Friday Favorites

Woooo Hooooo!  I am taking another course this Spring!  Here is a description of it.

ART 309 Intermediate Printmaking
Application of basic knowledge of printmaking to individual imagery with an emphasis on the development of technical skills and aesthetic concerns. Prerequisite: ART 209 or ART 210

I have the prereqs and the time slot is at the end of the work day so it fits my schedule!  I am so excited.  The instructor is Karen Adrienne who is an excellent teacher and is open to my working with fabric.  I learned a lot from her in my first semester class on beginning printmaking so I expect to learns tons this time too.  I am soooo excited!


Friday Favorites
Lyric Kinard wrote a post on the watercolor class she is taking.  I was glad to see the post. Do you debate about whether you should take more classes, less classes, no classes?  I wonder if I am taking too many classes and should spend my time honing the skills I already have. But I am like Lyric and like to add something new to my skills. And I have found that whatever class I take, I learn more about art in general that I can then use to enhance my art. Obviously, (see above) I am on the side of taking classes, so long as you use the skill in your own voice. For me, that is the key.

What do you think of this spider web?   I think it is luscious.  If I were a spider that is what my web might look like.  Don't you think it would look great as part of a quilt?   I mean making it all 3-D and everything on the quilt.

Just discovered Peggy at Woman with Wings. She is another woman who thinks that leaves should not go to waste before being boiled for dye. Tee Hee  Here is a picture of some black walnut hulls that I brought home to Maine from Indiana when I was there in September for a work-related conference.  (Black walnut trees don't grow in Maine.)  They are currently dyeing some yardage for me.

And another new site that I found this week is this one by Susan Lenz. She has multiple blogs but here are my two favorites blogs/posts so far.  This one is her blog for grave rubbing quilts.  I love that!  It is not that I am gruesome or anything but having been raised Mormon, dead people are just people who have moved beyond the veil but are certainly not gone or scary.  This seems just such a cool way to remember them.  And then there is this fabulous post on another of her blogs.  I'll be experimenting with this technique when I get back from Nancy's workshop.

Beverly tried a first mixed media piece with great success.  She gave great step by step directions for how she  made it.    I wish I could get a better look at her edging though.  The description of it is very interesting.  The art quilt is her entry for the Tangled Textiles Challenge.  Here is my favorite quilt for Challenge 3--Tools-- and the link to the personal blog of Dutch Comfort with pretty clear step by step instructions for how she made it.  Thanks both of you lovely ladies for telling us how to make our own attempts with the techniques you chose!

This post I bookmarked just for the inspiration of the quilt she is working on.  I love that style so much.  Do you use inspiration from others' quilts?  Is that wrong?  Sometimes I will hang some photos of quilts--like this one--on my design wall as I am working on a quilt.  Not that I want to copy the quilt exactly or even roughly.  I do like my own voice.  But sometimes when I get frustrated with my design or stumped about the next step, I can look at the successful quilts that are similar in style and they will give me an idea of something to try (or something to take out) and a hope for being successful.  Looking at them is calming and gets my creative mojo flowing again. What do you think?  Is that cheating?