Another Sale

This time it was from my website Necessities or Not  Dancing in the Moonlight is now gracing the home of another.

More Sloppy Monoprints

I recently bought Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan's new (I think) "Making Your Mark" book with DVD. Judith and I only made it 3/4 of the way though the DVD before we launched out of our chairs and started to sloppy monoprint and use other mark making techniques we'd just seen. I have to admit, the sloppy monoprinting really appealed to me. Here I am having a go at it.

 Sloping out the print paste

 Really getting into it

 This was the "before". I had "deconstructed" a screen (boring) so this made a great candidate.

 Brings new meaning to swiping a credit card.

 Weeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

 In case I forget my name (smile)

 Wet plastic sheeting

 Voila!

 This is the effect of the bubbles (yum)

 applying print paste to a 6"square Plexiglas square with a handle on it.

 Press!

 Boring

 Lets obscure the squares with some sloppy monoprinting.

 That's better

washed and ironed

I used this roller I made at Wen Redmonds painting class with print paste on this small piece

 washed out and ironed

 I did this scraping with a credit card.

The ever popular clean-up rags

In Process

Electric Eric

Just starting in on the quilt in earnest this morning. Pattern was draw 5 days ago. Fabric now chosen, ironed and ready to start cutting.

Coastal Pollution Sold

I just was notified my piece was the first one sold at Pearson Legacy Gallery. She saw it on opening night and came back with a check. At first I thought she meant Collateral Damage and I started to cry. I know, I know but some pieces just mean so much more than others. I don't have the emotional attachment to Coastal Pollution but I DO have a BIG empty spot in my foyer now. I temporarily hung Vignettes on Coastal's screw but it is too high so I guess I'll have to rehang it. I think this falls into the category of a luxury problem. Just think of all the art supplies I can buy!!!

Finished Driveway

All done and in 48 hours we can actually drive on it.

Eric Returns

And yes, my brother Eric is returning next week for my mother's 91st birthday. More importantly than that I am taking an online course from Elizabeth Barton. I HATE online classes but this course couldn't be better even if it were in person. As a matter of fact, having a week to do online research, mock up, lists. photos, and general brainstorming is what has actually set this course apart from others I have taken (I mean paid for then ignored - snore). The course is through Quilt University and the title is "Working in a Series".

Eric is back and better than ever. I am planning a handful of really new and amazing Erics. The ideas just keep coming. I think you may be surprised where this course has taken me.

Well, no blog post can be enjoyed without some pictures so here are my dogs Aidan and Niamh and my soon to be asphalted driveway. These pics are of the underlayment of course gravel and rock. Tomorrow the pavers come and I will snap a few of the new driveway.
Stay tuned for some really nice new work.

Another Gallery Opening

Today I just delivered 4 pieces to a  gallery on Deer Isle, Maine. Here they are:

Crow and feathers

    Collateral Damage

                                                                 Coastal Pollution

                                                          Ghost Riders in the Sky

Monprint/Colograph Playdate

 I have been spending so much time getting my new workshop programs up and out there that I've had little time to play so this was a wonderful opportunity to get together with Judith and blog along with the Fire folk.

Judith explained that a monoprint was done with a matrix like her buttons and a monotype was a one of a kind print. She said, "Let's monoprint some buttons." So here I am thinking that we are going to monoprint ON the buttons. I'm game. So I am picking out nice flat buttons I can use as a substrate to print ON. No. I missed the point. As you saw from Judith's post, she made a matrix of buttons hot glued to a substrate then used them to print with. I kind of flew off somewhere and printed ON the buttons.

 Plastic sheeting (6mil)

 OK, so now on to the actual technique of monoprinting

Hot Glue on Cardboard

Padded Printing Surface

 Fabric pinned onto padded printing surface

 Using it as a stamp gave fine lines and a nice all over design (see below)

The reason I wrote colograph was because when I got to the purple paint, I decided that instead of "stamping" the color on the fabric, I would lay the paint covered matrix on my padded printing surface, lay the fabric on top face down and rub the matrix with my fingers. I got a very different result using the matrix as a colograph rather than a "stamp". You can see below that instead of just picking up the paint from the very top of the hot glue, my hands and fingers were used the get more of the surface of the hot glue squiggles and even some of the cardboard matrix covered paint onto the fabric. Much bolder lines. I saved the hot glue matrix and will trim away the hard edges of the cardboard closer to the outside edges of the hot glue for a more organic shape next time I use it. Judith did the same with her button matrix

 Looks kind of like the U.S.

 Judith setting up her matrix

 Photographing her finished results