I had a really fun time in the studio these past few weeks and I'll share with you some of the successes (and maybe even a few failures as they can be "interesting") over the next few days.

First up: circles. I've done a circle theme before but I was truly surprised at how popular the pieces were at the Peach Tree Holiday Show last month. I brought eight of them and they all sold ~ and very early on in the show! So I played with the circles again but this time I added a little twist ~ a Spanish moire. A moire is achieved by rocking the paper back and forth as you lay it down on the bath. The result is a three-dimensional effect ~ like rippling water.

I'm the world's worst moire-er (as evidenced by the gaping air bubble blotch on the top photo) and usually only one in 10 papers I try to do the moire on actually look good. I don't know what my hang-up is ~ why it's so hard for me to do the moire. It's probably more psychological at this point than technical ~ I should just have a cocktail to relax a bit before attempting the next time!

Marbling these circles takes time. A LOT of time. In fact, it's the only time I bring a chair into the studio to actually sit on. A "regular" marbled paper probably takes around five to seven minutes to make from beginning (initial skim) to end (pulling the paper off the bath). The circles can take 15 to 20 minutes! This causes all sorts of "problems" that would be considered unacceptable for traditional marbled work ~ dust specs, disintegrating patterns, fuzzy edges ~ but that I find artistically pleasing (except for the dust specs...those do drive me up the wall).

The above is a circle overmarble (I made the circles, let the paper dry, then marbled another pattern over the circles). The black in the circle in the very middle was a happy accident ~ I think it looks like an eye and am completely in love with the effect of having that eye there. It's not a piece for everyone but whomever ends up with it is going to have something very special!