Nature Printing Society Workshop

foggy Charleston area

 I spent a wonderful, foggy week in Oregon at the Nature Printing Society annual workshop.  Members of the Society gather once a year to spend a week printing together.  There are classes to take and socializing together.  The talents of this group are formidable and varied and I always learn so much from one of the workshops.  Our venue this year was the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston, near Coos Bay.  Besides days (and nights!) spent printing, there were many other activities.....

 There was  spectacular ocean front scenery.....

.....and a dear, dear friend in attendance.  And there were Squid Heads!  Yes, Squid Heads, to the delight of all the attendees....

Sharron Huffman and Heather Fortner, great sports and great printers

There were clowns.....

The Amazing Fred Mullet, Himself

 .....and there was dancing.....

The past president, Chris Dewees takes current president, Bee Shay, for a spin in the parking lot

 ......and singing and dancing to Mack the Knife.  "Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear....."

His Fishness, Fred Mullett and Bee Shay 

And there were pirates.  There must be pirates, don't you think?

Bee Shay at her most piratical

There was also a lot of serious nature printing going on.  I took four wonderful classes and learned so much.  Kathy Bower taught monoprinting with an etching press and I spent a happy day trying this leaf and that plant and inking them all, printing happily.  

Kathy Bower teaching the monoprinting with an etching press class

a sampling of the prints I did in Kathy's class

There were classes in eco printing, where leaves and flowers were used to dye cloth.  And there was a great class taught by Warren Hartz in printing with leaves onto silk scarves.  I took that one and had a wonderful time.  It was not too difficult, but it's very time consuming and rather technical and from now on I think I'll just purchase one of the Hartz' gorgeous scarves when I am in the market!

my scarf during the printing process

my scarf dyed and drying on the frame

My favorite class was white line woodblock printing with Lynne Hubner.  I have just gotten into carving woodblocks for printing so this was a very timely class.  This process is quite different from any other woodblock printing I have done as you use watercolors instead of ink, and the watercolor paint is applied to the woodblock in a single area at a time, then the paper is placed over the block and you burnish the back of the paper to facilitate the transfer of the watercolor paint to the paper.  It takes quite a long time to print the block, depending on size, but it's very meditative and I loved the process.

my woodblock in the process of being carved

 It was a wonderful workshop!

Emily Carr Interlude

My, haven't I been gone a long, long time!  Sorry for the silence.  I've been traveling and will soon be traveling again but in the meantime I wanted to share a poem from a slim volume of poetry I found when I was on Vancouver Island recently.  It's called Emily and is written by Florence McNeil*.  Ms. McNeil has "translated her own love of the West Coast and its rain forests, seas and mountains into poetry based on the life and work of Emily Carr."  

Emily Carr is one of my favorite artists and I seem to grow to love her paintings more and more as the years pass.  I thought that Ms. McNeil did a most admirable job of writing in (what I imagine) is Emily Carr's voice.

Sundays

It is not the surface I want

not the ocean with the sunday sailors

the harbour where ladies

boldly (in summer)

consider their ankles

or the straw hats 

that float

in the placid inner harbour

I want     like Alice to go through

the glass

come out on the other side

of respectability

display barnacles kicking

on the schooners' bottoms

show the insolent energy of seaweed

tell the languishing ladies and gentlemen

of Victoria     in their sacred departures

there is violence

florid and beautiful

beneath their holy excursions.

*Florence McNeil, Emily, (Toronto/Vancouver: Clarke, Irwin & Company Limited, 1975, print).

I will try, Dear Reader, to post a few snaps of where I've been and share with you what I've been up to, before I leave for Southern Africa early in October.

Nantucket Notes

My friends are doing a complete remodel on their new house on Nantucket.  They are in borrowed quarters until mid-September when their perfect little snuggery will be finished.  Both the borrowed digs and their new place are in Tom Nevers, a part of Nantucket that is far enough out of Nantucket Town to be quiet and peaceful, but not so far as it takes too much time to get around the island.  Practically perfect, you might say!

As is usual, Bee had all sorts of projects going on while I was there.  She is the busiest person I know and is always doing many and various entertaining and creative things.  This year she was preparing for the Nantucket Garden Festival that was held at Pumpkin Pond Farm in a very large, very luxe greenhouse.  The Garden Festival was a fund raiser for The Lighthouse School.

While some of us got ready for the show and sale, others just loafed the days away....
(And you know who I mean, Zoe.)

It was humid and in the mornings it was often foggy.  As the fog would roll through the house,  the water would condense on the screens.  

We had some stunningly beautiful sunsets.

The greenhouse for the Garden Festival sale was decorated with Chinese lanterns and looked so very festive.

One of the dealers at the show and sale was selling old French linens.  Others sold garden supplies, and several had garden related antiques and vintage items.

