Progression - Fall and Helicopter Seed pods

The leaves are falling from the trees and my sidewalk is littered with what we used to call "helicopters". I've been fascinated by the shapes and today I painted some.

Cheesecake with Handpicked Blackberries

 Today I made a cheesecake. I had a dinner party to go to tonight with a group of fellow Virgos and Libras and wanted to bring something special. It is blackberry season now in Washington and they are everywhere. I got the raspberries at the store. The cheesecake was delish and the party was delightful.

Virgo-Libra Dinner Party

Home from Penland

Penland View

I'm back from two weeks at the beautiful and wonderful Penland School of Crafts. The school teaches all kinds of crafts and arts from glass, metals, printmaking, textiles to bookarts. I took a book/lettering/painting class with Laura Wait. It was fabulous. We started with large pieces of paper and then started writing words with sticks, shingles, rocks and whatever primitive materials we could find. Next we graduated to brushes and calligraphy pens, creating layers of text which bagan to take on the look of abstract forms. The next step in the process was learning to sew exposed bindings such as the herringbone. Paint was added to pages before and after the sewing process. Here are some pictures from the workshop.

Writing tools

Sample text

exposed bindings

Sewing a book on linen cords

Laura Wait demonstrating writing and painting with sumi ink

Palette and books in progress

Exposed binding book

My books on display

Some of my books