The Gryphon's Feather Studio

hearth and home

 

I'm savoring this evening of hearth and home, soaking up warmth and storing up hugs and swet kisses, as tomorrow I will be headed to NoHo and my dear friend, Carol Parks.   I'm not sure as to whether or not I will be posting until I return.  I always mean to post when I am there, but I find myself distracted by all the magic and joy that swirls around Carol, and blogging ends up waiting until I have returned home, poured love and cuddles on my family, and started the laundry!

Friday Prompt- Self Portrait

 

Turn your camera on your own person, and with care and kindness, make photos of yourself.  Shoot until you make a batch you like, and then use them in simple ways:  the focal image on a journal page or perhaps the background you journal over top of...

 

or create layers- image transfers and text, paint and marks

 

or simple collage- in this case on my hand-dyed, nature printed paper (made using lily pads from the pond) and a photo of one of the pond lilies, with a handcut stencil spray painted onto scrapbook paper...

 

Let the beauty we love be what we do.   Rumi

A while ago, Bee sent along a link to a gorgeous youtube video for some music by Lior, a song called I'll Forget You. This video is sweet and lovely and done with fabulous shadow play. I was wandering about on youtube and decided, I'd post that video here for all of you as my Day 3 sharing...

Friday Prompt #3: Monoprint a background

I love gelatin printing! It is so easy to make a printing plate- lots of instructions on the internet, and in my Mixed Media Nature Journaling, p. 38-43. I also teach this technique to many of my students. (Journalfest!!) My examples use natural materials, but it is fun to use stencils, old lace, produce netting, a myriad of things to create a pattern/image.  You can use a paintbrush or your fingers to mark on the surface as well.

To create a printing plate, you'll need an old cookie sheet, baking pan or foil pan, a box of knox  unflavored gelatin, and what you normally need to make Jello (hot water, a spoon, a bowl, a measuring cup).  Follow the instructions to make a batch of juice blocks but omit the juice and instead use cold water.  Let it set up.  If you are some place tropical send me airfare to where you are and I'll show you in person , you may need to refrigerate the pan.  Otherwise place the pan somewhere cool- a floor, out of the traffic path, a counter, the basement and give it a few hours to set up. 

I don't invert my pan and dump out my plate, but some folks do. I use the cheap $1 craft paints most typically, but I've gotten gorgeous results with lumiere metallics, golden fluid acrylics, and of course, watersoluble printing inks.  I use inexpensive drawing paper as well as nice printmaking papers to pull prints.  Rice paper is lovely. I also squeeze my paint right onto the plate, which is yet another rule I break. It doesn't take a lot of paint. Roll the paint evenly with a brayer and start playing. 

You can work with layers & mulitple colors. You will most likely want to make multiple prints- these journal pages show very simple multiple gelatin prints ready to be used as journal page backgrounds.  They can get lovely, layered and complex- Judy Wise showed some great ones recently.  She and my dearest Bee Shay will be teaching a printmaking class at Portland that will include some gelatin printing.

   

 

thinking songs

Well, it has taken me some time to figure out just what to post, so I simply picked intuitively  this morning and gave up on the intellectual sorting!...

• As a mom of both girls and a boy: Dar Williams, When I was a boy

• for people I'm thinking of... Rosie Thomas, All the Way to New York City

• for my artfest housemates: Jack Johnson, (though we are already friends.)

• and for my littles, this Brandi Carlile song

 

WAKING UP!!!! A Blog-along

I think I am finally awakening from a long winter's nap!  I need to freshen everything up!  I've been clearing and cleaning and rearranging.  I need to settle down and work soon, but I had an IDEA. Let's freshen up our music!  I'm seriously gonna mix up my ipod library!  Come and play!!!!!!

(didn't mean to scare you!)

LET'S HAVE A MUSIC WEEK!

we'll include somewhere in a blog post a link to a youtube video, an amazon mp3 clip, a clip on the artist's website.  There are themes !  How can you resist?

Monday or Tuesday:  a song that is upbeat, that makes you move- something where we can join you in dancing, foot stomping, hip swinging our way around our studio or office... we'll get movin' this week! any genre!

Wednesday or Thursday: link to a song that makes you think, remember, or feel soulful. Maybe it is the lyrics, maybe the melody.... maybe just the associated memory.  You can blog about the content or just post the link.

Friday or Saturday: Two choices- link to your maxin' and relaxin' music or a free-for-all (ANYTHING YOU WANT!)

Link here on this post, and we can share!  Spread the love around and convince your friends to join in!

 

Here are two three, four a few totally random, but fun choices from my ipod...stand up and get ready to dance! Turn up the volume!!!

one (Michael Franti and Spearhead)

two (Marc Broussard, Home.)

three  (Love train, the incomparable O'Jays.  I watched Soul Train every weekend)

four (Kung Fu Fighting - fifth grade, maybe?)

five (deee-lite - Groove Is In the Heart)

six (fantastic voyage- lakeside)

seven (Nuttin But Stringz- 2 juliard-trained violinists JAM)

 

clearly, I have eclectic tastes, and a sense of humor... 

