Finding Magic

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Sometimes a few days can pass by, one day blending into the next. Nothing special, nothing to recall. And then sometimes, something magic will happen. If you’re lucky, you’ll notice it. If you’re smart, you’ll capture it as a reminder that beauty is always just around the corner.

This was what was waiting for me when I got home from work today. The petals fell off of the trees while I was gone, and the asphalt in front our apartment was so evenly covered. It looked like a blanket of confetti, or a polka dotted parking lot. I was so happy to have been there in that moment.

Speaking of magic… do you remember when blogs were new, and we were all so closely intertwined through blog posts and link lists? Tammy from Daisy Yellow is on a mission to revive link love! She has proposed that we commit to sharing at least five links four times in April. There is so much beauty and magic out there, so let’s share it!

Head over to Daisy Yellow if you’d like to join in the link love! I’d also love to hear about unexpected magic you’ve found this week in the comments!

33 Things I Want To Do in Year 33: April Update

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I’m now exactly six months into my 33rd year, and I’m revisiting my list of 33 Things I Want To Do in Year 33. My last update was in December, and I need to make revisiting the list a monthly commitment because there hasn’t been much forward movement with the list in the last four months. I am proud of the things that I have completed so far, and in particular I’m happy with the progress I’ve made in rebuilding strength in my ankle and walking the 5K. I’m looking forward to a productive April!

Completed!
02. Walk a 5K – I finished the Shamrock Stride 5K in Portland on March 17. I’m considering training for a 5K run in September. (blog post)
05. Take an Indian or Japanese cooking class – I finished a one night class on March 4. East Indian Cooking: Curry, Herbs and Spices. The food was so fresh and healthy tasting. I came home with lots of spices, but haven’t attempted anything on my own. I should do that soon…
06. Take a printmaking class – I finished Printmaking I at PCC in the winter quarter. I loved it so much that I signed up for Printmaking II, and that starts this Saturday. (Projects: one, two, three, four)

In process…
16. Join or create a sketchbook or artists meetup group – I went to a crafting meetup group at the end of March, and I’m RSVPed to another meetup in April. I’d still like to find a sketchbook specific meetup group.
18. Finish two art journals – I have filled in about 80% of my small Moleskine sketchbook, and have started a second Moleskine sketchbook. I have also filled up three small sketchbooks with daily patterns since the beginning of the year.
21. Save $X – Still working on this one steadily, and making good progress.
31. Cook 20 new recipes – 1/20 completed. I made up a soup using random vegetables. The main components were potatoes, bell pepper and onions. I’m feeling really uninspired and in a cooking rut. I need to pick out a few recipes to try this month.

Next steps to be completed in April
01. Walk over seven Portland bridges – I’m going to pick one of the bridges to walk over on a nice day.
07. Back up all of my digital photos – This was on my December list, and I made no progress. I’d like to finish this in April. I’d be very sad if something happened to my computer right now.
10. Unpack all boxes from our move in January – This is so sad. We still have some boxes with books and paperwork, 15 months after our move. I really need to buy a new bookcase this month.
15. Go to Astoria or Bend for a long weekend with boyfriend – I’d like to do this, or plan it in April. Our schedules are full with work and my Saturday class, and his theater schedule, so it’s hard to find a weekend.
17. Start classes at PSU – I still haven’t filled out the application, and need to do that this month.

Pending
03. Take a mud bath in New Zealand
04. Try indoor rock climbing
08. Submit artwork to Art-o-mat
09. Make a quilt
11. Learn how to use Wacom tablet
12. Go camping with my sister
13. Make french onion soup
14. [Private goal]
19. Buy a zoo membership, and sketch the animals
20. Sell a piece of artwork
22. Take a soapmaking class
23. Make a collaborative sketchbook with another artist
24. Try yoga
25. [Private goal]
26. Make a new girl friend in Portland
27. Open an Etsy shop
28. Go on a short trip somewhere in the U.S. by myself (or to visit a friend)
29. Build a portfolio website
30. Buy a bike and ride somewhere with my sister
32. See Crater Lake
33. Go to OMSI After Dark

Daily Pattern Challenge (WOYWW)

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Last month’s daily pattern challenge turned out to be not so daily. I don’t think I made it beyond the second week. I was trying to make all of my patterns out of stencils, and it wasn’t working for me. I should have switched over to using something else to create my patterns, but instead I just stopped. I’m jumping back into daily patterns this month without restrictions on what I can use to make them. The only restrictions are that I will be working out of the same Moleskine journal, and I want to stick to the same rectangle shape with a border around the pattern.

