Leap Day

2024 is a Leap Year....and today is often referred to as Leap Day. I spent a few minutes looking up a few fun facts:

• Leap Year was introduced by Julius Caesar.
• It takes 365.2422 days for the Earth to revolve around the sun each year.
• Without a Leap Day the calendar would be off by about 24 days every 100 years.
• There are 1,440 extra minutes in a Leap Year. 
• The summer olympics are always held during a Leap Year.
• More than 4 million people around the world are born on Leap Day, February 29th and are called leaplings.

I hope you enjoyed your Leap Day....I spent some of mine taking a nap. 

I got down close to a frozen puddle to look for patterns.....and this particular icey bloom was quite beautiful.  It looks like the edges of a snowflake.....

.....or the bloom of wet watercolor.  This particular watercolor is an unusual combination I've been experimenting with that I'll share it sometime soon.  

Happy Leap Day!

Teacher

I got to be a teacher today....and that brought me a lot of joy.  

Ida and Sally didn't know each other until today....but I knew they both had an interest in gelli printing. So I offered to hold a class....and the three of us spent the afternoon in my dining room playing with paint and brayers!  It was awesome.

I had three stations set up and it didn't take long for the table to look just like my studio. 

There was magic in the mess!

Neither Ida or Sally had ever used a gelli plate before so we covered some of the basics.....and we just scratched the surface. They made background papers, created textures, experimented with stencils and masks, and learned a couple ways to lift a ghost print. They fully embraced the magic of that second and sometimes third and fourth print.....and it was so much fun to see there faces when they "pulled the print."

They each picked a limited palette so their prints would coordinate for future projects. I couldn't fit all their prints in the photos...and some of them may be developed further....but they both got a good variety.

The pop of orange in Ida's soothing scheme was just perfect...and we all agreed that this dark teal print picking up the remnant ghost print of a stencil was pure magic.     

Sally had a million questions and was gobsmacked every step of the way...and her enthusiasm was infectious. 

Her jewel tone palette was lovely...

 and she was especially interested in creating textures and finding all the ways to pick up the bits and pieces of the leftover paint from the previous print.

We all loved this one....and it was cleaning up the dried paint on the plate with a fresh coat of white paint. 

I am not a gelli print expert by any stretch.  But I love to play...and I have all the supplies....so was thrilled to share what I know with these wonderful women.  

And the best part is....they might be coming back for round two!  

Anyone want to join us?

A Little Love

"It wasn't for recognition, it was completely selfless. And that's what made it feel so magical. There was beauty in the simplicity and sincerity of his gesture." Sierra Fahrman

Paul and I found a handful of sentimental found objects this morning on our walk....and they are part of a very heartwarming (pun intended) Portland, Maine story that is 40+ years in the making....and still going strong.

We picked up three of these of these bright red hearts prints....and they may be my favorite found objects in a while. 

Somehow while they were in my hand I inadvertently took a close-up photo of a heart.....and I couldn't love the solid red photo more.

Since 1979 a Valentine's Day Bandit (with a few helpers) secretly left red hearts all over the city of Portland right before Valentine's Day.  They were everywhere...and they just made people happy....and the anonymity was part of the charm.

But Kevin Fahrman's name was finally revealed as the Valentine's Day Bandit after having died unexpectedly at age 67 this last April.   

Kevin's daughter Sierra wanted to keep the tradition going so started a campaign to keep the her father's legacy alive.  And boy did the city respond.There were hearts everywhere.....big and small...on store fronts and statues...and hanging from historic buildings and construction sites.

It was so much fun to drive through the city.....

and see the love and support.

It's stories like this that remind us that the simplest of gestures can pull a community together and spread a little love.

JOY!

"What If You Fly"

 "There is freedom waiting for you on the breezes of the sky, and you ask 'What if I fall?' 

Oh but my darling, what if you fly?"  Erin Hanson

The breezes of the sky were just lovely this morning.

These were two of Alyson's recent photos from this past week...each on a different day. We continue to share a photo or two almost every evening of something that caught our eye. There is nothing like the bright blue of the Colorado sky.   

