From Pacific to Peak in One Week

Well, sort of a peak. It's more like a really big hill compared to the San Gabriel Mountains in my backyard, but to my friends and family back in Minnesota, they'd say it was a mountain. Perspective, you know. They live in the plains where generally the tallest thing one encounters in life is the snow bank at the end of the driveway every winter. Last Sunday, Emmett and I hit up Palos Verdes and the Pacific ocean. This Sunday, we went on a little walking exploration through our neighboring city of Mount Washington. Mount Washington is an eclectic mix of  young families (it's one of the last affordable places in LA where you can buy a two-bedroom, one-bath home for $400,000 that ISN'T a crack house in need of fixing up); artists (generally of the urban art kind); gang members (it's on the edge of the Avenue Gang's territory); and hard-working, blue-collar folks of every color, ethnicity, religion, physical capability, and attitude. It is full of twists and turns (so many canyons carved into the mountain), lots of green space (there's a park practically on every corner), museums (home of the Southwest Museum that the Autry Museum is shamefully destroying), and historic homes dating back to the early 1900s (the area used to be a sheep and cattle ranch before developers realized the real estate potential and started building in 1909). This all means that the neighborhood is an intriguing, fascinating, and FUN place to stroll through...unlike 'hoods such as Bel Air or Westwood. Or any other hideous West Side enclave. (Can you tell I'm an East Sider?!)

In our little four-mile (but 500' in elevation gain!) walk, we encountered such things as:

Hidden stairways taking you from one street to another:

Cats, cats, and lots o' cats (and who doesn't love a neighborhood in love with cats?!!):

The headquarters to the Self-Realization Fellowship (and their lovely gardens) which was formally the stately Mount Washington Hotel (click here to see photos of their grounds, which wasn't open yet when we walked by...it was, after all noon on Sunday and in LA, that's EARLY):

A sidewalk (two blocks long) with built-in art:

Front yards with built-in art:

This one deserves its own space (and yes, those are legs coming out from the ground):

Moon Canyon Park, where we enjoyed the views with our lunch:

Flowers, flowers, flowers:

Buddha, Buddha, Buddha:

Community art in public spaces (this one is in front of a Gold Line Stop):

And the lovely Lummis House and grounds:

All this is to say, once again, Southern California does not fail to dazzle us. You'd think after nine years here, we'd be over the "ahhhhhh" factor. But that couldn't be more untrue. Even a simple walk through a neighborhood reveals history, art, nature, stunning views, lovely people, interesting architecture, and PERSONALITY beyond any expectation. I had a friend from Minnesota who moved to LA shortly after I did. She moved back nine months later. She HATED LA. She said it was dirty and all concrete and the people weren't nice. Despite us inviting her on SEVERAL occasions to explore Southern California, she never took us up on our offers. Instead, she shopped The Grove (like the Mall of America except with tiny dogs wearing pink bows being carried around in Gucci hand bags) or hung out with her brother and his "industry" friends ("industry" is shorthand for people who work in the "entertainment industry") in their dark, small apartment ON THE WEST SIDE. If someone asked me to describe hell, it would have been exactly her situation. I kid you not. LA is full of her type of neighborhood and qualifying acquaintances. But it's also full of Mount Washingtons. And Palos Verdes (Verdeses/Verdesi??!?). All you have to do is get up in the morning and choose between APATHY and DISCOVERY.

And I think you know what Emmett and I choose.

Marbling Sheet Music

Yep, that's right: sheet music. I was on a kick there for a while where I was buying tons of sheet music for my collage pieces. I loved the way the orderly fashion of the lines and the clefs and the notes helped to anchor the chaos of my pieces (chaos because I didn't know what I was doing, not because it was some sort of well planned artistic vision!).

I simply adore the look of sheet music. Despite not playing an instrument or being able to sing, I find sheet music to be so warmly inviting. Maybe it's because I love a good story and the notes and various musical symbols on the page tell a story just as much as words and punctuation do. Anyway, my verve for collage has waned slightly (with the whole marbling thing occupying my passion of late) but my adoration of sheet music hasn't. The other day as I was rearranging my inside studio, I came across my collection of sheet music and thought...hey, this may be fun to marble over.

