The Letter Y

It rained all day today. A soaking rain, a cold rain---and it was so dark at noon that I had to have the lights on inside the house. I decided it was the day for me to pull out my page for the TTM Thank You book and get it finished. I had already completed the letter "Y" that was my assigned letter by using the repousse technique that I learned in Beckah Krahula's three day workshop at ArtFest. I liked how it turned out and thought that the letter design lent itself to a three dimensional format. I didn't like the silver color, however, so I used my copper paint and then a patina on top of that to get a sort of bronze-y gold color. A little carbon black to bring out the details and it looked just like I wanted. The page itself I did on watercolor paper and then added acrylic paints and smooshed them around with a credit card until the background looked right. (Smooshed is a technical term....) I like the addition of the blue velum in the cut outs. Once the page is inserted into the book and the page is turned, it'll be obvious that it's translucent. I liked the idea of the contrast between translucent and metal. Besides, I got to use my new gold paint pen a lot on the page and it was fun! I like the back of the page, too.

I sent off my pages for the Photo Journal groups' next book, Shadows, yesterday. It's good to have that completed and off my list. I still have the next page for the Photo Journal group to figure out. That book's theme is reflections and I have no idea what I'll end up doing for that one. It's due at the end of June so if I get stuck I guess I will (barely) have time to get it done after the arts festival. I have a June 15th deadline for the ArtFest ATC summer book, By the Sea. I've done the prototype for that card and am happy with it. My problem is that I love coming up with the design and carving the stamps, figuring out how to put it all together, but I don't like the grunt work of putting all the copies together. Well, that's my job for the long weekend. I'll be up at Grant Creek and I plan to get all of them made while watching McLeod's Daughters on DVD. Then I can start worrying about the reflections photo and the little matter of the two artichoke drawings I have to have for Anna by the end of June. I seem to be putting a lot of stress on myself with all these art commitments. I do love to take part in these projects so I guess I should stop with the feckless whining! I wouldn't do this if I really didn't want to. I do like being busy and having all these self-inflicted deadlines keeps my active and making art. Lots of different kinds of art, too, and I do like the variety. It's a great and good thing that I have the chance to do what I like, what pleases me. I am so very lucky.