I have taken several workshops with Susan Brooks.  I've learned a lot from her as she is an excellent and thorough instructor on many dyeing techniques.
This is the book I made from the papers I made from her eco-dyeing workshops and I love it.
Susan just published a book titled "Eco-Dyed Art Journals" and it is fabulous!  Besides giving all her comprehensive tips and recipes, the photographs are the most inspiring I've ever seen in a book of this kind.  If you are interested in bringing nature into your art work, I highly recommend buying her book.
Here's her website.

I've been working on painting a wooden panel with layers of different media.  This includes acrylic paints & inks, pens and graphite, adding texture with gels and pastes, and lots of other stuff I'm finding in my studio like gliding flakes!  this is great fun and at the end, I will create the composition by scraping into all the layers and see what is revealed.  This photo shows the first 4 layers (I forgot to take photos of each layer as I added it)  but needless to say, each layer was essentially covered up by the next layer.

​I can't wait to see what I discover when I dig into this piece!

I've been having a lot of fun making triangle books from papers I've printed with my Gel Plate.  
These make great little gifts!

Several months ago, I received a complimentary Print Making Starter Kit from Gelli Arts ®.  What a wonderful value!  And a great way to start exploring the possibilities of printing on a gel plate without investing a lot of money in supplies.

Included in the kit is a 5" square gel plate, a brayer, 6 little cups of their acrylic paint, some wooden sticks used to scoop the paint onto the plate, 4 kraft tags and several different items to use to apply texture.  All for under $20!

I finally had time to open the kit and play and using my signature printing technique, came up with a set of 4 art prints, ready to frame.  I love the depth of color i was able to achieve with just 6 colors of paint.  I also love how this plate allows me to pick up dried paint from other printings so even more texture is added as the day progressed.

Today I made a triangle pop-up book using some of the tags I printed along with these art prints.  I'll talk about that next Sunday!
 

The highlight of my day was to attend the opening of Judith's solo exhibition at Tansey Contemporary Gallery in Denver.  I've known Judith ever since she was President of the Board of Directors of SAQA, and I was a Rep for the organization.  Her work has always inspired me because of her unique voice and presentation of her Shibori dyed silks.

But what also impresses me are her leadership skills, sense of humor and modesty about her many accomplishments as a fiber artist.  All those traits were on display as she did an artist talk and demo at the gallery for the opening of her exhibition.

I think this photo shows her exuberance and love of dying silk but her artistic expression is unique in the world of fiber and galleries snd museums have taken note!  The exhibition t Tansey Gallery traveled from the exhibition Judith had t the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles.  But Im happy to say, if it continues to travel to other venues, it will be missing a piece in her Wagashi Series 1 because it will be hanging in my home.  

I also want to give a shout out to Tansey Contemporary Gallery.  I first visited their gallery in Santa Fe, NM.  I had a nice conversation with Jennifer and Michael Tansey and thanked them for having the courage to exhibit fiber because none of the other Denver galleries are supporting artists like Judith.  Jen seemed to think that this might be changing with the younger population who are less likely to care about medium and more interested in acquiring interesting and unusual art.  I hope this doesn't mean we will all have to start working in black, white and grays!  (Just kidding!)

So, if you live near Denver, I highly encourage you to visit the Tansey Gallery and see Judith's art up close.  It is stunning.  The exhibition is up through August 24th, 2019.

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I'm experimenting with making books from watercolor paper and using a neutral palette.  I wanted to use old photos from my family and this is one of my mother.  I have found this personalized this book for me and I get more joy out of working on it and turning the pages when it's done.

Now, I have to find more old photos and print them out.  It will give me an inspiring stash of images to work with in the future!

I found this image of my Mother as I was packing up to move and it reminded me of how old photographs are perfect for including in journals or artwork.  This photo was my mother's graduation photo from Cornell University.  Not hard to see why my Dad fell in love with her. 

I have lots of B&W photos of relatives I never even known or met as I am the family historian. I will scan them and start using them in my book-making.  I'll share the results with you next week.

Meanwhile, for all your mother's out there, Happy Mother's Day! 

I'm totally in love with this process.  I've never worked in browns and blacks before since I love color, but Karen Stamper has shown me the way!  

I viewed her class on Sketchbook Revival and now, I can't stop thinking about all the possibilities ahead of me as I try variations on her techniques.

Here is the first piece I finished after watching her video and seeing it on my computer screen, I now see all kinds of buildings, gardens, and other urban landscapes.  All made without a plan.

This is my kind of art-making!

​I'm going to do an entire sketchbook using this technique and I know I will be having a fun week.

I recently enrolled in a free 2 week class called Sketchbook Revival.
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Here's a piece I made from taking a class from Tamara LaPort.  I loved her watercolor layering ideas and permission to be free and not worry about perspective!  It was a fun class and I had a great time making my own buildings and working with watercolor and pen to just have fun!
Not sure how long these videos will be available but if you want some fun ideas to jumpstart your journal, this would be a good place to start.