And was it ever.

Marbling and sheet music go hand-in-hand like peanut butter and chocolate--independently, they are delish; together, they are magic. Marbled sheet music seems to SHOW what the sheet music wants you to HEAR, instruments be damned! You can even affect the way the song is interpreted by the marbled patterns and colors selected.

I'll be using these pieces in some of my journals (they make for gorgeous signature wraps!) but I also think they would be FABULOUS as backgrounds for all kinds of artwork from collage to sketch to even scrapbooking.

So if there are any artists out there wanting to experiment with me on a marbled sheet music + another art form collaboration, let me know!

It's Official: Fall is Here

Technically, the fall equinox is not until tomorrow but last night I took my first bath of the season! Hot, hot water, candles, a glass of white wine, and pure silence (except for Mira cleaning herself on the floor next to me)...doesn't get any better. I don't do baths in the summer. It just doesn't feel right to be sitting in hot water at 8 in the evening when the sun is still shinning bright. But last night, it was cool and dark by 8 and the end of the day was just begging me to draw a bath and soak my anxieties (too much on my to-do list right now) away.

Welcome back, Fall. Looking forward to hangin' with you for a while.

Seeing Red

Or rather, NOT seeing red...which then causes me to see red. One of the most frustrating things for me when marbling is not getting the color I want. When I want a deep blue, I WANT a deep blue--not a baby blue, not a cornflower blue, not a steel blue. Deep blue. DEEEEEEEEP BLUE. You get my point. Sometimes it takes a little playing around to get it just right...mixing paints, putting a color down on the bath in a certain order, diluting paint or making it more concentrated.  I'm generally able, with a little experimenting, to eventually get the color I want.

Except when it comes to the color red.

I get off red. I get pink. I get orange red. I get magenta red. I get something Crayola doesn't even have a name for. I get everything but a beautiful RED RED. And apparently I'm not alone in this endeavor. My marbling instructor at the Folk School, Pat, told me red is elusive for all marblers. Her trick: use red paper. Ummm, hello! That's BRILLIANT!!! Why didn't I think of that?!

In the workshop, she gave us a couple types of red paper to play with and let me tell you, I was ecstatic with the results.

See how that red just pops right off the page?! It is the best--trick--ever!

Side note: The really fun thing about colored paper (all colored paper, not just red) is that you're able to use REALLY COOL paints such as Golden's interference and iridescent lines. In the second example above, I used copper, bronze, and micaceous iron oxide (in addition to regular acrylic paints). These paints have ACTUAL metallic particles in them...making them sparkle right on the page. It is a really, really neat effect. Here are some of those paints on green paper:

Anyway...back to red.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to do a little marbling after the weather folk said it was going to be cool and humid. I whipped up a batch of size and set up the studio...and could barely sleep that night I was so excited. The next day, I was up by 6 a.m. It was already 78 degrees (it would top out at 103) and the humidity was a disappointing 50% (and would steadily drop all the way down to 23%!). Not ideal for marbling. At all. But what was I to do? I couldn't change the weather so I decided it was going to be an experiment session. I had lots of scrap papers as well as canvas and wood pieces I could play with.

I have been marbling on canvas for a little while but was having problems with making the colors POP and with keeping the colors from running off the canvas during the rinse. I solved both problems by 1) aluming the heck out of the canvas and 2) letting the canvas DRY FULLY before rinsing off the size (another thing I learned from Pat at my time at the Folk School). But here's the interesting thing: marbling with red paint on canvas, even a white canvas, isn't that bad. It actually sort of turns out the way I want it to.

Not too bad, right? So, emboldened by my success with canvas that day, I thought...hey, if red PAPER works so well, how about I paint the CANVAS red and then marble on that?!

Now, THAT'S what I'm talking about! RED RED!! Totally awesome.

And here are these canvases up on my studio wall:

These particular canvases came already stretched on wood frames so I had the challenge of NOT screwing up the sides with size and paint while marbling the front...an incredibly difficult and delicate process that I hope I can master after more practice since clearly it did not work out for me this time. In the mean time, I simply paint the sides afterwards to cover up my messy mistakes.

