Flora Bowley Class

I spent Saturday and Sunday at Teahouse Studio in Berkeley taking a class with the fabulous Flora Bowley.  I love love love her art and was so excited to get to take a class from her so close to home.  We painted on two canvases--one was drying while we worked on the other.  The canvases were huge so it was great that I was able to drive home with them rather than having to ship them.  The picture above is one of my paintings in process.  I didn't finish either of the paintings during class...I can't wait to get back to them.

New Painting

Just finished this painting "Poppy". 

Acrylic and Ink on Canvas

Happy Valentine's Day

"I Love You Truly"  Mixed Media on Canvas

Yellow Flower

I've been painting lately.  I'm really happy with how they are turning out.  I'm actually showing my drawings and paintings to people rather than hiding them away.

Acrylic and Ink on Canvas

Painted Fabric

(Or Fainted Pabric as I started to type)

Decided I felt like doing some painted fabric on Saturday.  So I grabbed a fat quarter and got busy with my acrylic paints and all my wonderful stencils.  I think I'll use this to cover my next journal. 

Cavallini Birds

My art group and I are fortunate enough to live close to the Cavallini Papers warehouse.  Every year, just before Thanksgiving, they have a huge warehouse sale.  And --really--I mean huge.  People are lined up for an hour waiting on them to open and then we all rush the doors in a mad frenzy.  It's like an old "I Love Lucy" episode.  Anyway, it's that time of year again and before we go, we thought we should use some of the goodies we have left from last year.  I made some cute birds attached to silk ribbon.  My studio is stocked with birds so this will be a nice addition.

New Journal for JournalFest

I’ve finished a new journal today. All 3 of my classes for JournalFest are journaling classes so I decided to make one journal to use for each class. The journal measures 8X10 and has 3 signatures. I painted the book board black and attached the spine using hot pink duct tape.

 Then I just started doodling with my water-based sharpies. With the black book board, some of the colors don’t work so well. But others really seem to pop. It’s done for now…but there’s a good chance there will be more doodles before the book is filled.

 I started several things on the back but wasn’t happy with any of them. There are a lot of layers of black paint covering those experiments. LOL I finally decided on stenciling. I made the heart stencil myself using an old file folder. It’s one of my favorites. There’s also some stenciling using sequin waste…although you can’t really see that in the picture. Again, I’ll probably add to the back at some point. We’ll see.

Once the covers were done, I added my signatures. I’m using 140 lb watercolor paper. Three sheets folded and a piece of Cavallini map paper covers each group of three. I cut the edges of some of the papers in a wavy or diamond pattern just to add some fun and interest.

I bound the pages into the book using a funky binding. I don’t know if it’s even a formal “binding”. I just wanted a lot of strings hanging off. I’ll add some beads of course. I was going to use a couple of different colors of binding thread but couldn’t find the other color I wanted….of course. I’m not crazy about it a this point but maybe once I add the beads….

Art is You Petaluma--Sunday

Today I took Stephanie Lee’s Pipe Dreams class.  She makes manipulating the pipe in the solder look so easy.  I kept worrying about rolling that hot thing off into my lap.  LOL!!  The class was great.  She’s so much fun.  I finished two focal pieces.  Now I just need to finish them into fabulous necklaces.  I just love playing with fire!!

Art Is You Petaluma--Saturday Class

I’m up in Petaluma this weekend attending the Art is You retreat. The retreat is held at the Sheraton in Petaluma at what looks like their yacht harbor. Unfortunately I booked late so I’m at the Quality Inn. 


The class I took today was with Thomas Ashman. We made a tiny journal using plumbers tape, hardware and glass. I had seen him demo a similar journal on Craft Lab and just loved it. That episode was on my TIVO for quite some time. The class was great and the best part is we finished the entire journal during class. I love when that happens.

Here is the journal in progress. Nothing but hardware store items.

And here is the finished journal with the glass in place full of paper. I love this little journal!!!

A Girl and Her Tools

I love my tools.  And these are just a few of my hammers.  You should see all the other fun stuff!!

Girl Crush

I love Flora Bowley's art.  I really, really, really, want to take a class with her.  She just taught in Berkley ath the TeaHouse Studio but somehow I missed that.  Hopefully she'll teach there again.  My fingers are crossed.