July is nearly over already???

Wow, this month has flown by! I was very fortunate to be able to take part in a weeklong workshop with Akemi Nakano Cohn, at Coupeville Arts Center, in Color Rice Paste Resist on Silk. This is a topic that has been of great interest to me for years. I have been fascinated with two techniques, katazome (which is rice paste resist through hand-cut stencils), and tsutsugaki (freehand drawn rice paste resist, sort of reminds you of squeezing icing or toothpaste through a small hole in a tube, in order to draw). Both methods can also be used with color added to the rice paste, which, when steamed, creates intense color on the silk that is very permanent. This is a dying art in Japan, though there are those artists who are working to keep the art alive, not only by their own work, but by sacrificing some of their studio time to teach others what they know.

I was very pleased with what I learned, though as is my nature in a workshop environment, I didn't produce a lot of "product" during class time. I came out with 3 pieces, all of which were illustrative of what I learned, though not all were as successful as I would have liked. I guess most of us can say that? There were 6 of us in the class, from all over the US, and I saw some really great work being done. I think I may have been the least experienced when it came to working with silk.

I'll be back in a while, hopefully, to post pictures from the class.

I haven't done much (okay, not really any!) digi-scrapping lately. I've spent more time in the garden and rearranging the house, and haven't been on the computer as much as I usually am. I HAVE been taking more photos, though, so maybe some of them can be shared.

I hope to get some serious work done this week.