Summer is Here!

 Here are some links to events and classes (typing with one hand today, so this will be short) hope to see you soon!

Classes

Spokane Art School

Eco Printed Journal Class

June 28th

Eco Printed Paper Class

August 9th

Events

Terrain's Bazaar

June 21st, Downtown Spokane

Allied Arts Art in the Park

July 25th and 26th, Howard Amon Park, Richland WA

Sorry there are no descriptions here, but hit the links and you should be able to get your questions answered, thanks!

All the News that's Fit to Print

Hello! Just to catch up, here is what is going on in the next little while. I will be at Art in the Park in Richland Washington this weekend the 29th and 30th (yes, it is a Friday, Saturday show). It will be very warm, even for Tri-cities Washington, so I will be opening the booth up early, as are many of the makers in the show. This show is open until 8:00 PM on Friday and 7:00 PM on Saturday, so late shopping is also an option.

Next week I will be heading off to Anacortes Washington for the Anacortes Arts Festival, August 5th, 6th, 7th. I hope to see you there.

I am teaching two eco printing workshops this year at Urban Art Cooperative. One is Sunday August 21st and the other is Saturday September 10th. You can get all the details at www.urbanartcoop.org click on "sign up for classes" and scroll down to the workshops.

It is a busy summer and I hope to catch up with you in person!

I will have shirts in additon to scarves at both Art in the Park Richland and Anacortes Festival of the Arts

Tea Anyone?

Last winter I messed around with hibiscus tea, but didn't take enough notes to remember what I did or didn't do. So this time around I decided to take more pictures and notes. I laid out four scarves with various dry leaves and sprinkled the dry hibiscus tea around them. All scarves were treated with some sort of rust first.

As you can see, the leaf prints are pretty diffuse, but look at that pink!

This is just being washed in a cold water bath with a bit of shampoo.

As expected, most of the pink turned blue after various post treatments. Click on the picture to enlarge in order to really see the differences. Alas, no pink, or almost none, but an interesting selection of blues and lavenders. I personally like the one that was washed with no post treatment the best. When we get closer to summer, I may try this again with a scarf pretreated with alum instead of rust.

Teaching

"I am not trying to heal people. My job is to teach this guy a D chord, and a G chord, and a C chord, and then get him playing some tunes. If I focused on the larger purpose as opposed to the nuts and bolts, then I'd lose everything."

Henry Robinett, musician and guitar teacher for the California prison system. Sun magazine October 2017

Gettin' Old Ain't For Sissies

Well, you are probably wondering what happen to this blog. This winter I have been dealing with some age related health crap, which has gone on forever. For the number of hospitals in our city, you would think I could have had it all dealt with instantaneously-but noooo. My mind has been elsewhere for the last few months and then with the elongated winter we have had it has been hard to get enthusiastic about anything-especially when your art is made with plants-and they are all asleep. Now, there is a plan of action on the health issues and spring is here, it will get better-I promise!

I am off tomorrow for Best of the Northwest at Magnuson park (hanger 30) in Seattle, you can check the details under its listing in the column on the right side of the blog. According to the NOAA it will be a good travel day so I hope to get an early start so I can haunt some of my favorite places in Seattle; Seattle Pottery Supply, Pacific Fabrics, and Third Place Books. Set up is on Friday and it is a two day show, Saturday and Sunday.

In the meantime it isn't like I have just been sitting on my duff.

I am in the spring issue of Haute Handbags-with two projects! Go check it out!

Keeping an eye on the flooding river-I love the changes in the river over the year.

Making new things, these are the beginnings of beaded infinity scarves, come to the show and see how they turned out.

Experimented with red wine as a dye, this was Chianti, no Hannibal Lector jokes please!

I can't remember if I mentioned this one before, but I am in the winter Altered Couture too-probably still out there and available from the Stampington and Company website, I am sure.

Waiting for spring.

Any-hoo; now that we have a plan of action I will be getting it together when I get back and putting out a class schedule and show calendar. Watch your email inbox! Send me your info through the contact box on the right side of the blog if you would like to stay informed, I will add you to my list. Thanks!

Student Work

I had to show off some work from my class last summer. Merrilyn Reeves is a potter, mid-wife and herbalist. You can see her pottery on her website at www.wildwoodpottery.com

She took my eco printing class at Urban Art Co-op in August, then took it a step further and worked on paper-and look at the results! Wow!

We are both members of Pottery Place Plus in Spokane, come by and see our work the next time you are in town.

Summer into Fall

Wow! I can't believe how long it has been since I posted anything, time does fly! After the Anacortes show in early August I taught my first class in eco printing, it went well. Here are some pictures of us in action and the final results.

Then it was on to Sausalito California for a show over Labor Day weekend and two more shows here at home. In between I have been trying to make good use of the last of the summer greenery. The sunflower leaves are finally ready just as the locust are about done for the year. This scarf also includes pressed leaves from last year and marigolds that didn't get hit by our first frost. The marigolds will yield an olive green, the locust leaves a brighter green and the sunflower will print brown while the pressed leaves will be a purply black.

Now I am traipsing around collecting this years leaves as they change color. Mostly from the parks and yards as the wild trees have pretty much given up with all our hot dry weather this summer. Leaves from the small shrubs and trees I would normally collect and save just shriveled up, turned brown and fell to the ground. I know how they feel, I was at my load limit for heat, dust, smoke and no rain. I am not sure what it is about fall, but it must be the cooler temperatures and the bright blue skies that make this my favorite time of the year.