Great Day...

Months and months ago when I first learned we'd be moving to Dallas, I saw an ad for Art and Soul in Somerset Studio. I thought it would be nice to attend. Today, I was there!

I took a class from Lesley Riley called, Paris Dreams: An Altered Fabric Book. I really think of Lesley as the most enthusiastic and successful of art quilters who have taken big steps in the world of mixed media. How exciting. Just you wait... you'll be seeing more cross over.

Lesley and me! She is charming, relaxed, enthusiastic and oozing with creativity!

It was a great class! I learned a lot of new techniques and got lots of inspiration. Can you hear the wheel turning in my little brain?

Here is Lesley at work. Hmmm paper or fabric? Ribbon or raffia? Image transfer with acrylic medium or water? Let's try everything.

It was a delight to see her construct a couple of compositions in her own books. I love see other artists' processes. It's almost as good as peeking in someone's sketch book.

We did some image transfers. I'm really not a huge fan of image transfer. I'm glad to have some techniques in mind if I need them, but I don't often incorporate images in my artwork. I prefer to create the "image" with the fabric. Lots of people are simply mad for image transfer. If you are one of them, take a class with Lesley. She's an expert.

Image transfer also requires a lot of trial and error. Testing different products. Printing and manipulating stuff with Photoshop. Me? I'm too lazy. I really want to get straight to the fabric. But, it's good to know what interests you, right?

The theme of the retreat is Paris in My Soul and the class was designed for us to make books about Paris, and Lesley provided excellent images on transparencies and photo paper. I really wanted to make a book about the construction of our house. I tucked some materials in my box and hoped that I wouldn't be considered a trouble maker my choosing my own "theme."

I had great stuff that I picked up from the construction site. Seriously, this is a great location for free art supplies!

Here is one spread I worked on.


A child's board book with about six spreads is the base. The background fabrics are simply glued down to each page. Yes, glue! We worked mostly on the inside of the book. You can't really do the cover until all the inside stuff is complete, so you know how fat it is. If you do the cover first, it might fit too tightly.

Here is another spread.

Regular blog readers will recognize the pictures from earlier in the construction process. That's part of a roof shingle that will get glued in... then I think I'll put a hole in it and wire in a key.

My book isn't even close to being done, but it's the kind of project you can work on bit by bit. I need to gather more doo-dads. No shortage of supplies around here. In fact, in the open lot behind our house I saw some bright green plastic tape.

Here are all the books at the end of the class.


Tomorrow I'm taking a class from Claudine Hellmuth called "Minding Your Own Business" about taking some steps to move my art from a hobby to a profession. Usually "mind your own business" is what I say to the kids when they are pestering each other about tooth brushing or cleaning up or eating dinner or whatever...