Nature's Calling, a workshop I gave for the Friends of Calligraphy. A full weekend with 18 students. I wouldn't have made it if it were not for all the volunteers that help set up. Nancy Noble was my right hand assistant and Elena Caruthers was the coordinator. I had four roasters going and lots of plants to share. Students also brought plants in to share. Here are some photos from the whole weekend.

Inside drying for next days alterations The photos below, chosen randomly, are from students in the class at the end of the final day.

New Altered book for Marin Museum of Contemporary Art show. Visiting the San Francisco Center for the Book, I noticed how books and cards are displayed and how difficult it is if it is not on a pedestal to be able to be seen all around it and opened to see inside of it. I know this display piece I engineered doesn't solve anything more than a few pages of either, but I thought it could work a little. I wasn't sure about what to use as its base or the structures supports. Just checking through my stashes, I noticed the Mexican Amate paper that was left from a class of Jane Dill's and a piece of cork left from a bulletin board I had made. Then, in my storage, I notices the left over dried flowers from a previous work. Here are some photos of my procedures. I did many a sketch and thought about this a lot. The printed papers from my Eco-Printing were altered to make an accordian book. Everything is natural, even the nori glue to the walnut ink, cotton paper and real plants for printing and supports, the amate bark paper and cork base..

Here the base has been readied for the holes made by a awl. You can see the template below that I worked out on Illustrator. I also Eco-Printed the papers to make the accordian folded book.

Here is the back of the piece supporting the book. The pages have already been scribed with walnut ink to identify the plant used in the printing. This view would show a front and back cover of a book.

This is the front with the title of the piece, The Plant Stand.

The finished piece. The dried flower stems can be easily removed..no glue holding them in place, A new card or book can be put in place and then stems can be replaced to hold up the card or book. I placed them strategically so more or less pages can be seen.

Letters California Style with Marina Soria

This was my third time taking a class with Marina. She always has a great way of getting inspiration and extending it to make art. We were asked to bring in a piece of printed cloth or a print of a pattern that resonated to us. I had many, and with her help,

picked out one piece that was going to be thrown out by a sewing contractor friend. We were asked to study the colors and pull out no more than 6 colors from it. Mine was easy, it only had 6 colors. The pattern was our inspiration to use the colors and interpret them in various ways.

mixed colors of the print

first study

Empty space study with shape of the paisley

Study with Gilbran quote

letterform inspiration from Benoit Furet - anachropsy.com

using folded pen

Letterform I made up with inspiration from one I found online..no attribution.

study using resist

woven words from two studies

accordian book of printed pages with printed covers of fabric.

The fabric I chose and my study pages

Marina and the classmates. Great bunch of women.

My table mates, Sunny Ba and Kathy Wafer.

Eco-Printing Adventures

The third times a charm, it is said.  Well, after an electrical problem and no electrician until the next day, Monica Lee and I finally finished my testing of different techniques for eco-printing.  Monica had the Turkey roasters and I had the paper. The paper was easier to transport, so we did it at Monica's house. Her electricity went out when we connected the three roasters. We thought we had them connected to different lines, since the plugs were in different rooms, but it wasn't the case.  We tripped the box and blew a fuse (old house).
I am developing a technique paper for each and will pass them on to my students in a workshop planned for the late fall.

Leaves used in this test; hydranga, cloud, eucalyptus, elm, ginko, pin needles, wild dill, japanese maple...lots of unknowns I need to search for names.

onion bath

iron bath

onion bath

one side iron bath

opposite side iron bath

iron bath

iron bath

onion bath

one side, iron dipped and steamed h2o+vinegar

opposite side, iron dipped and steamed h2o

iron bath

iron bath

A New Stole for Pastor Sadie Stone

I was commissioned to make a stole for the new Pastor of Bethany United Methodist Church, Sadie Stone. This is the first one I have ever made. I had to get the base pattern from one that had been worn before. I was given fabrics that I then used to design the stole.

The base fabric was linen, the lining was silk, the various overlays were of cotton. I finished the stole with beads from my collection and the support of silk braid.

Here we are on the Sunday morning when her stole was presented to her.

Paper necklaces

I gave a small private workshop on how to make paper necklaces. Two of the participants had seen the one I was wearing and wanted to learn to make them, so five of us got together and made them.  It was even more wonderful because my friend, Monica Lee, made us lunch...yummy noodles + wonton and BBQ pork and great cookies from Pamela Gerard (her photos follow).

Finished pieces...all wonderful!

Beginning class with all materials..

working the machine...

Heather's great piece..

Monica's necklace.

Boro Boro Bag

Learning more about Japanese traditions with Jody Alexander this past Saturday at A Verb for Keeping Warm in Oakland. (store sells fabric, yarn, dying supplies and gives workshops)

Boro means tattered or rags. It is having a renaissance as a contemporary design element.
Check out a discussion about this on https://youtu.be/BJOFQXujCD8, with Yoshiko Wada and Kim Schufftan, explaining this art form.

It was a patchwork style, using sashiko stitching, to save articles of clothing, bedding, and bags to reuse parts and pieces from worn pieces of clothing to save others and make something else. What is considered beautiful today was one time shameful in Japan, because only the very poor did this. Most that we find today are from indigo dyed fabrics and denim.  However, even silk garments are found in the Boro style. Today it has become popular, and if found, are very expensive.

My Grandmother used to save things that she found beautiful, although maybe not useful any longer. She would say mottainai...sense of regret for being wasteful. This Japanese word was used in many ways but this is one I remember.

Modern designers are emulating the Boro style, as we did making these Boro Boro Bags with Jody. Jody studied the Tsuno Bukuro model (Horn Bag) and showed us how to make them, and all the types of stitching that were traditionally on Boro pieces. She provided us with a simple strip of cloth that we were to stitch as a sampler. (kimono pieces are traditionally 14" wide X 12 yards, so parts and pieces were used with this size in mind) My base piece was approximately a 13"X 36"strip.

Here is my bag:

One side of my Boro Bag. The base is a soft denim.

The opposite side of the bag. The patches are Japanese cotton prints.

Close up of some of the patchwork stitches and sashiko stitches. There is a slash with a jaoining stitch and a patch hole stitch. All stitches are simple and no embroidery style stitches are used.