Okay, I'm on YouTube and luckily it wasn't for anything embarrassing like the interpretative hula dance the staff did at the last quilt retreat! Although I'm sure someone somewhere would get a kick out of all of us in our grass skirts and coconut bras dancing out shopping for fabric, rotary cutting, pressing and machine quilting with island music in the background (which you could barely hear over the riotous laughter)...
Yesterday I taught a Nature Printing class at the Country Quilter. I totally forgot to take out my camera when we got to the fish printing (gyotaku). I got distracted because that's my favorite part!
We sunprinted with transparent paints using sea salt and masks and scrunching and folding and flinging (technical term for going all Jackson Pollock). The weather was glorious -- perfect for getting good, crisp prints.
We also printed leaves and ferns and then moved on to produce (fruits and veggies). The orange, apple and lemon prints came out particularly well.
I'll be teaching the same workshop in Ohio next week for a guild near Cleveland. I'll try to remember to take pictures of the fish printing this time.
Okay, I know it's not really from another world, but it sure looks like it is. This remarkable little mushroom appeared overnight growing next to a plant in my studio. 
I moved the pot into the living room to take advantage of the light from the skylight for photography (ignore the dog toy under the couch and the dog cookie crumbs on the floor please, this is where Pixie hangs out). Is it poisonous? Probably, the really colorful, pretty creatures usually are... Does anyone know what the heck this thing is?? 
And how it got into my studio?
It's actually really beautiful close-up and the texture is amazing. It's quite a phallic-looking thing too, isn't it?
Nature is quite extraordinary!
UPDATE: The mushroom is a Lepiota lutea, also known as a flower pot parasol, I kid you not!
Our shop hosted a workshop by Rayna Gillman on Thursday and I decided to play and take the class as well. Although I've done a lot of printmaking techniques over the years, I've never done gelatin plate printing. What fun!
Rayna demonstrated a few things and gave us a bunch of pointers and then set us lose. She provided enough instruction to make you feel comfortable and then encouraged you to try and experiment on your own. This really ensures that everyone makes fabric unique to themselves and you don't end up with a classroom's worth of Rayna-lookalike fabric. In my opinion this is the hallmark of a good teacher.
I decided to experiment with visual texture in monotones and low color contrasts (quel surprise!)
I used leaves from the gardens around the shop, stamps I had made and a multitude of found objects for adding and removing paint from the plates. Yeah, I need to do more of this.
Later Rayna showed us some of her "going back in" techniques of paintstik rubbings, writing and mark-making with paint in a syringe and a few other tips and tricks to bring cohesiveness to a piece of art cloth.
Vivien sat behind me in class and we had a great time comparing and contrasting our work areas and processes. In fact, we were having such a great time I made her laugh so hard she snorted. She's pretty genteel, so it really cracked both of us up. It was a good day and I would recommend a workshop with Rayna (or the purchase of her book, or both) - I know I'm going to keep experimenting with gelatin plate printing on my own as soon as I have time.
Sometimes as an artist it's easy to fall into a rut, working the way you've always worked, because it works for you. Trying something new can really shake things up and give you new directions to explore in your art. I think we can all benefit from exposure to new methods and a general shaking out of the dust from our ways of thinking and doing on occasion.
Week two's challenge was to make a young and trendy cocktail dress with "green" fabric. The show had the models choose the fabric, which was impractical when your model's a paper doll, so we choose our own. Yeah, yeah, I know, but what else could we do? Their little arms just can't carry the bolts of fabric to the cutting table.
My baby doll dress is made from a piece of silk dyed and sprinkled with sea salt. I wet and crinkled the skirt for texture. The bodice is a piece of dyed mulberry bark and the straps are twisted and knotted silk. I intentionally left the hem undone for a deconstructed, organic touch.
I tried making shoes, but gave up and choose a pair from the Bluefly accessory wall, along with a cute satin Valentino bag. This is fun and the scale is definitely a challenge.
Last night I was helping my daughter make a flag to mark a camp for her and a bunch of her friends at a huge outdoor concert that starts today. She picked Hypnotoad as their mascot and we painted him on a piece of canvas and mounted it on a tall stick. They're heading off to Gathering of the Vibes with 25,000 other crazy people where they'll camp on the beach, listen to the bands, check out the art, and be young and free.
I had a special assistant help me paint my section of the banner. She made sure I did a good job! Painting with a puppy on your lap makes things just a tad more challenging.
Here's hoping for good weather!
The dvd that Elin Waterston and I taped back in April has just been released. Jane & Elin Teach You Art Quilting Basics is available in quilt shops worldwide or you can order a copy directly from me.
The dvd has lessons and demos based on material from our book, Art Quilt Workbook, and also includes a tour of my studio.