I'm not going to point out the trouble spots....

I'm just going to say.....oh my darling, I feel like I'm flying!

I put the 5th and final layer on my negative space painting today....and I'm pretty tickled with it.

Layers 1 and 2

layer 3

layer 4

layer 5

Slow and Steady

I'm making slow and steady progress on this colorful coastal puzzle....and the end is in sight. Even though I don't gravitate to scenes....I'm enjoying it more than I thought.  

I connected the top to the bottom under the rainbow sailboats several days ago...and made another connection to the right this morning. And you know how happy that makes me! There's mostly water pieces...so it's time to sort them by shape.

I am always game to try something new and I've always been drawn to negative space paintings...but I could never wrap my head around how to do them. 

Pat's painting demo piece

A few days ago I carefully read the step by step directions for this painting posted by Pat Howard (twice)....and watched parts of a few random youtube videos.  Then I finally started one of my own.

It was still a little fuzzy....but the process started to become clear as I went along....and I'm making slow and steady progress.  It doesn't look so great at the moment...but there are two more layers to go so I think there's potential. It has to be good and dry between layers....so I'm practicing patience.  

Here's where I am after the second layer of paint....third if you count the base layer.  

I know I need to soften that transition from green to purple in the lower left...but I'm hoping I can do that in the next layers.  There will be five total layers including the base layer.  

I started with a very light wash over the whole paper.  I forgot to photograph it at that stage....maybe because I was REALLY unsure how I would do...and probably because it really looked terrible.

I penciled in some leafy shapes over the wash which will end up being the TOP layer of leaves. Then with a little darker value wash...I painted the negative space around them.  Here I'm half done.

Once that layer was dry...

I penciled in more leaves tucked behind trying to spread them out evenly in the negative spaces.

Then I painted in the negative spaces around both sets of leaves. I really had to pay attention making sure not to paint over any of the existing leaves. 

Two more layers to go. It's a fascinating process...and there is no option other than slow and steady. 

Stay tuned on this one...but I already know my next one will be trees.

Half Full

There was an amazing strip of delicate ice lace by our front door.  I tried to photograph it in place....but couldn't get the right angle.  When I tried to pick it up....it broke in half.  

But I'm thinking of this as a glass half full moment rather than half empty....and marveling at how beautiful this tiny chunk of ice was with the morning sun as the backdrop.

Fusing 101 lesson #6: Motifs...finally!  

You can construct motifs on release paper from small pieces of pre-fused fabric  overlapping and fusing the pieces and parts.  Once you're done...you can peel off the motif as one unit and fuse it to something else.

Here I fused two strips together....

peeled it off the paper and cut it into a leaf. 

I keep referring back to my year of Folt Bolt projects....because every single project was mostly fused.

The September seed pod inspired piece had several  motifs....and it started with a pile of pre-fused fabrics.    

The plant pot is made from individual strips of hand dyed fabric assembled on release paper.  And the snake plant leaves and lotus pod motifs were preassembled with a combination of hand dyed and batik fabrics.  

 

There weren't a lot of process photos for that project...so I decided to construct a quick fused motif this afternoon...and make a tag.  It's been a while since I've made a tag....and I do love this little ringed gallery of quick little art pieces using whatever I have on hand at the moment.

With the latest tag beside me for color inspiration and flow....I created a fused fabric motif of a pinwheel design.  

I was determined to just pull from my vast supply of small scraps...and started with one triangle.  I didn't want to overthink it....I just added one triangle at a time using a variety of colors and fabrics.

I kept adding.....

....and adding.... 

...until I worked my way around the circle.

Once it was cool....I could peel it off the release paper and as one whole unit/motif. Rather than cutting it round...I left the uneven ends.

Although I auditioned a couple of centers....I ended up not loving my choice.  

In hindsight I should have paid more attention to how the the center came together so I wouldn't have needed one at all.

I was able to peel the purple off....but then I really had to cover up the mess I made. 

I'm not sure I love it...but I'm going with the glass half full again...and celebrating finally getting a lesson in on motifs!  Cheers!

All my tags can be seen here: https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/search/label/tag%20project

What If?

