Sunday, October 5, 2014

Catarina Dolls for the Day of the Dead Celebration



Thirty participants took part in making Catarina Dolls for the San Francisco Symphony.  They will be on display for the Dia De Los Muertos Community Concert on November 1, 2014.  Aiko Cuneo lead the workshop at Ruth's Table with lots of embellishments, fabric and the armatures she made for all of us.  We fashioned our air clay covered heads and tissue bodies with them.  Aiko did so much preparation to make this work and even provided Mexican sweet bread for us to snack. Her husband also came to give a hand.  Ruth's Table and Lola Fraknoi provided lunch.  It was a great day.  Thank you all!
Monica, Margie and I diligently working on our dolls.
Here is the group made at this workshop.  The participants had such creative ideas.
The finished doll I made holding a mirror and looking fancy!

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

A New Toy

Friends of Calligraphy was fortunate to have Pat Blair, White House Calligrapher, come to give two workshops in San Francisco.  I was happy to get into the two day Copperplate Variations workshop.  The other workshop was Pointed Pen Sketchbook.  In both she showed the students the use of the wedge brush.  It is a three sided brush that can make fine to heavy lines with a push-pull of the brush. Check out her youtube video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coEMPv5zaVQ
This is the front cover of my folder that held exemplars and notes.  She made one for each of the students.  The two brushes, #12 and #6, are the wedge brushes she uses to make the floral part of the flourishes.  The pink comes from dipping the tip into red watercolor.
This is the close up of the flourish and the # 12 brush point.


This is my first attempt using only the #6 wedge brush and Dr. Martin's Pro White. I need to practice a lot.