Random.....

 

It has been busy around here, so I thought I would just play a little catch up today!

I spent several days cleaning, clearing and de-stashing my studio.  Actually, these shelves still look tidy......I've already messed up the rest of the room....that's a good thing, right!  I need to paint the walls in this room!  Let me think about that, a bit.

I mentioned the bookmaking class I'm taking from Diana Trout....well, here is my first finished book. 

 

The cover is called "woven" and the binding stitch is longstitch and made with paper/cloth that I made.

This photo was taken before I was finished with the cover but it shows the binding better.  I made a few mistakes but I, also, learned a lot.

Tuesday was the class I'm helping to teach based on Julia Cameron's book "Vein of Gold".  The class is a part of the local community colleges program called Continued Learning in Retirement, so all the students are retired and mostly female.  This young at heart group make up in enthusiasm whatever they might lack in skill.  For our art project we started making an accordion books today. 

 

 

This is class sample #1, where I used only magazine photos.

 

 

 

 

 

Class sample #2, this one I used stamps, dried flowers, collage and ink.  On the other side I included some family photos.

 

 

So here we go......spreading acrylic paint on to watercolor paper.

On the left, is the other "teacher Jan", she is illustrating one of Julia's theories  about "cups".  On the right, a group of students deeply engrossed in pre-class conversation.

One of our students, Jane, was born and raised in Holland, surviving World War II and has begun writing her life journal, shown below.

This is such a wonderful gift to her family.  This is Jane's life.....her joys and her sorrows...in her words and from her point of view. 

I really like the way she has divided some of her pages leaving a column open for her hand drawn sketches and notes pertaining to the main story!

Now, I've started the second book for the class and getting ready to help the class decorate their accordion books. 

Have a good weekend.