Happy Valentine's Day

It's been way too long hasn't it my Valentine?

More to come soon...

New Test Print

Open Studios is coming this weekend, and I've been cleaning up my studio, trying to stash away things to make my studio presentable to visitors.  I've also been working on a small test print in plans for a larger woodcut print.  Making a smaller print first allows me to work out my ideas before committing to a much larger piece.

This new print is of a petunia flower.  The test print is cropped much tighter than I will have for a the larger print. The first color printed is yellow.

The second color is a light transparent blue.

I will be working on other colors today, and hopefully finishing in time for Open Studios this weekend

Today is the Last Day of the Firefly Gypsy Market

The Gypsy Firefly Sale was so much fun yesterday, and the turnout was great. Thank you to everyone who came by. All of the "gypsy" booths looked so good, especially at night with all of the little white lights. Stop by today to see me and and my work in the VW bus before I drive away at 3pm!

Firefly Gypsy Farm Market this weekend!

Please join me this weekend at the Firefly Gypsy Farm Market. I will be a part of the caravan of artists displaying in my VW Westphalia Bus!  This weekend will also be the debut of my 2012 woodcut scroll calendar. It will be a lot of fun, and I hope to see you there!

Reception at Rabbit Brush Gallery Tomorrow Night

Please join me tomorrow night at the reception of my exhibition at Rabbit Brush Gallery in Hygiene

The "Hang and Level"

Every once in a great while I get sucked in to buying products displayed on the end caps of stores.  I really try to ignore these displays, but recently I got sucked in to a table at Home Depot for the Hang and Level, a bright yellow plastic gadget for hanging pictures that I was previously pondering about inventing for myself, but someone beat me to it.

Anyone that hangs a lot of pictures knows how challenging it is to align several frames at once.  One way is to hang pictures with a measuring tape and a pencil, measuring the hanging point on the wire from the top of the frame, and how that lines up on the wall.  Lots of little pencil marks are made and some head scratching too as the math can get complicated when considering hanging at 57" from the center point (the average height from the floor for optimal viewing of pictures).  Apartment Therapy has a post on that subject. Sometimes I have had to make several little holes in a line to finally get the picture hanging in the right place.  The "hang and level" (h & l) doesn't eliminate all of that, but makes hanging frames so much easier.  On the bottom is one or two hooks to hang the picture from depending on the weight of the frame.  

Hold the "h & l" with one hand against the wall with the picture hanging on the hooks.  When it is in place, remove the frame and set it aside (a helper can be good for this, but not necessary)  keeping the "h & l" on the wall.  The hook, which has a point on the back of it, is pushed down to make a slight indentation in the wall where the nail should be placed.  Put the frame down, and nail in to the spot marked on the wall.

The point on the back to indicate the nail hole

After the frame is hung, the "h & l" also has a level on it to level out your picture.  When I moved into my new studio, I used this gadget to hang several frames.  It went very quickly, with little or no measuring, and the frames were lined up perfectly. I think I will be using the hang and level from now on to hang my work in my studio and in exhibitions. (BTW- this is a completely unsolicited endorsement of this product)

Buy local- art supplies?

My friend Melissa and I went to the Wayzegoose letterpress sale on Saturday morning to see what kind of goodies we could find.

Melissa bought a case of fonts to play with.  It was really heavy for her to carry it back to the car!

I saw Ray Tomasso at the sale with sheets of his hand made paper in bins for sale. He had been by my studio during Open Studios several times, and was always trying to get me to try his paper to print with.

 I was in need of some paper, so I bought forty sheets of a brown hand made paper.

It wasn't until I got home that I thought a little deeper about my paper purchase.  The buy local movement has been around for a few years now, encouraging people to support their local farmer's or small hometown stores over big box or warehouse retailers.  I shop this way as much as I can, but haven't considered buying local for art supplies.  Buying Ray's paper has so many benefits.  Not only does it support him, and his art of hand made paper but also encourages his recycling of materials that are incorporated into the paper.  Among the list of materials in the paper are grey pants, and a poncho.  How great is that?  After trying this paper in a new project, I may reconsider mail ordering my usual Rives BFK that comes all the way from France. 

I wonder how many other local materials could be used for art supplies- beeswax for encaustic artists is one.  My friend Laura Tyler is one artist I know that uses local beeswax.  Kristin Fitzgerrell uses recycled scrap wood in her work.  Can you think of other artists that use local materials or art materials that can be sourced locally?