I'll post some more "interesting" works from my experimental marbling day in a few days. Canvas, sheet music, wood chips, fabric buttons...I'm having fun with everything. (I've even seem some people marble on FEATHERS!)

Sometimes You Just Need to Get Out of the House

And that's what Emmett and I did yesterday. For the past couple of weekends, we relished in the U.S. Open tennis matches and enjoyed lazy brunches in bed while watching Federer, Nadal, S. Williams, Murry, Djokovic, Stosur (yay for the Auzzie) and the like battle it out at the net and baseline.

But after spending two weekends in a row at home (and a few weekends before that too) I declared Sunday to be "Get the Heck Out Dodge Day." In spite of checking off many things on our "Things to See and Do in LA" list these past eight years, it is still ridiculously long. For ages, Emmett and I have been wanting to explore the Rancho Palos Verdes peninsula, which lies at the end of the 110 freeway roughly 40 miles south and slightly west of us. The day was perfect (temps in the upper 70s along the coast, the fall sun was not too hot, a light breeze) and the company was even better (hardly any crowds since it's back-to-school season...in fact, we saw more dogs than we did families with kids!). The area reminded us very much of the central coast in California. If someone had told us we were in Monterey or Pismo Beach instead of LA, I wouldn't have been surprised at all.

We started the trip at the top of the peninsula at Malaga Cove, a lovely stretch of beach backed by huge bluffs overlooking the Santa Monica Bay. Surfers, paddle boarders, kayakers, divers, and swimmers dotted the water and beach walkers (like us!) and picnicers spread out on the sand.

Then it was on to the Point Vicente Interpretive Center and bluffs trails where we enjoyed a picnic lunch while taking in the view of the Point Vicente Lighthouse and perfect 180 degree views of the Pacific. Afterwards, we walked a bit along the bluff trails.

Our final stop for the day was the Wayfarer Chapel, built by Lloyd Wright, son of Frank. The small chapel is made mostly of GLASS and what it lacks for in size it makes up for in beauty and tranquility. It is perhaps one of the most unique buildings I've ever been in. Lloyd Wright, like his father, was very much about bringing the outside into the inside. In addition to the glass walls and ceiling, stone, trees, and plants make up the chapel and emphasize the natural surroundings. And then there are the grounds...

It's nice to know that our "getting the heck out of Dodge" days can be filled with ocean, beach, gardens, interesting architecture, and great views. Our "Things to See and Do in LA" list may be a tad shorter but we also added a few new destinations. There are several other great parks (with TIDEPOOLS!!) in the Rancho Palos Verdes area that are definitely worth checking out. But those will have to wait for another weekend. Sometime soon, if I have anything to say about it. And I usually do.

Inspired by Nature

I've heard more than a few artists say that their inspiration comes from nature. And by inspiration, they are referring to design...shapes, colors, layout, etc. I've never been one to believe that anything I see/hear/feel/experience in nature can be replicated by the human hand--or eye or mind or ear or whatever. I just don't think we're gifted that way. We may wish we were, we may attempt to be...but we aren't. If we were, we wouldn't be doing to ourselves and the planet what we're doing to ourselves and the planet. That is not to say I don't doubt that these artists DO find inspiration in nature. I'm just saying that nature, for me, is not something that influences my art or writing. It's impossible to emulate so why not just start fresh and do my own thing? Art and writing come from my mind. My imagination. THAT'S what I think is the natural advantage humans have--our imaginations.

One of the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen in my life is that of the okra plant. Hands down the most visually appealing and hold-your-breath soft (and I've seen some amazing flowers from all over the world). Emmett and I first grew okra in our garden at our home in St. Paul way back in the late 90s. Every year, as we mapped out our garden, we always included a new-to-us vegetable. We had fallen in love with okra on our many trips to New Orleans, where, as you can imagine, the widely used southern vegetable was superbly incorporated into gumbos, fried appetizers, po' boys, and the like. We thought we'd give it a go.

