Melanie Testa's Blog, page 18

Day 4 and someone else's challenge.

This morning's lines took on a story like mannerism. Yesterday's lines seemed like a tree, spoke to the tops of buildings, reminding me of something as yet unknown. Today I decided to stick with the idea and see what happens.

Yesterday My Man and I visited some trees, unearthed wonders, breathed deeply and were able to open some personal gateways. All good things.

This squaw berry plant just popped out at me, all green and red-like. I love reading about the natural world, the world of plants, calyx, stamens, drupe. Old world words. Have you heard about this site?

Then I started collecting lines for you.

And here is a short tirade: You People who say, 'I can't draw'? Yawn. How many kinds of lines are there? 2, yup! Two. Straight and squiggly (when I taught kids to draw this was our mantra). The cello teacher leans into the young boys ear and says, 'so you tried to play the tune three times, and you aren't perfect?' Does learning to draw not take practice, like driving a car? Drawing like driving, is not innate (thank you Danny- that last is his analogy).

Drawing is making lines, lots of lines, looking and seeing. You must start somewhere.

Do you see the start of my evil plan? The hatching of a quest...

Haha!

And then a few weeks ago Vivian Swift did a tutorial. And I bit, although city life is not conducive to many brightly colored leaves and, well, I got a late start (excuses). So a trip to visit trees yielded a few good specimens-not to mention Oak Balls I mean Galls. And if you don't already own it, buy yourself a copy of Vivian's book, When Wanderers Cease to Roam: A Traveler's Journal of Staying Put.I LOVE it, and she is writing another! Yummmmmmm.

Day 5 and someone else's challenge.

This morning's lines took on a story like mannerism. Yesterday's lines seemed like a tree, spoke to the tops of buildings, reminding me of something as yet unknown. Today I decided to stick with the idea and see what happens.

Yesterday My Man and I visited some trees, unearthed wonders, breathed deeply and were able to open some personal gateways. All good things.

This squaw berry plant just popped out at me, all green and red-like. I love reading about the natural world, the world of plants, calyx, stamens, drupe. Old world words. Have you heard about this site?

Then I started collecting lines for you.

And here is a short tirade: You People who say, 'I can't draw'? Yawn. How many kinds of lines are there? 2, yup! Two. Straight and squiggly (when I taught kids to draw this was our mantra). The cello teacher leans into the young boys ear and says, 'so you tried to play the tune three times, and you aren't perfect?' Does learning to draw not take practice, like driving a car? Drawing like driving, is not innate (thank you Danny- that last is his analogy).

Drawing is making lines, lots of lines, looking and seeing. You must start somewhere.

Do you see the start of my evil plan? The hatching of a quest...

Haha!

And then a few weeks ago Vivian Swift did a tutorial. And I bit, although city life is not conducive to many brightly colored leaves and, well, I got a late start (excuses). So a trip to visit trees yielded a few good specimens-not to mention Oak Balls I mean Galls. And if you don't already own it, buy yourself a copy of Vivian's book, When Wanderers Cease to Roam: A Traveler's Journal of Staying Put.I LOVE it, and she is writing another! Yummmmmmm.

3+

Yesterday the JSG gals and I went to the set of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. We, of course, needed to draw. Assuming I might more likely have been able to stay low key and under the radar, I painted my page black prior to going. I did get yelled at, by the Rabble Rouser, to put the book away... But, Journal trumps Rabble Rouser. A girl has priorities!

Day 2/For those of you

I know I sprang this on all of you, to be honest, I didn't think anyone would accept the challenge! He!

For those of you asking if you can use a fountain pen? I briefly tried. I think you probably can do this and if you do, I commend and applaud you. I also encourage you to make a video on your findings or do a blog post, I will happily link to your blog and embed your video.

My findings in brief: You see that nib to the left of the pile of nibs in the above photo? I could not get that one to work with acrylic paint. The fine tipped nib, like the one you see in my nib handle, works fairly well. It is scratchy, working with it slowly might work for you. I made lines going with the warp and weft and on the bias. I have seen someone use Liquitex Acrylic Ink on cloth, but... think she was using a brush... it is vague.

I still like the ruling pen line better. They cost about 8 to 10 bucks, and well? I can honestly trouble shoot it.

Above you see my collection of ruling pens. The top one is a simple Alvin Ruling Pen.

The middle pen is a double! It was given to me by a friend, it doesn't appear to be old. I haven't found a link for it.

And the bottom Ruling Pen is a compass with Ruling Pen attachment. I found a great combo pack on Amazon: Compass W/Ruling Pen.

I will be using all of these. And no rush! I have 42 squares. I could conceivably do 42 lines 42 Days, I have more cloth even! So if you need to place an order? eh. Get to it.

Jeannie sent me this link (watch the video at the end), which lead me to this link. And even if you don't want to make your own 'folded pen', is in interesting thing to think about.

And remember, from now on I will answer comments to the blog within the comments section of the blog and not privately through email. I have been doing this but I just realized last week that you may not know to look there. So if you want to converse or ask questions or comment on other peoples comments, please check back and see what is happening in the comments next time you visit. I will post this reminder till it feels like everyone understands and remembers.

Shake up

It is time I shake things up around here.

First topic of conversation: From now on I will answer comments to the blog within the comments section of the blog and not privately through email. I have been doing this but I just realized last week that you may not know to look there. So if you want to converse or ask questions or comment on other peoples comments, please check back and see what is happening in the comments next time you visit.

Second topic: I have come up with a challenge for myself. One that I hope you will enjoy and if you are inspired will either participate or configure your own challenge with your own rules.