There were two words that Wendy Solganik mentioned several times in the introductory lessons of her Watercolor for Relaxation class that have resonated with me:  What if

What if I really do add a little mud to all my colors?

What if I lean into stencils as a starting off point for design as Wendy suggested?

What if I resize the stencils?

What if I introduce fused fabric into my pieces?

Acrylic paint is permanent. You can paint over it and collage onto it it with no worry about smearing.  But that's not true for watercolor.  I've played around with fusing fabric onto watercolor....but what if  I wanted to collage some gelli print papers on my watercolor? Other than a glue stick....how could I easily adhere fragile papers to the piece without smearing the paint? 

Fusible webbing...that's how! 

I'm calling this lesson #5 for this fusing 101 series....motifs are going to have to wait.  Today it's about fusing paper.  I've done it before...but it just dawned on me I should do it again. 

This how a page in my watercolor journal ended up today. 

I already can see how I could improve on this mixture of watercolor and a gelli print.  ButI think as far as an experiment goes...it was farily successful.

.

It started with a tracing of a stencil that I watercolored with blues and greens. It was a late night watercolor job...and not all that great.

I spread the stencil design out because I knew I wanted things in between so I needed to leave room.

I tucked in a few more columns of the stencil design here and there and filled them in with a very light value wash.  

I forgot to take a photo of that stage....but I did take this one showing the stencil I used.

Next I ironed fusible webbing on the back of a gelli print where I had used the same stencil. It worked like a dream. 

When the fusible was cool...I took the release paper off and cut out some of the columns and ironed them onto the piece.  Easy peasy!

The gelli print is actually on tissue....

so you can barely feel the transition from the watercolor paper.  It's almost like it's painted on. WAY easier than a glue stick!

This particular what if journey is going to have a few more chapters....

I'm quite smitten

Words!

"Do not wait until you have skill to start your project. Your project will teach you the skill." Jen Herchenroeder (as seen on Jane Monteith's Instagram page)

As I was heading in to visit Margie this morning something caught my eye in the big pine tree.  I saw it from a long way off....and I was intrigued. The closer I got I was sure it was some kind of necklace....but an odd linked necklace. And how in the world did it get up there?

But when I finally got close enough...I realized it was breakfast for the birds....Cheerios strung onto pipe cleaners!  Clever!

  

This was the first morning in a while I walked outside with Paul.  It's just been too darn cold.  

But it felt good to be out...and we visited the hackmatack tree....and those sweet little pine cones are still hanging on.

I love this tree....and can't wait to watch the needles appear in the spring.

I had a little lightbulb moment with on of my circle paintings. I knew it needed something...but was a little baffled. But there was some nearby collage ephemera that included book pages that gave me an idea.  Words!  That's what it needed.  

I happen to have some pre-fused text fabric...so I cut a few more circles and ironed them on here and there.  Game changer! It seemed to unify the piece without being overbearing.  I think this one is done. And now I'll think of some way to improve the other one.  

Fusing 101 lesson #4: Fusing Words and Images 

I'm going to save motifs lesson until tomorrow....because today it's all about words!

There are all kinds of ways to print on fabric....but if you use fusible webbing you end up with fabric that works like an iron on patch. And that can come in handy. 

This afternoon I added fusible webbing to some bleached muslin.  I trimmed up three sides leaving the bottom edge making it easier to peel the paper off later.  

The release paper gave the fabric enough stability to glide right through my printer.  

WITH THE PAPER STILL ON......I placed the fabric in my paper tray with the fabric side down...and it printed like a dream!  

I pressed it with a hot iron (with a pressing cloth) to set the ink.  Now I have a whole sheet of JOY tags....and a few labels to iron on the back of projects.

I have ironed one of these little joy tags on several projects...including every one of my 12 Folt Bolt projects.  This December piece has not only a little printed joy....

but also a printed image of a bottle.  Nearly the whole piece is fused.

 

Here's the page I printed onto fabric.  I found an image of an old bottle...and printed it in a couple sizes.

You can print anything on fabric! And sometimes WORDS are a game changer.  Especially the word JOY!