Up until our first crop, I had no idea how okra grew and what the plant looked like. I certainly was not prepared for the fruit blossom, a gorgeous and delicate five-petal yellow flower with a reddish burgundy base--a stunning contrast to the phallic-like stiff green pod that is the vegetable. Words (and photos) do not do the flower justice. I could not believe my eyes the first time I saw one. I probably gasped. I know I called out to Emmett. And I remember reaching out ever so carefully to touch it...to make sure it was real. It was. And we had a whole 10' row of plants just about to bloom.

When I was making plans for my veganic garden this year, I told Tom (my veganic gardening partner in crime) I wanted to plant okra. He had never grown okra before but that didn't stop me from giving it a go like Emmett and I had back in St. Paul. I ordered organic burgundy okra seeds from Peaceful Valley and planted them.  We had a bit of a rough start--the seeds sprouted, true leaves appeared, and then the plants just sort of stalled and stayed in a perpetual state of languish until three weeks ago when they suddenly shot up and began cranking out blooms!

It had been over nine years since I had seen an okra bloom up close and personal and let me tell you this: they still do it for me. I still believe they are the most beautiful flowers in the world...and I would do ANYTHING to be able to replicate the colors, the graceful curve of petal edges, and the blood veins fanning out from the base of the flower in my marbling.

Mini-frames (or something like that)

Here's a little sneak peek at something I've been working on with my marbled papers. These (among other things) will be available at the Peach Tree Holiday Show this November December 3 and 4 (the same gallery where I sold my Hope's Flame candles for four wonderful years). I'm calling them "mini-frames" for now but I need something better than that so if you have suggestions, please share!

These are 3" x 4" or 5" x 7" sheets of my marbled paper that are hand sewn to a natural branch that I've "whittled" (did I just say that?!) the bark off of. This description makes it sound like these pieces are crazy and bizarre but they are not. They are beautiful, delicate, natural pieces of art that would look lovely hanging on any wall. See...

There are several different ways you can hang them. In the photo above, I just tapped two straight pins into the wall and hung the piece by the "screw eyes" that are screwed into the branch and that the thread that holds the paper is looped around. You can barely even see the pinheads. It works great!

Here are a few more examples:

And here's one I did for a friend's birthday gift. This one is much larger. I think the final size was something like 23" x 15".

I'll probably do a few of these bigger ones for the Holiday Show as well but for now I'm really digging the look and feel of the mini-frames. Also, I am a firm believer in making art accessible to everyone while still compensating the artist for his/her work. The mini-frames will be priced between $7 and $15 so just about anyone can get a piece of ORIGINAL art...and I think everyone should have at least one piece of original art in their home, don't you?!

A Guacamole Summer

I remember the first time I had guacamole that was made "table side." It was in San Antonio and I was with Emmett and my good friend Heidi and we were all drinking prickly pear margaritas. I'll never forget the ease and confidence with which the waitress (guacamole girl?) pulled together all the ingredients, never referencing a recipe or notes. Of course it helped that everything was pre-cleaned and pre-chopped, waiting in little bowls for her on her "guacamole cart" on wheels...but that didn't lessen my impression of her guac-making capabilities at all. She smiled the whole time she was making it, as if we were invited guests at her home and not some paying customers at a restaurant on the Boardwalk, one of a hundred tourists she saw every day. Perhaps I told her I had never had guacamole served that way and she was genuinely excited to make it for me. Or maybe she was simply responding to my body language that was not just saying "this is so cool," it was shouting it (insert image of me grinning ear-to-ear, clapping my hands together wildly, and making an abundance of happy sounds and comments). Whatever the case, every time I saw her wheel by with her cart, my heart did a little pitter-patter knowing some lucky table was about to get their guacamole made table side. Bam!

The only guacamole I had had prior to that was when I went to Chi Chi's for half-price margaritas on Tuesdays in Brooklyn Park, Minn. I never saw someone actually make the guacamole, however. It just came on the side of the bean and cheese burrito I would occasionally order. It was a green wad of mush sitting  next to the white wad of mush (sour cream). The "margaritas" weren't much better but they were just $3 (for the jumbo!) and I was 21 and that combination worked just fine for me.

