I just came back from a great conference in Breckenridge where I was able to take 10 different classes in art! How great it that?
This Summer I found that I was allergic to things with gluten. (gluten-free) And since bread is one of my favorite foods I had go learn all over again baking bread with gluten free flour. This was very difficult because usually they are hard as bricks and the high altitude makes is even harder to get the recipe right. I was given a new breadmaker for my birthday and today was the first loaf of bread that actually came out decent. I bought a Zojirushi BBCC-X20 that you can program especially for gluten free baking. This is a raisin bread loaf that was yummy.
Here are some bagels that I made. They were rye flavored and tasted great. I got the recipe from the current issue of Healthy Living.
This was a book I made from a class I took in Fort collins by Kelly Kilmer. It was alot of fun to make the book and then paint the pages with different techniques.
Its called a Tryptch book because it has three sections that fold in.
Another part of the class included altering photos. We used sandpaper, stencils, paint, glitter and other items to change the photos and make them interesting. I mounted them in my book I made.
The best photos for this seemed to be ones of a large closeup of single objects. Kelly brought some photos of hers we could use. Here are some of the pages.
Being from Colorado we hardly ever get rain in the summer and by July everything is dead and looks like the sahara desert along the road. (Unless its sprinkled) This year we have had SO much rain that I am so proud of my garden this year. It has been fun to watch it bloom and grow. Here is my front porch with my waterfall I made myself several years ago. I have to take out the pump every winter since it gets so cold and I readjust the rocks every time. I keep adding new shrubs around the waterfall as we tear out the ugly evergreens that take over. All the planters I put together myself. Even my clematis (on the far left) keeps on blooming. Its amazing what some rain will do.
Here are some close ups of the long panel.
We had another Art night Last Friday and we worked on an unusually long collage on foamcore. First we trimmed it to the length and shaped the top. After laying out our images we glued them down and painted around them. We added another color and some other papers and text. Then I blended the colors together with Carand'ache crayons and wrote some description about the theme which was Travel. Lastly we hot glued a ribbon and did some splattering. Click to see the detail.
I loved going inside all the churches and seeing the beautiful decor and art inside as well as outside. This is Tyns church. Beautiful Gothic Style.
The Castle is in the background. It was set on a hill. St.
This building shows the Art Nouveau Style that is prevalent in Prague. Beautiful!
This is the first stop on my journey to a small village , Pisek, in the Czech Republic. We sang in the public park, visited high schools to tell about america and practice their English. We visited and sang in a nursing home and attended a women's club. We helped the women practice their English and hoped they would attend the church at Elim. This bridge is the oldest in eastern Europe even older than the Charles Bridge in Prague.
This is a pen and ink sketch I did one morning of the old bridge in pisek. I added some watercolor when I got home. The bridge had lots of stone sculptures all across the bridge.
Here is a pen and ink drawing of the Garden Tomb where Jesus was believed to be buried. This was a beautiful place full of flowers. We had communion here with our church group on Sunday.
I taught a class in South Denver with some of my artist friends. We used watercolors and masking fluid to transfer a roman column or some did a cross. After rubbing off to reveal the white watercolor paper, we colored with markers and watercolor pencils. Then we added different collage pieces. I was trying this out to teach my 8th grade next year.
This painting used a transparency as the last step.
This was a book we made at my workshop. We started with paper and bookboard so we made the whole thing. No cut outs ahead. As a result, this class ran 6 hours and we still didnt finish. I had to google to find the directions. The inside is a really neat binding you cant see from here with spider stitches I think she called them. The outside consisted of 3 pieces and you had to move the waxed linen on top and on bottom to catch the inside signatures as well. I enjoyed this binding but the instructor was very unorganized and had no handouts to help us. I dont know if I could make it again. The size is 5 x 8. We covered the front and inside with gorgeous papers from the European paper shop.
This was a collage I did at my artiscape class. We started with a drawing of a roman column of our choice . After drawing in pencil , we went over with masking fluid. Next we sprayed liquid watercolor in our choice of colors. After rubbing off the fluid, we used markers and colored pencils to add color to the now white column. Lastly various paper, wood and other elements were added and rubber stamps to finish the piece. We used illustration board for the background but I would like to try with watercolor paper and tape to a board first. I plan to try this with my 8th grade next month.
This is a new altered book I started from an online blog class. It has been really fun. 100 people signed up to participate and each week we have to post pics and info about each lesson. It keeps you working and creating to keep up with the class. We are on week 4 now.
This background was a credit card technique where you smear different colors.
Today it was raining and snowing during the drive home for our Easter service . Our choir sang and we had a good turnout of umbrellas this morning.
This an art journal I made from papers printed using paper towel. This was from a Class I took from Traci Bautista. We used stencils and textured wallpaper, wooden shapes to make the prints onto paper after we saturated the paper towel with liquid watercolor. We assembled 4 signatures of our hand printed paper and sewed them onto the cover which was made from the paper towels collaged on front and back. Traci has a great DVD Retro Rags that explains the whole technique. My 8th graders loved making this project and I made one too. It was fun. This time my book came out much better and I was able to sew the book straighter and tighter. I look forward to a class Im taking next month at Artiscape- Two part belgian binding.
Here is the continuing board book I'm working on from our trip to Alaska last summer. This page was done with sponge painting for the clouds with other acrylics to look like the water. We had a great time kayaking here. Twelve family members joined us from age 7 on up to myself. That is myself in the kayak with the sunglasses. Some of us had the younger nieces and nephews in the middle with a triple kayak. We were amazed at the huge bull kelp we saw in the water. This town was very touristy and I wish we would of gone farther North to kayak to get away from the constant noise of the float planes taking off.
