One Of Those Days

It was one of those days filled to the brim with all things joy.  Even the chores seemed a little better today.  

I plugged the phrase "one of those days" into the search box in the upper left hand corner of my blog and several posts came up.  I've used is many times.  I love days like this.

It started with waking up to 5 inches of fresh sticky snow that was clinging to everything.  I got out in it...and took lots of photos....and here are just a few.

The street view of our condo with the gorgeous morning light.

And I thought this view was Strikingly Pleasing.  

 

The snow coated trees against the morning sky along with the stacked chimneys and peaked rooflines of the condos made me pause.

Then I got to take a closer look at the late night session with my gelli plate play....and this isn't all of them.  Once that brayer starts rolling...it's hard to stop.

I played with color...stencils...and other mark making tools and many of them may benefit from another layer of texture.  That's the joy of a gelli plate and acrylic paint...you can always add another layer.

Some I like just the way they are.  

I added speckles and swirls to a few.

 

Did you know it was National Puzzle Day?  It's actually a thing....and a nice addition to this joy-filled day.

Philippa's puzzle has been finished on my table since last Wednesday....and I honored National Puzzle Day by putting it away and starting another.

The day continued with conversations with many of you about papers and supplies....and I'm enjoying all of it.  I'm making progress on the orders...but please be patient with me as I continue to make hearts and fill both small and large envelopes with goodies.  I'm enJOYing every minute.  Thank you!

Dotty wondered how I pull the stitched threads to the back of my little pieces.

Once the image stitched I gently tug on the bobbin threads from the back and that usually pulls a loop of the top threads through the hole.  I grab the loops with my fingernails or a needle.  Sometimes I catch/split the thread with the last stich...and they don't pull through.  

In those cases I thread up the thread on the front....and poke it down the next hole.  I either tie off the threads on the back...or tape them down.     

  

  It was just one of those days.

Your Joyful Puttering

Subtitle: How Can I Help?

We had some freezing rain overnight....

so everything was sparkly and glassy this morning.

Ice is so interesting!

 

I recently listened to a podcast by Laura Horn Art called The Hidden Benefits of Mediocre Days.  There were several nuggets of wisdom....but the one that resonated with me the most was to stop worrying about about the end game. Focus on the experience and the process....making it engaging, fun, and accessible.  The results will come.

So I'm going to stop thinking that I need to know what the end game will be....and I'm just going to ask....how can I help you?  How can I facilitate your joyful puttering?

So if you have any interest in starting a conversation about what I can do for you....email me at joyfulputtering@gmail.com  

There is NO pressure at all to respond....life is too short to do things we don't need or want to do. For those of you who have no interest in art...good for you....I appreciate you following along.  And for those of you who are interested....but unsure of what you want....over the next several days/weeks/months I'm going to share some possibilities of things I can offer to you for purchase. I've been creating and collecting for most of my life...so my ideas and inventory are vast.  

I'm starting things off by offering simple painted paper packs for Art Hearts or other collage projects. You know I've been cutting up all my papers....and I'm ready to get them out into the world.  Email me if you have interest.

The photos below are examples of what can fit in an envelope with just one stamp....so no shipping cost for you....and no trip to the post office for me. I won't waste ounces on envelope liners, directions, or background papers like I would put in a kit. I'll just include an ounce of painted papers and tissue for collage and a few sample Art Hearts.

One might call it Another Ounce of Joy!  That project was almost exactly a year ago!

If you want some of the extras...I'm happy to add them AND stuff the envelope with as much as I can fit in. The price would be a little higher...and and I would add the cost of shipping.

Pricing is tough for me....but I am currently thinking $7 for a one stamp envelope of joyful  papers.

I can't do all one color....

but I could give you a choice of warm or cool colors...or of course a mix.

One more icy branch.

Making and Cutting

Becky recently shared a quote from artist and educator Corita Kent. It's actually from a set of rules she posted in her classroom for her art students: "There's no win and no fail. There's only make." 

With no clear plan or path forward I've been busy making hearts....and cutting up papers in my studio. Known in my world as joyfully puttering.

I have decided it's time to clear my studio of almost ALL of my painted papers and endless supply of snippets and fodder. I want to move it out into the world one way or another.....because I know I will always make more.  

I'm going to try and let things go in an artful and creative way like putting little kits and collections together.  I may try and make a little money along the way...but my plan is to be generous. I'll keep you posted here....maybe some of you will have interest.

Becky's text came smack dab in the middle of this making...and cutting project. "There's no win and no fail, there's only make."

I first heard about Corita through my artist friend Muffy....so I knew just a little bit about her.  But Becky's text got me doing a little research....and the more I read....the more I loved her. "Corita's work reflected her concerns about poverty, racism, and war, and her message of peace and social justice continue to resonate with audiences today."

Her whole set of rules that were posted in her classroom resonated with me.

1. Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.
2. General duties of a student - pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.
3. General duties of a teacher - pull everything out of you students.
4. Consider everything an experiment.
5. Be self-disciplined...this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way.  To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.
6. Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail, there's only make.
7. The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It's the people who do all the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.
8. Don't try and create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes.
9. Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.
10. "We're breaking all the rules.  Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities." John Cage

Hints: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on.  Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything - it might come in handy later.

Pieces and Parts

Thank you for all the comments and emails about ginkgo trees! You just never know what's going to strike a chord.

Margaret even wrote a haiku:

Leaves, stripped bare from trees
Yellow carpet hidin green
Clearing view of blue sky.