I don't recall my parents or friends ever making guacamole but I'm sure it happened sometime, at least once, when I lived in Minnesota. I just don't remember it. Probably because it tasted unmemorable. Which is not to say that Minnesotans don't know how to make guacamole but that by the time an avocado makes it to the upper Midwest, it has lost most of its avocadoiness. And when you're paying upwards of $2 per avocado, it's a gamble most aren't willing to take. But after that San Antonio experience, I was bound and determined to make FRESH guacamole. With my own hands. Avocadolessness be damned. I found a recipe called "Guacamole is Hot!" in my copy of The New Basics Cookbook (my very first go-to cookbook) and I loved it so much I have never made any other version. Not that I made guacamole very often back then...the high cost of avocados, the short summer, the mild-is-too-spicy taste buds of friends and family did not add up to prime appetizer/snack placement.

Then I moved to California.

It seemed like guacamole was EVERYWHERE here. Every party I attended, every restaurant I ate at, every grocery store deli I walked by...there was the silky and chunky green base accented with bursts of white-white onion, red-red tomato, antique white garlic, bright green jalapeno, and dark green cilantro. Decent avocados (and fabulous ones when you get them at the farmer's market) are available year round and guacamole is as ubiquitous in California as tuna noodle casserole is in Minnesota. And that is just fine by me.

Still, I reserved serving up my homemade "Guacamole is Hot!" for when guests came over for parties or happy hours. You see, my recipe calls for three avocados (not to mention the slew of other ingredients) and no matter how much Emmett and I love my guacamole, we just can't eat an entire batch in one sitting. And no one wants to eat LEFTOVER guacamole (that would be like eating leftover movie-theater popcorn...I don't think so!). It never occurred to me to make just a small batch of guac for us.

Until this summer.

For whatever reason, we seemed to have gone on an avocado buying spree this season. There were always three or four, sometimes even five, very ripe avocados in the fridge at all times. Why? Who knows. That's just the way things went down. Then one Saturday afternoon, early in June, as I was checking out my veganic garden, I realized I had the tomatoes, cilantro, scallions, and lemons growing in my back yard that would be great in guac. And my neighbor was growing jalapeno peppers in her garden. All I needed was the avocados (check!) and garlic (always check!). I turned to Emmett and boldly declared, "I'm gonna make us a batch of guacamole for happy hour today." And without hesitation, he said, "I'll make the margaritas."

So without pulling out my cookbook and using only ONE avocado, I started tossing things into a bowl, tasting, making slight adjustments, and BAM! BEST. GUAC. EVER. Now I understood why my San Antonio guacamole girl was smiling the whole time she was making our dish. Because it's that EASY and that SATISFYING, especially when you're using homegrown (specifically organic and veganic) ingredients. Thus, this has become the Summer of Guacamole. I "accidentally" buy too many avocados and Emmett and I end up "having" to make one-avocado guac every Saturday and Sunday (and sometimes during the week if he works from home!).

I'll share with you my "One-Avocado Guacamole is Hot!" recipe but I'm warning you--I don't measure things for this dish. It's all based on instinct, the freshness of the ingredients, and my mood. Sometimes I like it hotter, sometimes more lemony, sometimes more cilantro-y.  That's the way we do things out here in California. And that is just fine by me.

Barb's One-Avocado Guacamole is Hot!

• One very ripe avocado - it shouldn't be PAST it's prime but it should be staring it in the face
• One small tomato, de-snotted (take the guts out) and coarsely chopped
• One large garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 of a medium-size jalapeno, minced
• Two to three scallions, white part and some of green, coarsely chopped
• Handful of cilantro leaves (no stems) - do not chop or mince these. Leave as whole leaves!
• Shy tablespoon of FRESH lemon juice
• Pinch of sea salt
• Couple dashes of hot pepper sauce (optional)

Mash avocado with a folk. Be sure to leave some chunks...it shouldn't be soupy smooth. Carefully stir in the rest of the ingredients and serve immediately!

