest. I'll give a prize (unknown at the moment) to the person that guesses the closest amount. Even though it seems like I own every product ever made, I keep finding more to buy. Why is that??

Writing on Fabric

Last year, Rayna gave me a curved syringe similar to the one she uses to write on fabric. I put it away and never actually tried it. Then Sue wrote an article in Fibre & Stitch using the same tool. Again, it looked intriguing and I knew I would try it someday.

A couple of my thermofax prints didn't turn out well, because the design was too busy, so I figured I would try using the syringe and add a layer of writing on top. What did I have to lose? I was going to throw both pieces away anyways. The first couple of pieces felt a bit forced. I was trying to figure out how to hold the syringe and how hard to press it. And what the heck was I going to write about anyways?

By this third piece (larger than what is shown below), the technique felt pretty natural and words just came spilling out. Every once and a while you can read a word or two, but for the most part, it is illegible. I think it adds a nice layer of texture though, don't you?

Originally, the syringe was used by vets to administrator medication to animals. Some creative person had a "what if" moment, ran an experiment and discovered a great new paint technique.