I am now wearing a thumb brace on both hands because my left thumb was getting sore from compensating for the right.  I'm heading in the right (pun intended) direction....but I think I've got at least a couple days left of limited activities.

But I'm doing fine.  I actually went through my whole clothes closet!!!

Just before I went on my girl's trip Rosie sent me a link to a video from Maya Sozer that captured my attention. Maya gathered leaves and pine needles to create some abstract art.

You can see her video here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzJmiqMu97u/

I couldn't stop thinking about it. I was finishing up chores and getting ready for my trip...but I had to give it a quick try. So I gathered some supplies and headed to the back yard.

I didn't think it was successful at the time...and knew I would try again when I got back. But while I'm resting my hands...I thought I would share my results anyway....because maybe they're not as bad as I thought.

 

Using tips from the video I lightly misted the paper before I added the debris and paint.

I used acrylic ink from bottles with droppers and the colors were shockingly bright. But it's what I had...and time was limited to mix my own colors.

After I added the drops of color I lightly misted it again.  Ultimately I may have added too much water.  Time would tell...it needed to dry....and that took a long time.

My second try was with liquid watercolor in the same kind of dropper bottles. 

Again...I used WAY to much water because it mostly all pooled together and I thought the colors seemed too saturated.  

It's all part of the trial and error process.

As I looked at the results again today....

...I realized they might not be as bad as I thought. They certainly can be the starting place for something more.

And it's much better when I isolated pieces and parts.

Here's the watercolor experiment.  It's mostly one big blob....

but the edges are kind of interesting.

This was a third one I thought was an absolute failure at the time.

But again....pieces and parts are growing on me.

I think this small piece is kind of pretty! 

When my thumbs are better....I'm going to play with these a bit more.  And hopefully try the technique again.

JOY

"I begin with an idea, then it becomes something else."  Pablo Picasso

I had an idea for a bright and cheery Christmas card....
and this was just going to be the background.

I used the Kawandi quilting concept overlapping squares of painted papers tacking them down with a spot of glue as I went along. I've done this before with paper....so it was familiar territory. But I will admit it seemed a little chaotic at this point.

I trimmed it up....and took it to the sewing machine.  Once it was stitched....I didn't think my original idea was going to work.....and I actually liked it just the way it was.....colorful, happy and simple.

The only thing I wish I would have done before I stitched was to add a very light whitewash to soften and unify it a bit.  That's a relatively new technique for me....so I don't often think of it in time.

 

My plan was to have a little JOY on the outside...thinking it might feel part of the quilt. But it ended up on the inside instead....and maybe that's even better.  

It's nice to be surprised by JOY!

Near Center

"Choosing to have joy is not naively thinking everything will be easy.  It is courageously believing that there is still hope, even when things get hard."  Morgan Harper Nichols (Thanks Janet)

This little flower dried up before it got too cold....so has been unaffected by the deep freeze.  Such a delightful pop of color in the brown landscape. And just look at that perfectly dried curled leaf.

And I love looking at the frost up close!

Liz offered me a set of underwater coloring postcards while I was visiting....and of course I said yes.

I'm not likely to do the coloring....but they are the perfect substrate for making my own postcards.

So I did a quick little scrap collage experiment using some of my Fodder School painted papers. I collaged them onto a piece of copy paper first....then added stitching.

I didn't want my dividing line in the center....I wanted to follow the design rule of thirds. I drew some guidelines for the postcard size...and even made a mark at the third line. 

Then I completely ignored it during the collage process.

So I ended up with a near center line anyway....not my design intention.  But I enjoyed the project enough to do more. These little experiments always teach me something. This time: use more neutrals and solids....try staggering the line...possibly do a glaze or white wash to unify the piece....AND actually use the guidelines!

And the most important lesson this time: embrace the near center line.

Scrappy Play

Over the last few days I've been leaf and grass printing again with my gel plate.....and putting together a few collages.  But today.....I'm played with the scraps.  

I've been working in two tight color schemes....blues and the greens....and autumn oranges and golds.  I'll share the finished pieces when I'm done....but this post is about the scraps.  I've said it before....but some of the best collage fodder is along the edges of the prints.  Just look at all the color and texture in this scrap.

I isolate part of the print I want for the collage......leaving lots of leftover pieces and parts. 

There are scraps of both the colored papers....and the heavy watercolor paper I'm using as my base.    

I save all the precious little scraps.  That's a Connie line....and I love it when I think of it. She actually had a file with that label.  

At first I was roughly cutting the scraps into squares....and making grids.  This one I added a paper cut and stitched it onto heavy cardstock.  It's a 5 x 5 collage on an 8 x 8 piece of cardstock.....ready to frame.

Then I started overlapping and layering the random smaller scraps onto the scraps of substrate....wrapping the edges to the back.  For now I'm just making them and the use will make itself known when the time is right. They're kind of like little tiles....or quilt blocks....and I kind of love them.  

I going to pull more colors of papers from my stash...and bring in some other colors.  I can always add a little pop of color or a focal point on any of them.....it's an ongoing puttering project

I made a larger piece using the blue and green scraps.  This is also a good way to use the "not so good" prints.  I just realized this is kind of a mastersheet....and the use will present itself one day. Possible next steps:

A light whitewash to unify it

Cut it up

Add Stitching

More collage

Focal point 

Pops of color

My only real goal today was to do a little organizing and cleaning in the studio....but didn't spend even one minute doing that. Just a lot of scrappy play.

The color scheme looks like this photo from my last trip today to the Winslow Farm Stand for the season. The blue sky and orange pumpkins.....the the little pop of green in the photo fit right in to my scrappy play day.