Overmarble

One of the best things about marbling is that there is an easy way to fix a mistake or a "bad" or "ugly" piece...thanks to the overmarble. Overmarbling is a technique that sounds just as it is--you marble over another pattern. It has become one of my favorite ways of "cheating" to save a piece of work. I overmarble most often when a piece doesn't turn out the way I want it to (for example, the colors don't work with the design) or there is something wrong with it (such as when an air bubble gets trapped as I lay the paper down into the bath leaving behind a big white gap) or, as with the example below, is just plain hideous. The piece below started out with bulls eyes that not only were in what turned out to be obnoxious colors (those rounded-square things in magenta and light pink and I think a sage or olive green) but also got away from me (the bulls eyes just kept getting bigger and bigger). I didn't realize how atrocious the piece was until I pulled the design off the bath and saw it on paper (the bath can be deceptive that way)...and then I proceeded to nearly threw up. So I let the paper dry, re-alumed it, and then overmarbled a pretty stone pattern in soft colors. I was quite pleased with the final result (below is just a one-quarter section of the total piece). While I don't think it's my best work, it's definitely an improvement over the original piece and will be lovely as a cover or signature wrap for a journal! Lately, however, I've been overmarbling ON PURPOSE...not just to save a piece but as an intentional action. My very first marbling teacher, Tom Leech, is known for his overmarbles and they are quite fantastic. You can see an example of his work here. My overmarbles are a little less planned (or, to put it another way, less well thought out) than his but that's only because I'm just beginning to see the technique in a different light. Here is one of my recent loosely premeditated overmarbles:

The base for this piece was a simple stone pattern in three very light colors. I then overmarbled with a bolder, sweeping freehand design using brighter colors. I find the end result to be fluid and striking. It's one of those pieces that would be beautiful framed.

Palm

I forgot to mention in my previous post that the Flame pattern is a variation of the Palm pattern (which is also called Fern), pictured above. I made this piece in my studio last month when I was showing my friend, Ann, how to do it. Palm is pretty (some say it looks like the top of a pineapple), but I'm sure you can see why I love Flame more...so much movement. It sort of reminds me of kelp swaying back and forth with the swells of the ocean. I half expect a clown fish to come darting out of the paper. Plus, the name of the pattern, Flame, sounds like me.

There are four steps you go through to make Palm or Flame: stone, get gel, chevron, and then a final raking to complete to pattern (straight for Palm, a slight S-curve for Flame). Anytime you have multiple steps like this, it complicates things a bit because it takes a while to complete the full pattern. The longer your design sits on the bath, the more likely dust will become an issue--it settles on the top of your bath and causes little blank holes or specs on your final piece. But for me, I really enjoy doing step upon step upon step upon step. I find it relaxing as well as intensely personal. With so many steps, I have a lot invested in the pattern--mentally, physically, and emotionally. I guess one could compare it to kneading dough for bread or pasta. And what's better than homemade bread or pasta?

Flame

This is one of my favorite marbling patterns to do. It's called "Flame" and you can see why. This particular piece, which I am really proud of, was made during my marbling and bookbinding class at the John C. Campbell Folk School. Don't ask me what colors I used. My guess would be Payne's Gray, Sap Green, Titan Buff, and maybe Quinacridone (aka "quin") Burnt Orange (all Golden Fluid Acrylics)...but that's just a guess. What I do know is that I marbled on Canson Ingres #48 Cream paper...a paper I was introduced to in class and simply fell in LOVE with (despite a weird texture thing...the horizontal "alleys"...which you can see in the above scan but not in real life). Specifically, I swoon over the cream color and the "antique" affect it has on the overall look and feel.

I'm in the process of coming up with a "brand" for my marbling work. I'm thinking of using this design, and even this particular piece, as part of a logo. I've modified my blog masthead as part of a test drive. What do you think?

Some Final Thoughts On and Photos From North Carolina

Below is a photo slideshow with pics from around the John C. Campbell Folk School grounds and around the area where the cabin I rented was. The drive from my cabin to the school was 4.7 miles one way through bucolic landscapes framed by mountains. In short, one of the loveliest commutes one could have on the way to a marbling/bookmaking class...or ANY kind of class for that matter. And my "cabin" (a modern, two bedroom, two bath, loft home with full kitchen and fireplace) was up along a ridge surrounded by woods with nice views of the mountains as well. It also had a huge and inviting wrap-around porch with comfy rocking chairs which I took advantage of every second I was home. In the mornings and late evenings, I saw a mama and her baby deer, wild turkeys, rabbits, Oliver (the neighbor's adorable dog), and lots and lots of song birds and hummingbirds. The cabin also had FIOS. Unbelievably fast internet. And I mean unbelievably fast.