Amy Stewart, the author of such interesting reads as Wicked Plants and The Earth Moved, among others, was the guest speaker for the Festival.  She gave several talks and did a book signing.

Bee taught a class in Hawaiian-style gyotaku class at the 1800 House while I was there.  (The 1800 House is sponsored by the Nantucket Historical Association and offers classes in the summer and fall in traditional arts.)  I have taken at least one class at the 1800 House each summer when I visit Bee and I always have a great time.  This time I got to help with setting up the classroom and with supplying the students with items they needed during the class.  I had an opportunity to do a little printing on my own, too.  We were printing scup (porgy), a fish I don't see on the West Coast.  It's been a year since I last did any fish printing and it took several attempts to begin to get some useful prints, but it was fun!

preparing the fish for printing by washing them well, drying them and rinsing them with alcohol

you need to dry the fish, inside and out, as well as you can to get a good print

 We used sumi ink and an Asian "rice" paper to print the fish, as well as making some prints on cotton sheeting.

practice print on newsprint

 Bee treated me to TWO home-cooked lobster suppers!  Man, oh man, was I spoiled!

My last day on Nantucket, Bee took me for a long stroll in 'Sconset, along the bluff.  It was a beautiful walk and I enjoyed seeing all the flowers and the pretty old cottages, some completely covered in roses.

The beach at 'Sconset is a fine one, with big waves rolling in from the Atlantic.  It was the perfect way to spend my last day on The Gray Lady.

Leaving for Nantucket

rose covered cottage in 'Sconset

I am on my way to Nantucket as you read this, Dear Reader.  It's my annual pilgrimage east, to the home of my best friend.  There will be historical architecture---everywhere you look, whaling lore, gorgeous flowers, yummy seafood, hydrangeas by the thousands, and laughter, hugs and catching up.
And Ted, my favorite large dog in all the world.  (Forgive me Timmy, but Ted is my east coast best doggie buddy.  You are my most favorite west coast doggie buddy!)

glorious window box

 Everything will have the tang of salt air.

Bee at Smith's Point

My friend will open my eyes wide again, with her insights and her world vision and her perception.  She sees beauty everywhere, and makes it all visible to me, too, while I am with her.  I try to keep my eyes wide all year, but I don't quite manage.  So I am going for my tune up, my re-setting and recalibration.  Things will be brighter while I'm with her, more colorful, more subtle.  Just more.

Lowie on Coatue

And her DH, the bluefish fisherman, par excellance.  He's funny, talented, creative, well read, thoughtful, kind, goofy and my dear, dear friend, too.  Even his puns are dear to me...sort of.

There will be time to sit and chat....

...and time to walk sandy roads.  And the most lovely thing about being on Nantucket?

All roads lead to the beach.

So forgive my silence.  I'll be back at the end of the month for a few days before I head off on another wonderful adventure, this time with all my family.

Jam for Lowie

I am leaving for my annual visit to my best friend and her husband on Tuesday.  I traditionally take raspberry jam to Lowie.  I consider it me paying my "rent" to them for letting me inflict myself each year.

Lowie is very fond of raspberry jam, so that's what I make him.  This year I was worried because our local raspberries were late, and making the jam for my "rent" payment two days before departure is cutting it a close.....

Finally, at the Saturday Market yesterday, local raspberries were available, in all their red, succulent deliciousness.

So I mashed.....

....and I stirred.....

...and I stirred some more.

And then I poured the molten, thick jam into jars.

I made enough for Lowie to have a nice gift and I made some more for DH and me to have for the next year.  There may even be a few jars that will reach other friends as small tokens of my esteem.

Summer in a jar.

Crazy Covers for Pattern Books

I am in the midst of taking Mary Ann Moss' online class, SEWN.  It is so much fun.  In the first place, I have been able---NO, not just able, but encouraged strongly!---to make a mess!  To play!  Just have fun.

Boy, can I make a mess.

First I got to sit and paint patterns.  Whatever I wanted.  However I wanted.  And I did and oh, did I have fun.  The next thing asked of me was to pick out a shape that I wanted to use to cover the cover of a pattern book with, and then cut out a lot of the chosen shapes to sew onto a cover.  I used up a bunch of watercolor scraps and some other random paper I had hanging around, and just put together two little booklets with a pamphlet stitch.

I had scraps of paper here, and glue sticks there, and scissors always across the table from where I was working....remember the big mess?  It got bigger.

But when I got done, and I had sewed all the cut-out shapes onto the booklet covers, I ended up with some fine, fun little numbers in which I will paint more patterns!

My sewing skills are very lacking and I am very much a guerrilla seamstress, as Mary Ann puts it.  It might not be pretty, but it gets the job done.  And there is no pressure, which of course = fun!

I am now going to go clean up my mess.  And then, paint some more patterns.

Did I mention how much fun all this is?