Lee Thomson

Aug 16
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Aug 17
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I worked on these two in parallel – when something didn’t work on one, I tried something different on the other.

I started with Aug 17, laying on a thick layer of green paint over a yellow and orange print fabric, then pressing the stamp into it to clear it away. It mostly soaked into the fabric, so I tried a "primer" coat of yellow and let it dry, then did the same again, for Aug 16.

After they had dried, I could almost see the yellow paint, so I left this one alone. The print fabric had vanished, so I added some Lumiere paint into the petal shapes to make them show up. That helped, and I like the look of the paint a good deal, but it still needed more. So I started embroidering the petals until they both showed more definition. While I like the bobbin work on Aug 17, I think Aug 16 is a more successful card. It is hard to photograph the paint without getting reflections from it. I’ll try again tomorrow outside and see if that makes a difference.

In family news, Aerin is home and ready to be issued her Captain’s papers for 8 ft/100 lbs vessels on inland waters. She spent a happy two weeks with my sainted mother getting ferried to sailing camp in the mornings and then puttering together in the afternoon. She can rig and sail a 12 ft. sailing dinghy, won a race, and made three boys squeak "nooo, please don’t heel so much!!" (to the intense satisfaction of the other 3 girls in her level). I am so pleased to have her back.

I am sorry to bid farewell to the past week. I spent most of it resolutely not acting my age, and I had forgotten what fun it could be. I drank prodigious amounts of beer and wine, stayed up late, talked for long hours with friends, had a very fine time with just my guy (the bike rides, the food – get your minds out of the gutter!), and turned the car stereo up VERY LOUD. Something about parenthood just kind of precludes some of this, forcing me to act closer to my age. Although I may go back to loud music and a bit more beer. I do like beer.

Alice returns tomorrow, and we are all together again for the first time since we returned from England. That will be nice too.

Aug 15
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

The paint still isn’t as thick as I want. I may need to rethink the process to get a different result. These are the new Jacquard Lumiere paints, which are really beautiful smeared in the edges of my fingers. Why does stamping wind up being such a whole body experience for me? Or at least whole hand? (and nose – the nose always itches when my fingers are covered with gold paint)

Anyhow, I want thicker paint on the surface of the dark fabric, so the edges have more punch. Maybe stencilling.

More work elsewhere today. Anybody want to buy a car?

Aug 14
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

yesterday’s. again.

I was using up old Deka Starlite paints for dark fabrics. I think for painting it is possible to get them thick enough, but stamping with them makes the paint thinner than I wanted. I wonder if different stamps have more “tooth” and might carry more paint?

Al and I had a nearly perfect day yesterday. We took the grown-up tandem out for a roaring ride in the morning, through some of the most perfect weather of the summer, over some of my favorite bits of terrain, and finished at one of my most favored restaurants for lunch. The two of us work so well together. It is really different having no kids – just me and my sweetie. I miss the girls, but I like having just a glimpse of an empty nest too.

After all that pleasure in the morning, I took supper to Andy, then helped the crew there sort, pile, package and carry. I was very, very tired at the end of the day!

Aug 13
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Yesterday’s card – hand carved rubber stamp petals, plain old stamp pad ink, and an eraser from the end of a pencil for the center.

More later.

meteor shower, no kids, husband early… postcard tomorrow.

Aug 11
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Presenting….. Postcard Number 200.

I’m shocked.

Delighted.

Startled.

Faintly pleased with myself.

Mostly shocked.

Oh – this postcard? I really liked the way the pieces looked on this purple stuff after they were cut out. I experimented with fusing them down, they still looked cool. Happy 200th postcard.

Aug 10
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

What happens if the petals are square instead of triangles?

Lumpy but appealing.

In other news, the Journal Quilt page for May is finished, with a lot of roses for Alice Rose’s birth month. I have a clue for June (Things That Make Me Absurdly Happy) and July (Where We Went on Our Summer Vacation) and the backgrounds are constructed. I even have a clue for August (Al and Me, 21 years this year, and that’s just the married part…). All ready to go to Journaling class tomorrow and make sense and have something to show and something to say.

Aug 9
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I really don’t know which way this one is going. I finished it in time to take a week’s worth to class tonight. We did fast (and quite kind) critiques of people’s work. I love seeing what other people have done, and as a teacher I get to grill them: which one do you think is strongest, which one is weakest, can it be fixed or should it be started again??? I love hearing the answers. I don’t feel like my answers help much, but I know asking myself the questions makes the postcards (and other work) improve.

In other news, I have become my mother. At least one aspect anyhow. My friend Andy is simultaneously moving back into his house after it was renovated after a fire and thinking about packing to live in England for three years (with two kids) because his wife’s job is there. We spent some quality time in the garage going through boxes, and the back of my car is filled with 6 boxes of stuffies, two of shoes and two of kids books. I will recycle, freecycle or donate them to good homes…. and THAT is how I am my mother tonight.

Aug 8
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

not quite done yet.

Silk pieces from jude at spiritcloth and Glennis at Shibori Girl finally spoke to me.

Unfortunately, I am too hot, and utterly cross-threaded with the universe.

So I’m quitting before I make anything worse, and coming back tomorrow.

I’m going to go fondle the silk scraps….