To be on the Folk School campus during the day also felt inviting, not to mention energizing as well as refreshing. There's something satisfying about being amongst people who are taking classes because they are passionate or simply curious about an art form. Perhaps it's just the mere fact that they are there by choice that is so appealing. They could be at home watching TV or surfing the web or buying things at Walmart. But instead, for whatever reason or reasons, they decided to take a class at the Folk School. And for a full week. Just for sh*ts and giggles.

It's always hard for me to articulate my marbling experiences (which challenges any notion I may have that I am a decent writer). I'm not sure why this is. Maybe a picture really is worth a thousand words and after a week of creating sheet after sheet after marvelous marbled sheet, there's not much left to say. The tank, the paints, and the papers speak for themselves. Or perhaps marbling is still so completely soul consuming for me that it's impossible to emerge from my little studio sessions at home or a week-long class such as this with anything left to give. Or maybe it's just one of those things that I hold so close to me, that I can't talk about it. I remember this happening after my month-long New Zealand volunteer experience. After my return people wanted to "hear all about it" but I just couldn't bring myself to share anything significant with them (beyond the obligatory, "It was great! Lots of fun!"). Actually, what I think I was going through was that I feared that by telling my story, I would lose it. It would no longer be the story as I wanted to see it. And I didn't want to look at it any other way. In other words, it was MY experience. "Go get your own," is what I really wanted to say to people. And that's how I feel about this recent marbling excursion. If you want to know what it was like, you're just going to have to go do it yourself because this moment--the class, the school, the whole trip--is mine.

That being said, I will tell you this: it was great and lots of fun!

[slideshow]

The Finished Goods: Not a lot of need for words here. The photos speak for themselves!

And now for a few close-ups of my finished books:

So that's that. Pretty impressive body of work, eh?! Everyone was so creative, talented, and enthusiastic. The room was bursting at the seams with excitement and fun. I really wished all of us lived closer to one another so we could do another round of marbling and bookmaking together. Perhaps a reunion down the road someday...

Tomorrow I'll post photos from around the school grounds, my cabin and the woods around it, Gwen's Friday night gig, and other miscellaneous shots.

And On To Bookmaking

After two and a half days of marbling morning, noon, and night, it was time to move on to two and a half days of bookmaking morning, noon, and night! And despite the around-the-clock studio time, we did not make all those books pictured above! Our bookmaking instructor, Bob, brought them along for inspiration (for us, not for him...he's clearly inspired enough!). I'm pretty sure, however, everyone in class would have loved to have tried to make all those. Once we were in bookmaking mode, there was no stopping us.

The second half of the week was spent making books using the wonderful marbled papers we made the first half of the week. Our marbling instructor, Pat, had us marbling on all types of papers (heavyweight, lightweight, colored, textured) so we had a wide variety of materials to choose from. Bob supplemented with some lovely Japanese and Canson papers we could coordinate with as well as embellishments (beads and things) to decorate the books with.

The first book we made was a simple pamphlet stitch notepad. It was called a "dressed book" and was in the shape of a kimono. Totally cute. And you should have seen how people embellished their works (photos coming tomorrow!). While this was quite easy to make, it was the perfect starter book since the pamphlet stitch is the foundation to making many styles of books. The next book we made was an accordion book with a concertina inside. Again, the accordion fold is a foundation technique in bookmaking. Once we knew how to pamphlet stitch and accordion fold, we were off to the races.

We proceeded to learn how to make a "spine surprise book" (my FAVORITE...I love, love, love this book), a four-signature longstitch book (also top on my list of favorites), a box book, an origami book (FUN!), and a book brooch (yes, jewelry!) as well as piano hinge and cigar band closures and paper beads.