I want to make daily patterns simple this month, and so what’s on my workdesk currently is just my journal, a pencil, small ruler and some Faber-Castell Pitt Pens. All of these supplies are stored together in a plastic container next to my bed, and my “workdesk” is a bench hook that is supposed to be for carving linoleum blocks for printmaking, but it also makes a nice flat surface for drawing. It also gets bonus points for being super portable. I’m linking up to What’s on Your Workdesk? Wednesday again, and I’m looking forward to checking out other artist and crafters’ workspaces.

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Here are my first two patterns for April. You can join in the daily pattern challenge by tagging your images on Instagram or Twitter with #patternadayapr or #letsmakepatterns.

Sketchbook: Glue it Tuesday!

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Hello, spring! It’s everywhere. This is a page from my Moleskine sketchbook for Aimee’s Glue it Tuesday. Check out her blog to add your own link. All you need is a glue stick and something to glue down to participate.

I handcolored some Japanese printmaking paper and tore it up for this collage. On the top section I used a craft punch to make all of the little holes. I was happy to hide an ugly painting on this page with the collage, and like the bits of green that pop out at the edges. The quote is a small bit of a lovely poem by John O’Donohue called A Blessing for One Who is Exhausted. Even when I’m not feeling particularly happy, bright colors seem to cheer me up a bit. The poem reminds me of sitting outside on the back step with my paints and paper, enjoying the sunshine and sounds of my neighborhood.

Thanks to everyone who popped over from Artsyville to check out my glue creation! I hope you are having a happy and colorful day.

Printmaking: Aquatint

Hello! Today I’m sharing the last printmaking project from my winter quarter class. If you read my last post on etching, you might have gathered that I did not immediately take to intaglio. Even though I was super excited about using the aquatint process for the this project, I unfortunately again had a hard time with the process, and was not thrilled with the results. However, I’m determined to document the ups and the downs from my classes on this blog, so that I can look back at where I started as I progress. On to the photos!

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This project started as they all do, with a sketch in my little square notebook. I made this sketch before I knew what aquatint was, and my teacher suggested that I save it for this project. I had the idea to create a landscape in layers, and wanted to focus on what was underground as much as what was above ground. I imagined each layer would be a different value, with the underground layers being a little darker. The little groundhog didn’t make it into the final print.

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The first step was to create a basic line etching. The image above on the left is what the print looked like before I did any aquatint. And the plate on the right is the final. As you can see there is a lot more detail in that final plate, and it is all created with the aquatint process. Here is a link to a basic aquatint tutorial. The short explanation is that you coat the plate in rosin and melt it on a hot plate. Then you cover the parts of the plate that you don’t want to have any tone in hard ground, and then dip it in an acid bath. You keep building the values in increments by taking the plate out of the acid bath, and covering more of it with hard ground before dipping it back in. For this project I used Sharpie instead of hard ground, because I am more comfortable with markers. Typically hard ground is applied with a paintbrush, so you can also get some painterly effects with aquatint.

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My first two prints are above. After I saw the first print (left), I wasn’t very happy with the values. The underground layers were too dark, and the other layers were too close in value. I repeated the aquatint process on the right, again not liking the values. Even my teacher didn’t understand what was happening with the plate at that point. It was a frustrating two day process of applying the aquatint and going through the acid bath process a total of three times.

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This is my final print. It’s not exactly how I pictured it would look like, but it’s closer. The values are overall a little too dark. I wanted this print to look light, happy and sunny. A lot of my cross hatching and little details are hard to see in the bottom section because it’s so dark. The leaves in the tree also get a little lost at the top because the values are too close. My favorite part of the print is the two little clouds, and the subtle shadows underneath. I’d like to play with that technique more and make an image with more clouds.

Overall, I’m still a little unsure if I’m going to continue working with the copper plates and intaglio process. I don’t want to give up too soon because I’m having a hard time with it, but I also know that there are a lot of other creative outlets I enjoy more and would like to spend my time on. I’m going to at least try a couple more projects, and then will evaluate whether I want to continue. My Printmaking II class starts next Saturday, and I’m excited to go to class the first day to see what we will be learning.

Portland Color: Spring!

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Spring is everywhere in Portland! It’s so lovely to see the vibrant colors popping up everywhere against the perpetual gray skies. Winter seems so long, rainy and gray here that it’s almost a shock when this happens. I forget that there will be days with an hour or more of light when I get home from work.

These are some of my favorite things happening right now: daffodils everywhere, tulips starting to bloom, cherry blossoms, trees with vibrant yellow blossoms. I’m taking advantage of the light after work to wander through my neighborhood. It has been fun to take walks for happiness, rather than being fitness focused. I’ve been stopping to take pictures, pet friendly cats, peek into gardens, and smell lovely plants and flowers. There is so much to see just in my little neighborhood. These walks make me feel more relaxed after work, and it’s easier to let go of any petty problems or worries that have followed me home.

