#1-27 in the Bag(s)

A quick post tonight as words cannot describe how bone weary tired I feel right now, after a very physical day working at the cottage. A very exciting drive up to the cottage, as we spotted 3 hawks along one country road and managed to catch one sitting still long to have his picture taken. Not as much luck with his two smaller friends, who were definitely red tailed hawks, as this one might be, just haven't had a chance to look him up yet.

Arrived at the cottage to find that leaves covered the ground everywhere you looked - here's what we saw:

My sister and I got right to work and an hour later, when Mom arrived with lunch, it looked like this:

After lunch, we got back to work. Mom and Janine went to work bagging the leaves. I helped out a bit there and when all the bending up and down got to be too much for my back, I went inside and stripped all the beds, emptied the fridge and food cupboards, packed all the linens into the cedar closet, and defrosted the freezer. Three hours later, 27 bags of leaves had been filled and piled up at the road, ready for the City's first leaf pickup of the season next Friday and we three ladies were pooped!

Not to be Confused with Cheese

The other technique we learned at Creative Art Journal class this past week is called "frottage" - not to be confused with "fromage", the French word for cheese. :)

Frottage comes from rubbing a pencil over a piece of paper that is placed over a textured object. It is similar to brass rubbings, where people copy the patterns on commemorative brass plaques found in churches or at historial sites.

In our case, we used textured wallpaper, plastic netting from bags used to hold food products like onions or potatoes, scraps of burlap, etc. Here are two examples I made, one from the textured wallpaper pieces and one made by tracing various coins. The coins were hard to do, because they would sometimes move under the paper before I was finished tracing them. But it was interesting to see which parts of the coin stood out in the finished image, like the Queen's crown or the word "dollar".

I would like to try this technique again. Our teacher told us they let you do rubbings at the Royal Ontario Museum on some of the exhibits, that would be something I'd like to do.

Marble Painting

One of the techniques we learned at Creative Art Journal class last night was called "marble painting." When I first saw this on the list of topics, I thought it had something to do with painting things to make them look like they were marblized (is that spelled right?), something that would involve drawing little veins of colour on a salmon pink or white/grey background. I could not have been more wrong! We actually painted pictures with...you guessed it, marbles!

Our teacher, whose name is Toni Calderone, handed us all shoe box lids and instructed us in how to cut our paper to fit inside the lid. (She's very organized, probably because she teaches kids a lot so has to be totally prepared, and she either brings everything we need and/or gives us a list of supplies the week before.)

She laid out a variety of colours of acrylic paints (ratio 3:1 paint to water, the full concentrate would be too thick) and explained the technique - you scoop a couple of marbles up with a spoon and drop them into the show box lid and tip and shake the lid to make the marbles roll around and leave a trail of paint on your paper. It couldn't be simpler.

Here's a picture of my finished result. I haven't quite decided what to do with it. As you can see from the line in the photo, there is a top sheet and a bottom sheet of paper. When you peel the top away, you are left with a cleaner space in the centre, with the painted design acting as a border. She also showed us how to do this in reverse, so you have a white border and the colour framed in the centre. Although a couple of my marbles got loose and travelled under the top layer, so the plain white isn't so plain on my piece, which is not such a bad thing. There are no rules, that's what makes it so fun.

This last photo is a closeup of one of the swirls of colour within my painting, taken while the paint was still wet. It's like looking at ink blots - can you see the shape in the centre that (I think) looks like a butterfly's wing? I like this photo the best. By comparison, the finished painting doesn't look quite as exciting as the photo, now that the paint has dried. But that's okay.

We also used a hair dryer to dry the paint quicker, so we could transport our creations home safely. Of course, it didn't take us long to discover you could also move the wet paint around your page with the hot air and add to your design that way.

It was all so much fun! Like being a kid again and doing what you want with the paint, smooshing things around to see what effect you get. I know, I know, half the battle of being an artist is letting go, not listening to that inner critic, doing things spontaneously and without judgment. Not to worry, I'm learning!

Happy Anniversary!

Do you remember what you were doing 15 years ago today? I do, because I was taking part in my brother Craig's wedding as he married his lovely bride, Cheryl in Saskatoon. What a day that was! We had so much fun. It's hard to believe all this time has gone by. When I look back at the photos, we all look so young. It's also a little bittersweet to see those photos now, because of those who are no longer with us - my dad, Cheryl's dad, my grandfather, my grandmother, my uncle. All of them would be so proud of the life that Craig and Cheryl have made together and the three beautiful children they have brought into this world. Happy Anniversary, you two!

Bead Crazy Advanced - Classes 1 and 2

I have been quite remiss in sharing the results of the first two weeks of the Bead Crazy Advanced class. The class is taught by Ms. Katherine Flynn and is offered through the Toronto District School Board.

The first week, we made a seed bead chain necklace. Here is a photo of the demo piece that Katherine made. It is based on a pattern called "Beachy Bangle" by Barbara L. Grainger, as featured in Beadwork magazine.

Week 2, we made a wire wrapped pendant. We used 28 gauge wire to wrap various beads around a circular armature. Once again, a photo of Katherine's piece.

Where are the photos of my finished pieces? Er, um, ah, I'll have to get back to you on that, they're not done yet! :)

The Day After

I don't know about you, but it's the day after Thanksgiving weekend, I didn't even eat a big turkey dinner with all the trimmings and I still feel like maybe I ...

Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!

Today is a statutory holiday in most of Canada as we celebrate Thanksgiving. I've never really understood why we do this on a different day than the Americans. For us, it's the second Monday in October. For them, it's a full 6 weeks later, on the fourth Thursday in November.

Wikipedia has an interesting history lesson on how the tradition has been celebrated north of the 49th parallel -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_(Canada) - but it doesn't explain why our countries give thanks for the harvest on dates so far apart. Perhaps because the southern states have warmer climates which means they bring in their fall harvests later in the year? The Americans often refer to the first dinner at Plymouth Rock in 1621, when European settlers shared a meal with the Native Indians, but even that might not have been the first Thanksgiving, according to Wikipedia, which cites an earlier celebration in 1565 as a possible contender.

Both countries celebrate with turkey dinners, family gatherings and football games on TV. This year, I am doing none of the above today. My mother is out in Alberta this week, visiting my two brothers and their families. My sister and I headed up to the cottage on Saturday, which was a beautiful but cool day, intending to stay for the entire long weekend. Lots of sun driving up, the changing leaves were gorgeous to look at, multitudes of pumpkins for sale at roadside vendors. However, when we got there, we discovered the power had been out and when it came back on, for some reason, the water pump wasn't working. We ended up filling several buckets of water from the lake (harder to do since we took the dock out a few weeks ago) and using them to flush the toilet when required, boiling said water to wash dishes, etc. It rained overnight and Sunday morning dawned cold and grey with gale force winds coming in off the lake. We hung about inside all day, happily beading (see photo of Janine's travelling bead stash on the right) and watching Coronation Street and various DVDs (finally saw "Slumdog Millionaire", it was excellent!) but by late afternoon, we got to thinking, why exactly are we here? So we decided to pack up and head back to the city, and shared a pizza dinner when we got back instead of the roast dinner we had planned to have up north.

So today on this day of giving thanks, among many other things, I am grateful for our cottage neighbours who brought over homemade cranberry sauce and offered the use of their washroom, hot water in the tap and a heated apartment, electricity to light up the rooms on an otherwise grey and dreary day, and the affection of a purring cat who was glad to have me back early. And for the reminder (not that I really needed one) that it doesn't really matter where you are or what conditions you're coping with, it's who you're with and the fun you can make just by being together that makes any day special.