One of the huge differences in the energy in the room between our marbling and bookmaking sessions was that marbling is physically exhaustive and bookmaking is mentally exhaustive. In marbling, there is a lot of walking and moving involved...moving around the tank, walking from tank to sink and from sink to drying rack. And then there's the pushing and the pulling of the tools to the laying down and lifting of the paper in and out of the tank. With bookmaking, there's constant measuring (and obligatory double and triple checking); the need to "see" how something is going to work before actually making it; making sure you have all your pieces/elements cut out, lined up, and ready to go before even embarking on the actual assembly of the book; and trying to interpret wicked technical directions into actual action. I'm not saying the mental and physical differences of the two practices is harder or better...just that it was very much a SHIFT in how we approached the day.

I took a ton more photos of people working, measuring, cutting, measuring, gluing, cutting, measuring, embellishing, and stitching but the photos above pretty much tell the story and I think you get the point.

Tomorrow, I'll post photos showing off the results of all our marbling and bookmaking. Stunning stuff, I tell you. People in the class were so talented and creative...it was just a week filled with artistic gems!

It's Been A Long Time

And I have no excuses. My priorities shifted a bit over the summer and blogging just fell to the bottom of the list. At first I felt bad...and then I realized I don't regret doing any of the other things that were higher priorities--like gardening (my veganic garden is going gangbusters), marbling, cooking, entertaining, hiking/kayaking/surfing with my mom while she was visiting for a week, going to outdoor concerts, and spending A LOT of time on an exciting new project I hope to be able to talk about soon!

What prompted me to blog again was the wonderful time I just had at the Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C. I took a week-long marbling and book making class that was outstanding. The entire experience was nothing but positive: I loved the Folk School grounds; the administration was easy to work with; my instructors were top notch; and the participants in the class were so friendly and had wonderful senses of humor! I'm not sure I could have planned a better curriculum or hoped for a better result. I'm walking away from this experience feeling more confident in my marbling and bookmaking skills...from troubleshooting and having a deeper understanding of both practices to experimenting and learning new techniques. I feel like I've gained 20 years of experience in one week...and I have since both my instructors have that many years (and then some) under their belts in their respective fields.

I'm breaking this story up into four posts, each with their own photo gallery: one on marbling, one on bookbinding, one showing off the works of art created by participants, and one with miscellaneous stuff.

I'll start with the marbling. Here are just a few marbling highlights:

• I tried suminagashi for the first time and loved it! Suminagashi is a Japanese style of marbling where you work on a plain water bath with watercolors. I would argue it's nothing like ebru, the Turkish style of marbling I do where you work on a carrageenan bath with acrylics. The best way to describe the difference is by saying suminagashi is to ebru what surfing is to water skiing...both happen on water and that's about where the similarities begin and end. I see suminagashi becoming a part of my practice, especially if I purse bookmaking.
• I was so inspired by the other people in class. Some came not having marbled ever in their lives while others had as much experience as me (and maybe even more). It was a butt-load of fun and incredibly energizing to watch the new people fall head-over-heals for the practice and ooooooh and aaaaaaah the same way I did the very first time I was exposed to marbling. And I loved watching the experienced students at work--I often found myself wondering over to their tanks and looking over their shoulders as they worked their magic. So inspiring.
• I was given permission, much to my relief, to give up trying to find the perfect red acrylic paint to marble with. It doesn't exist. BUT MARBLING ON RED PAPER IS SPELLBINDING. I'm ordering a ton of red paper as you read this.
• My Ah-ha Moment: Every professional marbler has his/her way of doing things. The more classes I take from different artists, the more exposure I get to these differences, and the more OPTIONS I have for incorporating or ignoring these differences into my own practice. This is what is going to make me the best marbler I can be.

Now on to the photos. I've also added a few instructional videos at the end of the post for those interested in seeing how marbling works or those students wanting  a refresher. At the very least, check out the first one (Flame pattern) where Pat, our marbling instructor for the week, pays me one helluva compliment that's had me on cloud nine for DAYS (and probably for the next few months).

Tomorrow I'll be back with the bookmaking write-up and photos!

Enjoy.

(To manually advance the slideshow, hover over the photo and a box will pop up. Click on the square button in the middle and the slideshow will stop automatically advancing. Then click on the arrow buttons to move forward or backward at your own pace.)

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