I’ve been thinking about making lists of things I want to do for each season to make sure I don’t miss any of my favorite things. So far on the spring list:

  • Go to the Japanese Garden
  • Plant tomatoes
  • Walk to Whole Foods with Bill more
  • Take pictures of the cherry blossoms by waterfront
  • Sit outside with a sketchbook on sunny days
  • Go to the coast or Hood River
  • Walk to the park with the dogs more
  • Make salads from farmer’s market food

This weekend I’ll be spending Easter with my sister and Bill at the Chinese Garden. I hope you have a wonderful weekend and a happy holiday. I would love to hear what’s on your spring list in the comments!

Embroidery: What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday (WOYWW)

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This morning I found a fun new linkup called What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday (WOYWW), where artists and crafters share images of their workspace and projects they are working on. My “workdesk” is not always an actual desk. I like to work small, and I like to be comfortable, so most often I work from the couch or chair, and sometimes I even work in my sketchbooks in bed.

What I’m up to this week is embroidery. This is new territory for me. I think I did some cross-stitching as a child, but in general I’m pretty new to hand stitching. The beautiful colors of the embroidery threads always call to me, so last week I randomly picked out an assortment of colors that made me happy.

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I’d like to transfer some of my pattern work to embroidery, so I started out with this diamond pattern. I quickly learned that embroidery is harder than it looks! The image above is a result of an hour or two of work. Admittedly, there was also some chatting, but I was surprised at how slow I was.

This past weekend I attended a craft meetup group in downtown Portland, and met Megan of Maxwell Handmade. She was nice enough to give me some tips, and I got to watch her create some beautiful fill patterns that she called practice. This morning I was poking around in her embroidery archives and found her how to posts on stitching and embroidery basics, as well as a beautiful piece with the most delicate work on three feathers. Super inspiring. But for now, I’m just practicing and hoping something good comes out of it.

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And just in case you wanted to see my actual workdesk… this is it right now. Super small, totally messy and just about unusable. Maybe I’ll get it together tonight and clean it off.

Sketchbook: Glue it Tuesday!

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Good morning! Today I’m sharing a collage from my Moleskine sketchbook for Aimee’s Glue it Tuesday. It was so fun last week to check out everyone’s collages and glue creations. For this one I pulled out mostly plain color bits from magazines and catalogs. I couldn’t resist sneaking some scraps with the chevron pattern. I also added in some doodles with a Micron pen.

Check out Aimee’s blog to link up your own image, or check out images from others. Also, if you’d like to check out more of Aimee’s work, new on Etsy she has some gorgeous new gift boxes filled with her lovely bright colored creations.

I’m going to the laundromat tonight after work, and I’m going to bring my sketchbook with me to sneak in some creative time. I would love to hear in the comments how you’ve added some creative time to your busy day!

Printmaking: Etching on Copper

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I’ve just finished up my first printmaking class, so I’ll be sharing my last two projects this week. This is project #3, and it’s the replacement print for my first plate that was a little bit of a disaster. In contrast, this image came about a little more easily. I transferred the small thumbnail sketch from my sketchbook, and then added in some of my little details. I really like how the crosshatching looks at the bottom, and would like to experiment more with this and etching in future projects. While my I was printing this some of my classmates started recognizing the prints as mine, even if they were on the rack and I wasn’t near them, so I take that as a compliment and that I’m getting closer to finding “a style” of my own. Even the printing process was quick with this print, and I finished printing all four prints in an afternoon.

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And just for fun, here is what the copper plate looks like. I’m starting to wonder what printmakers do with all of their copper plates when they have finished printing editions. One possibility is to reuse the back side of the plate if it’s not too damaged from working on the first side.

I’m off to work now. I’m hoping my Monday goes quickly, as I’m excited to get home and work on collage for Artsyville’s Glue it Tuesday tomorrow. Hope you have a great start to your week!

Sketchbook: Paper Weaving

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Aimee at Artsyville has started a new Tuesday prompt called Glue it Tuesday! When she announced it last week I was super excited because it’s been a long while since I’ve done any collage work.

I had a couple of misaligned prints from my reduction linocut project, so I decided to reuse the bad prints for some paper weaving. The paper is a beautiful thin Japanese handmade paper, so it would be a crime to waste it. I tore the paper up into thin strips and then painted the strips with some cheap Crayola watercolors. A little weaving, and gluing, and it turned out beautifully.

I’m borrowing Aimee’s idea of reusing an old Moleskine sketchbook that I had used as a planner. I have a bad habit of making planners, using them for a few weeks and abandoning them. I love that Glue it Tuesday is going to give these sketchbooks a new life.

I have a question for nighttime artists. Do you have any tips on photographing your artwork, or do you just wait until the morning when you have some natural light? I’m really struggling with this. I’m sure it will get better in the summer, but for now the little light I’m getting in Portland is a constant struggle.