This week, Week 4 of focusing on life, those words meant friends, paints, papers, messes, gelatin plates, acrylics, lace, stencils, brayers, more papers, wine, color, experiments, tools, sharing, rearranging, layering, scissors, smocks, and most important, JOY.
I invited myself to Carol's house for a road trip weekend and loved spending time with her and her sweet doll husband, Steve. He lets me come back even though every time I show up the entire townhouse gets rearranged into a creative "enclave" and there's no room for much of anything else. We had to eat our rib dinner on our laps because there was too much action on the dining room table to clear it off for a meal. haaaaaaaaa Plus, he has his own creative bent with a wood shop in the basement and I always leave with wonderful hand-turned treats.
Anyway, Carol and I spent about 10 hours standing around that table trying out something new (to us): Gelli plates. Bette joined us on Sunday and we wiled away the afternoon trying new techniques to monoprint using acrylics on this gelatin-sort-of plate. I'd never heard of it before, but was, of course, thrilled to go out and buy some more art supplies. Bette's a paper master, so she brought her collection of stencils with her. It was like having a personal artist's supply shop right there since she has hundreds of them. No joke.
Another key activity of the weekend involved Carol's blog...she's up and running at Carol DeeZigns and has a post with more details about our weekend's "business."
With aching backs from standing so long, we were able to look back over our weekend thrilled with all our new, cool papers and excited about printing some more...oh, and about buying more stencils and paints and such, because you can't start a new craft without using it as excuse to buy things! haaaaaaaaaaaaa So, even as I play with my papers, or play with my pictures of those papers, and shop for new toys to make more, I think of the JOY we felt all weekend and can only smile. :)
I read about hour wonderful weekend on Carol's blog the other day (which is looking fabulous!). Sounds like you had an excellent time! Those papers are so inspiring! Now I have to go and follow your links!
ReplyDeleteIt sure looks like you all had a blast...love the papers you came away with...those circles with the yellow towards the top look otherworldly! Wouldn't this be the coolest quilt? I hope you do investigate doing that!
ReplyDeletestunning colors, so inspired!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely love this! It all looks like such fun. You are one talented gal! :)
ReplyDeleteLove the colors!!!! Looks like it should be framed! And your weekend....I would so love to do something like that...but alas...I live to far away from my buddies at this time....but that is ok....I will survive! :-)
ReplyDeleteLove the collage of paper sample clips! My cheeks still hurt (and my back - REALLY). Keep me posted on the quilt idea. I think it is a wonderful idea. Hope to see you again real soon!
ReplyDeleteRead about your adventure on Carol's blog(great job on that) and it sounded like such fun. I'm also a quilter so I really love what you have done with the papers.
ReplyDeleteYou are an awesome encourager! I want her to follow thru with the quilt idea, too!
DeleteJen Judd, You rock.
ReplyDeleteAnd so does your collage!
Gorgeous colors!!
ReplyDelete(I'm #41 this week)
That sounds like such a fun weekend. Those papers are gorgeous -- the colors are so fun and bright!
ReplyDeleteColor! Love your collage. Sounds like a fabulous weekend.
ReplyDeletewow!! what a creation! wonderful colours and what fun to play with different techniques and to share it all with a friend :)
ReplyDeletehave a great week!
[no. 19 - i overslept]
Glorious and joyful are the words that came to my mind when I looked at your creation.
ReplyDeleteHow fun to spend a weekend with artsy friends!!! Your colorful papers are lovely and look like a lot of fun. I've never heard of the gelli plates but it certainly sounds interesting!
ReplyDeleteWow! Those are papers? I thought it was a quilt at first and thinking what a bright and beautiful quilt this is, until I read that it was paper. Oh the things that can be made with such pretty paper. I could feel the happiness coming from this post thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteTherese
I think it would be impossible to look at those papers and not see joy! To hear they were created with friends marathon style makes them even more special. Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteOh I am so jealous! A Gelli plate is on my "to get" list for sure as I have seen so many pictures of what you can do with it. Your collection looks awesome and the colors fantastic! What a fun day that must have been.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had the perfect weekend, and I can tell from your description that is was joyful! The papers are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteVisual Joy! That is truly the happiest paper I've ever seen!
ReplyDeleteAwesome!! What a great way to spend the weekend and you now have a piece of beautiful art to remind you of it each time you look at it.
ReplyDeleteSo nice to have crafty friends to explore new techniques with. And I love the collage of the papers. I would frame it.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful weekend that sounded like (well except for the aching back). Hope you have many more ceative adventures with your friends. The results are so worth it.
ReplyDeleteOh, I am such a polka-dot fan! Love that! Having "sisters-in-art" is so wonderful...thanks for sharing your beautiful work!
ReplyDeleteWhat fun to be able to get together with friends and create. Love the papers!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you had a fabulous, creative weekend. And the results of that weekend are just amazing! There's so many fun details and tons of color in your collage, I can't even take it all in. So very cool.
ReplyDeleteJen, pure JOY comes across bold and bright with this beautiful work of art! I love how it looks like a patch work quilt! You hit it on the head, Bette is a master of paper and I clicked on the link for Gelli plates, big BIG mistake. All that yummy texture!
ReplyDelete