Oooh, Shiny!

Gourd and Apples

These two drawings are from my last class, which was focused on volumes and shading. The still life setup included seasonally-appropriate gourds and apples.

 

I was pretty happy with the gourd drawing above. The apples below are a bit too blocky in the shading, and the stem areas were a bit of a struggle for me. But, practice is good! While working on these drawings, I really enjoyed the tactile experience of working on the shading.

Pencil Drawing Exercises

In my Drawing for Beginners class last week, we worked on two classic exercises.

The first was to copy a work by a known artist. I chose to bring in a postcard of this painting of a stag beetle by Albrecht Durer.

The second was to draw a loop of ribbon to practice shading for dimensionality:

Both of these were pretty fun to do. One really enjoyable part of drawing for me is the tactile feel of getting the pencil down on the paper.  This aspect had not really occurred to me before I started to work on drawing more seriously this year. I'm starting do develop definite preferences for certain leads and papers.

Since I had so much fun in class, I also worked on an exercise from the book  Botanical Drawing in Color, which I have been working through very slowly. This one called for drawing and shading a white plastic spoon, both face up and face down. I added another spoon done in sepia to practice shading with colored pencil.

Eyelet Bound Journal

I got this bookbinng kit from Quietfire Designs because I was intrigeud by the construction, with the eyelets and the exposed thread on the spine.  I've bought several of her kits over time; I like her aesthetic and her use of interesting stitching techniques. And on this particular kit, the blue cover option immediately made me think of my pal Donna.

Now that it's in her hands, I can post pictures of it without spoiling the surprise.

The cover is made up of three separate pieces for the front, back and spine. The front and back covers have eyelets inserted, and linen thread is laced through them to capture the spine piece.

Here's a slightly closer view on the eyelets:

 And here's how it looks from the inside:

I ended up making my spine piece a little too wide, so that's a note for next time. I think this binding could be interesting with a supple but still firm cover material, like the laminated Tyvek I have used in another project. A great characteristic of this binding is that it will open and lay very flat when you are working in it - really nice for a sketchbook or journal application.

Everyday Matters Challenge 1

Here's my next installment in the EDM challenges. I'm reverting to type and going back to the start of the list. The perspective is a little off, and the paiting is still pretty primitive, but I think it has a certain charm.  And the only way to start making good drawings/paintings is to make a lot of bad ones!

Sketching Class: Amtrak Station

Carrying on with yesterday's theme of learning to draw, I am also taking a sketching class through Adult Ed this term. Since I currently have the luxury of taking weekday classes, I enrolled in the Thursday morning session. Most everyone else in the class is painting watercolor landscapes, but the name of the course is Beginning Sketching in Pen, Ink and Watercolor, so I am choosing to take that at face value.

This week's location was the Santa Barbara Amtrak station.  I did the rough sketch at right to try out perspective during the instructor's demo. 

  Then I kind of wussed out and did a head on view of the station for my painting. I was pretty happy with the drawign itself. I'm still grappling with color and brush control when I add watercolor, though. Here, I was following the instructor's advice to get more paint on the paper. I'm pleased with the deeper shades here; my past paintings have been on the pale side.

Everyday Matters Challenge 24

I'm bad at failing. Really, really terrible at it. This becomes a problem when it prevents me from trying something new, or just playing around with something I already love to do to see what happens.

One of the things I've been wanting to do for a while is get better at drawing. I've always been able to draw a bit, but I'm not really proficient at it, and I'm certainly not fast. I'd also like to do a little watercolor painting.

So in my typical fashion, I have been reading, researching, buying books, paints, and endless pencils. Because surely by becoming an expert on drawing and painting materials and supplies, I will naturally become good at drawing and painting, right? WRONG! There's no way to improve my skills other than to just DO the things I want to do.

To that end, I decided to jump in this morning. In my copious research, I kept coming across references to Danny Gregory's Everyday Matters challenge list. And I'm really busting out of my comfort zone by jumping in at #24.

 So here it is, my first visual journal entry, drawn from life. 

Judith MacKenzie Workshop

Last week, my friend Edith and I participated in Judith MacKenzie's Color in Spinning workshop, hosted by GLASG. What a fun and inspiring day! I went into it with a definite interest in the topic of color and how to work with it in my spinning, but I have to tell you, I would take another workshop from Judith on any topic in a heartbeat. After this day with her, I was sorry I hadn't signed up for her wheel mechanics class as well. She's got a wealth of knowledge and experience, and shares it generously.  

The workshop covered many of the same topics Judith discusses in her article in the recent special publication from Interweave, Knit & Spin. Below are a few photos from the workshop, and some class samples I finished up at home.

   

Judith is demonstrating how to spin several colors of top right off a minicomb.

 

This table held a small mountain of beautiful, colorful fiber that we worked through over the course of the day.

 

Here, Judith is discussing how to measure twist in your singles and your plied yarn. She's referring to her book  The Intentional Spinner.

 

Judith's samples of color blending using solid color merino top for the singles, and shifting the plies in each skein to create the gradation.

 

My samples of color blending using several multicolored tops, then plying into a 3-ply (top skein) and cabled (bottom skein) yarn. I was really intrigued by the effect of the different colors in the cabled structure. I have a pair of really unattractive tops that I'm going to try this with.

 

My samples of color blending using plying from the Judith MacKenzie workshop

Samuel's Alligator

It's been pretty dark on this and my photo blog for the last two years. I've still been making things at a steady clip, but time to post was scarce thanks to a variety of external factors. Here's my first post to resurrect this space for keeping track of what I'm doing and making. More to come soon as I catch up on my backlog.

I made this little alligator sweater for our godson Samuel, who turned one last week. He immediately went for the button eye, but overall was more intrigued by the ribbon and the card from the wrapping.

The alligator wraps around to the back and has two stacked buttons for the eyes, courtesy of Aylene's vintage button collection.

 

   
Detail of the alligator

 

Safety Cone!

I made this little guy a while back, before one of Dan's trips to Japan. He tucked it into his carry on bag as a safe-travel talisman. Now, we trade it back and forth when one of us takes a trip alone.

I can't take credit for the idea or the pattern - it came from here.

How I Spent my Sunday Afternoon

It's been a really busy few months. I've been working a lot, and many of my weekends  for the last few months have been taken up with things like bronchitis, working straight through, and being evacuated from my house due to a wildfire. As a result, my kiln has been languishing in the garage since Don headed home.

Yesterday, I declared a day of "I am making stuff and not talking to anyone (except Dan)." It was glorious, and just what I needed to recharge my batteries.

I did a little bit of soldering practice as I waited for the kiln to heat up. I managed to finish four new coasters using 4" bevels and Japanese paper. I'll get some photos of them once I get the feet  on.

The main attraction was doing some enameling, though. I gave myself the goal of making small color samples of all of my opaque colors. I managed to get through all 36, and in the process got a bit more comfortable working with the kiln. Here's a shot of my results:

 

These are destined to be glued onto the tops of the enamel storage bottles for easy reference. And I think I'm going to make some more of them to play with as earrings or bracelet components.