Los Gatos and Home Again

What a whirlwind weekend it was. Katie and I flew into Los Gatos on Thursday to teach 2 day classes at Cindy's Artful Journey workshops. My plaster class was on Friday and Katie's was a mixed media class on Saturday. On Sunday we both flew home; her to Seattle and me to Portland. I'm still waiting for pieces of myself to come back together; I feel beamed up but still missing a few molecules.

Cindy provided beautiful food for the attendees and saw to our every need, running errands for me in the middle of class (I apologize, Cindy, for needing you to do that) and providing a beautiful place for the teachers to stay. We swam at night in her heated pool and started each day with strong coffee from her espresso machine. It was divine.

Here are the happy ladies at the end of the first day.

On the left is Sharon Tomlinson, a long time blog friend, who flew in from Texas to play. She made the aprons pictured above; Zorana's was even reversible with secret words and images on the back side. If you click on Sharon's link you can read more about the aprons on her blog.

This is a detail; isn't it beautiful?

And also allow me to introduce you to Gypsyfroggie, who has the most beautiful tatoo on her arm. She is another blog friend that I finally got to meet in person; can you say fab-u-lous?

Here is a close up of the magnificent art. I love the starry sky at the top, the hair, face, and well, everything!

Now I'll show you some of the plaster painting that was done in class. I didn't think to start snapping pictures until a number of the students had left and I humbly apologize to the students for that. I try to include everyone.

In this class I urged the students to try a little of everything in their pieces . . . to create a sampler of techniques to remind them of the possibilities of plaster.

I brought some collage elements: inkjet on tracing paper, vintage writing, carbon copies to transfer.

We worked with both Plaster of Paris and Limestone clay concoctions. In comparing the two, Plaster of Paris is much harder.

We had the option of finishing the plaster or clay with hot or cold wax. The results are quite different.

We transferred onto the surface and used stains, glazes and paint as well as stencils, stamps, carving, sanding and layering the plaster.

Now I am home with a pile of mail, e-mail, Art Unraveled stencils to prepare, bills to pay and bags to unpack.

I need a new computer but lack the time to set it up.

And all the roses need dead-heading. Life is full and my sweet memories will float along with me today as I prepare samples for a special collaboration project (full heart happiness is working with another artist on a shared vision), and try to cover all the bases.

Look serene. You are a beautiful swan. No one can see the mad paddling beneath the surface of the water.