30 Lines, 30 Days

I will be using the tools seen above: a Ruling Pen, paint brushes, acrylic paint, and a timer (the iPod has one).

The Challenge:

Create line on the 5.5x5.5" block in no more than 15 minutes (less is OK), each day for 30 days. Post a picture with commentary (or without, the picture is the important part) each day. At the end of the 30 day period I will reassess and see if I need to make more blocks or make something out of the blocks.

Here is my first block:

How do you use a Ruling Pen?

ETA: What do I hope to gain from this? I think Line is underrated but beautiful. Line is choppy, straight, broken, dotted, strong, vague, inconsistent, consistent, connected. I would like to see what I come up with, how the project itself affects me. I also look forward to seeing what I might do with the blocks at the end of making the blocks. This is a big learning journey of 'What if'.

I sorta hope you will join me.

Houston 2010

Houston was fabulous! I taught, I laughed, I hooked up with friends, new and old. I had a woman named Laura visit all the way from Italy in one of my classes! Jennifer made some fantastic samples and took both classes I taught! Surviving the Runway was visited by the police! Judy Coates Perez and I worked on the Spoon Balancing aspects o our creative resumes, it was just so much fun. Helen Gregory showed off her rubber arm super powers, while Pokey Bolton gathered the most handsome young man for a dance.

If you want more of a Quilt Festival update, perhaps you will check out Jane LaFazio, Tracie Huskamp, Leslie Tucker Jennison, Jamie Fingal and Deborah Boschert's blog.

I didn't shop much-honestly, I didn't factor enough down time. I did purchase 4 moons from Shibori Girl. And I bought a fat quarter of double woven dot from June Colburn.

As Usual

I am happy about this page. Artistically it isn't great, the composition lacks, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is that it is the first page I have worked on for more than a month. While worrying about this, I was reminded to 'knock on the muses door'. So I did, and this is the result.

Marcus writes notes, not continuous thoughts so much. But memories. I like the fine pen he uses, I am going to have to research that.

I am trying to figure out how to incorporate words into my pages. I wrote on this page but painted over it. You can see the words if you look for them. Words are hard (for me to use in my journals).

Also check this out.

I am grateful.

Crap I say! Crap!

It really should not be like this. I should be gathering supplies, making lists, hauling out the luggage. But (and I am going to show my age here), do you remember Lefty The Salesman?

At the end of the JSG, Pat shows me her box of borders. What that means is that she pulled an Altoids box full of tiny stamps, mounted on acetate and asked if I would like to buy a box of borders, just like Lefty. I was dazzled, smitten, taken, befuddled. But I declined, hopped on my train and dejectedly walked home.

The lightbulb moment came when I realized Pat had already given me a few empty boxes of Altoids and I own crack Fun Foam. And I had just bought some acetate!

And not only that but, did you see this post? That there is a very high quality and addictive drug. Tags, I mean. And I just happened to buy a box of one hundred...on my way home...from meeting up with Lefty, I mean, Pat.

JSG = Journal Study Group

Yesterday most of the JSG got together to study. We often get together and go to museums and the idea for the days artistic exploits came from one such day. We used Pat's Faux Screenprinting (Cloth Paper Scissors Sept/Oct) article/technique to get the job done.

We met up at Shirley's apartment to interpret a Master Work of Art in...Fun Foam! Funny, ludicrous and ironic as this may seem, I would like to do his often and push it's limits. Read Shirley's post for a more in depth story on why we decided to do this.

Shirley and I used the same painting as inspiration, Judith with the Head of Holofernes. Pat interpreted a scholarly crumudgeon (a very appropriate choice), St. Jerome as a Scholar.

Saint Jerome was a nice pagan man when he was visited by God or a messenger of God and told to amend his ways. He went with it and became a scholar of the church. But he didn't go lightly, he chastised, wrote letters and affected changes in the church at every turn. He also grew his beard to epic proportion. I am glad Pat chose a clothed and sane looking version of the Saint, things could have gotten out of control.

Early on in the creation of the Journal Study Group we decided that for each day that we met to do a project we would make an edition of tags to give each member of the group. Shirley has a very broad interpretation of this rule, she tried to get away with creating her edition after hours (her stamp was huge and her pads inadequate to the task) But Pat and I helped her to see this was not a good choice.

My stamp is the left most tag in the above photo.

Judith was a woman who knew how to bring home the cauliflower. Her home life and village was threatened, war was all around her and she knew a lascivious drunkard when she saw one. She took matters in her own hands, walked into the Generals camp, wooed him with her womanly ways, got him rip roaring drunk and took his head. His forces ran, she cleaned up and posed with the nearest artist.

And if you were wondering no, it wasn't Judith's head that was taken, it was Holofernes'. But sometimes an image is just so epic that it doesn't fit on a mere tag, this was Shirley's challenge. And, if you are here reading this blog off of Shirley's link...did you know she was quite this messy? Pat and I kept having to push her crap back to her third of the table. But if you follow me on facebook, you know crap is a good thing. I mean, we are talking Fun Foam, right?

And, well. Arrow hasn't been featured too often lately. His crinkly forehead means he is happy.

Open Studio at Quilt Festival

I am going to be at Quilt Festival 2010 and will be dye painting during Open Studios on Friday from 5 to 7. Will you please Join me?

I will also be teaching:

Thursday: Freezer Paper Paint, Oh My!

Friday: Sampler: Bead Embellish, Encrust 10-12 Friday

Lecture: Journaling as Inspiration for the Quilt Artist 3-4

Open Studios: Dye Painting 5-7

Saturday: Stamping in Depth

I would love to see you, play art with you and have some fun. Please come visit me or take a class.