Last week at this time I was attending a workshop at the California Center for Creative Renewal in Encinitas. It was called “Art Meditations in Nature”. I needed some creative inspiration and this sounded perfect!! The morning was spent on the beach with guest artist Andres Amador and his massive sand […]
Book Illustration Project: part 4 I finished the first of the illustrations for this book project a few days ago and sent it off to the author for his critique. And I got a response. He has suggested several revisions to my drawing. So here’s where the hard part begins. I realize that he is […]
Book Illustration project: part 3. I began to color in my sketch. I’m using prismacolor pencils for the vibrant color and versatility. For the story characters’ imaginary underwater adventure, I envision a kinda loose and whimsical style. I really thought the story lent itself to collage, but time restraints do not permit that medium.
Book Illustration project continued: I am still “applying” for the illustrator job by creating and submitting a sample of my work. After coming up with an idea for one page of text and drawing it in pencil, I needed to decide on a medium to execute the idea. Based on […]
Dia de los Muertos or Halloween was the theme of Saturday night’s painting party. Another community event, organized by one of the members, for the neighbors to enjoy and get to know each other. This was quite a lively bunch of ladies.
Our yarns have been prepared with a mordant bath. Next, you should “bundle” your yarn. About 30 wraps around a chair or your arm, and tie the bundle with a string at two ends to keep the yarn from becoming a tangled mess in the dye bath. I keep a recipe/journal […]
Before we can dye the yarn, it must be prepared to accept the dye. So let’s talk about mordants. A “mordant” is typically an inorganic oxide that combines with a dye to “fix it to the fibers’. This is to acheive the most durable and long lasting colors, which will otherwise […]
Now that you’ve hand spun your own yarn, or purchased natural, undyed wool, cotton, or silk yarn, the next step in our process is to DYE it. The Navajo weavers would gather their plant material in the early morning, “The Holy People taught us that there is wisdom and beauty in […]
To be able to spin my own yarn is greatly satisfying to me. The more hands-on I am during the process, the better. So this session we will discuss how to use the Drop Spindle we made previously, and spin a ball of yarn. For a top-whorl […]
The final objective of spinning is to drawing out the fibers and adding twist until you have a stable yarn. This will take a little practice to achieve the perfect working rhythm and balance. First let’s practice drawing out the fibers. Take a handful of the wool […]