Pearly Gates

Been having a little home improvement done around the place. Here's our new fence that goes all around our corner property. I think the neighbors are even happier than we are. The old fence lasted 15 years, which is pretty good for wood, most recently held together by paint, green mold, and chicken wire at the bottom to keep the little dog in because he discovered in the last couple years that he could squeeze through the spaces between the pickets. He's foiled now because the spaces are smaller!

How long does it take to chose the right shade of green? The answer is that there's never enough time. I chose one, it's still not perfect, but it'll do, even though I have to see it every morning. It's for the master bath, which is small.  Happily the shade of blue in our dining room that I've lived with and loved for many years worked well for the hall bath.

As the days get colder my gorgeous impatiens are losing their kick. They were spectacular this year, partly due to all the rain we had but also due to the fertilizer I forgot I added to the pots. I will miss them. Now looking forward to getting some mums, though I already have some pumpkins that the critters are munching.

And now it is raining, raining, raining. And will continue through the weekend. But no snow here.

Monotypes and Monoprints

Last week I was lucky enough to spend some time with Rayna at her studio. We worked with Akua color paints using her table top press to print on paper and fabric. (I tried to remember the difference between a monotype and monoprint. I do know--now--but don't ask me.) The colors we used were red, yellow, and black. We got tired of them by the end of the day, but were so busy figuring out how much paint to use, how to apply it best, what difference the paper made, what fabric worked, etc., etc., that we'll have to save color play for next time.

We started out with leaves. And did a lot of experimentation.

Then I made a collagraph plate using masking tape, duct tape, cut paper, bark, fabric scraps, and thread:

And here it is after being used and its printed image on paper:

We were both amazed how the subtle elements in the materials you use--for example, teeny pinhole stripes on the duct tape--show up in the print. And I kept forgetting that the image gets reversed.