 

whew. a litte photo party!

 

Much improved in appearance and functionality! The big maple cabinet was once in a high school science classroom. It has shelves on the top half and drawers and a cupboard on the bottom.  I'll always regret not finding the cash to buy one of the other pieces from this group way back when! There were two cabinets- one with solid maple doors and one with glass fronts- as big as the unit you see above, and a large (and I mean large) work island with cupboards and drawers and shelves..... sigh... The work table by the window mostly holds supplies and clutter.  My honey built the round table using an old oak round table top that had been painted white.  It has a large shelf underneath that holds 22x30 paper in a homemade cardboard folio and a paper cutter.  I celebrated last night by going on a dinner date with my hubby to Levanti's for wonderful, homemade Italian food and the pleasure of each other's company and conversation sans interruption. Yum.  Oh, wait, we were celebrating Valentine's Day, not my clean work space! :>

 

a bit of my collections

 

current journals- being worked on (ready to be bound) and worked in

 

I might enclose the bottom of this work table in fabric.  What you see are printers drawers to hold vintage bits- also found in the blue suitcase... in the baskets-loose paper, scraps, and old books. More books and bits are upstairs. Since I really have pared those down over the past two years by taking them along to retreats and putting them on my vendor table, those were some of the few things that went unscathed in the purge that filled ten contractor bags to be hauled away, and packed a Ford Expedition to bursting for a trip to Goodwill.  I actually need to add to that stash so I have some things to bring to Artfest.

Oh!  I did enclose the table with three swaths of gorgeous silk fabric (one in a seafoam green with gold embroidered fleur de lis and the other two with the same pattern in pale gold with rose. ) given to me from Pindler fabrics (their fabric is part of my remaining treasure hoard.) I didn't want to cut or sew the fabric, so it is folded over so that the selvedge edges are horizontal, and I have thumbtacked under the fold to attach it all to the table.

My storage closet looks great, and my upstairs space looks quite bare.  We may make a little guest nook in there- it is soooo empty! (and clean!)

All this work has tuckered someone out.

Oh, and I added a bit from True Vision to this past Friday's prompt!

found hearts

Friday Prompt

Yes, it is still Friday, albeit, barely, here on the East coast.  Where have I been, you may wonder?  Well, last spring, yes, LAST spring, I thought about doing a major purge of my studio spaces. Then my schedule became hectic, and I let the idea go.  Today, I began.  SIX contractor trash bags (those giant, heavy, dark green ones from the hardware store) of things that need to be hauled away sit near the garage.  Four of these monster bags sit in my car waiting for a trip to the Goodwill, along with four boxes.  One of these bags is well over eighty pounds- and is filled with just fabric.  You see, I have a room on the third floor I mainly use to store things and a big closet, I use to store things and then my actual space on the first floor.  

I feel so much better already!  Lighter! Less guilty! And, while I wish I were finished, I am not.  I will move my large maple cabinet that spent an earlier life as a school science cupboard downstairs, a cheerful attempt to enclose my clutter, since my work space is the entry in our Victorian Four-square.  (a large room , to be sure- as big as the other three  downstairs room, but still the front door entry. )

Then, eventually, I will move on to organizing the closet where I store all the toys that one child has outgrown while the toys wait patiently for the next child to grow. The same for the closet that holds clothing. I only have one more who will be next, and I am so very aware of this.  I have begun to realize that there are places in my life where I have struggled with being pulled in two directions and I feel the need to slow down, to be home more, to play and laugh and giggle.  All this from cleaning!  Who knew? 

One of the best, most productive parts of this process is that I open all drawers, vintage suitcases, trunks, boxes, and tins and look at my treasure hoard.  I remember all the ideas I had when I found/saw/acquired said treasure.  The sad part of this process is when I put the treasure into the drawer/suitcase/cupboard/cookie tin, I put my ideas, my creative oomph, the excitement into storage also. I love uncovering a stash I had lost track of, a pile of treasure I tucked away for something and forgot.  I am a firm believer of using the good stuff.  There is always more good stuff- just peek at ebay! a flea market!  the Goodwill!  and antique stores, of course! 

So, today, choose one thing from your hoard, one bit of treasure- paper or object, and use it in some form in your journal.  Wire wrap it onto a page edge, adhere it to a page, photograph it and use the image as well as the object.  Pull out the excitement, the joy of the discovery, the creative juice you had when you found the item, and let that flow into your work!

on p. 28, in True Vision, I talk about "pillaging the dragon's hoard", and have a mini-activity!

1. Poke around in your stash. 

2. Choose four items to work with.  Be brave and choose items with which you feel an immediate connection. 

3. Look them over, and on a spare bit of paper, brainstorm your ideas.

Also, if you are having a creative funk or are feeling stuck when beginning a project, taking a basket and going "shopping" in your treasure stash can realy give you a boost!

Post a comment if you play along, and let us know!