Something About Nothing

The Art Makers Makery in Salt Lake City is a great new space open to any artists who would like to rent the space. It's a great space for wet or dry art. Lots of space, and sinks! Add caption I took a wonderful Natural Dyeing class with Roxanne Vigos  at the Art Makers Makery. We learned how to dye silk with an assortment of natural dyes and created the most beautiful pieces. Roxanne showing us the scarf we will be creating.  We started with a smaller scarf using natural materials found locally: marigold, onion skin, lavendar,  yarrow and. . . I can't remember the rest.  Local natural materials My bundle before being put in a cast iron pot of boiling water.  Examples of the differences a mordant and fabrics can make.  Our still wet steamed scarves. The reveal!  Long scarf bundles being placed in a pot of cochineal.   Still wet scarves created with various natural dyes and dipped in cochineal.  My finished scarf. T

A Banyan tree stamp for day 48. Day 49 was based upon a tree I passed one day with a great tire swing. Wood grain or tree bark for day 50. And then I became obsessed with using a Pental brush ink pen from Jet Pens. Some trees seemed to have better success than others. But that is the point of a 100 day project. Keep trying and trying to perfect your skills! Not too excited by the twin palm trees on day 62, but the single palm was a little better. Day 64 was an attempt at carving a stamp with a lot of texture in the leaves. There was a line of sunlight I tried to incorporate. Not sure how successful that was. And finally Day 65 was an attempt at trying a new style of tree.

I had the opportunity to visit my grandchildren quit a bit lately. I brought along some of the Mess Free Crayola markers and paper so we could create some fun. These were my two favorites. Beep beeps by an almost three year old Nothing but Spiderman by a nine year old.

I've been a bit obsessed with creating layered mandalas on my iPad using an app called iOrnament. Some are pretty wild. And I have a very difficult time drawing a straight line, as you can tell. Some are a little calmer but I still can't draw a straight line. I love all the options in this app.  I also figured out a way to create gifs of my drawings by saving each step and then loading them in to another app called ImgPlay.

I decided using the white Uno Signo pen would be an excellent way to bring out the foreground in the white birches for day 39. I bought a bundle of the white Signo pens a year or so ago and I really need to use them more.  My almost 3 year old grandson decided to help me out on day 40.  This tree is a precious treasure now. When asked what it was, he of course said it was a beep beep (car). Day 41 was quick tree of some kind, while days 42 and 43 got more to the root of the matter.  I love to incorporated doodles and tangles in drawings. Days 39 to 47 Day 44 was inspired by an olive tree photo I found online. Day 45 is an evergreen carved into EcoKarve . I love the simplicity of it. I love a twisted tree. Do you? I've seen a lot of half alive trees this year and they are inspiring me with their beautiful branches, and leaves. Once upon a time, I remember being told that trees are so forgiving. You can chop at them, wrap stuff around them, infest them with dis