Something About Nothing

 I recently took a class at Saltgrass Printmakers in Suminagashi Japanese Marbling on paper. So much fun! Unfortunately our instructor, Anna Bugbee, tore her ACL while skiing and was unable to teach. Stefanie Dykes from Saltgrass took the reigns and taught the class in her absence. She did a great job. Suminagashi Marbling by Anna I've done some marbling on fabric using shaving cream and water as the base, with Procion dyes. The results were good but always too much white space for me. I've also had a kit from  Jacquard  sitting on my shelf for Erbu marbling, which requires the base be made from Gall and some other stuff. It has intimidated me for some reason, even though it's a kit. Suminagashi marbling is created using ink on just water, and can fill the entire paper if desired. It seemed like a great place to start, and also so much better to be in a class with a teacher to help me overcome my nervousness about the project. Stefanie demonstrating how to pull the ...

 On  June 24, 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court leaving access to an abortion up to individual states. Many states have still opted to protect reproductive rights, and the right to an abortion, while others have totally banned abortions. It's a right that was fought for 50 years ago and is now gone. There have been many demonstrations and pushes to protect  One of my quilt friends, Maria Shell, decided to make a Reproductive Rights Community Quilt called The United States of Uterus, and asked individuals in each state of the United States to make a block. She asked me, and I was happy to contribute. The quilt is still in progress but she has all the blocks she needs. I look forward to seeing the completed quilt. I decided to make a design that I could screen print on fabric and then do some stitching on top. I designed the image in Photoshop and sent it to my friend, Stefanie Dykes at Saltgrass Printmakers. She made a silk screen for me and then tau...

 The Utah Division of Arts and Museums Creative Aging Program in collaboration with South Salt Lake City Arts Council and Saltgrass Printmakers offered a Collograph Printmaking Class to people 55 and older. The class was being taught by one of my favorite printmakers, Stefanie Dykes , so I signed up immediately. It was six weeks of joyful making that flew by. We ended the class with a show at the Columbus center in South Salt Lake City. Stefanie Dykes Hi! It's me! Collograph is a process of printmaking where a textured plate is inked up and put through a printing press.  One of my first plates, created with paper and tape. It was inspired by the painting below. The bumpy packing paper I used for the circles. It came in a package my daughter-in-law received. My first print on a piece of shibori dyed raw silk I carved a stamp of hands sewing for my piece. I applied dry wall paste to a piece of book board and then pressed the stamp in to the paste. It held the image perfectly. I...