gelatin and rubber stamps

My gelatin plate from last week's class has finally gone to the great refrigerator in the sky. But over the weekend (is it only Tuesday?) my granddaughter Kayla, who is 9, printed a t-shirt with the last broken bits and was thrilled with the result. Here she is, putting the finishing touches on the shirt -- very efficiently using a small blob of gelatin as a stamp. Gee, why didn't I think of that? Speaking of gelatin and stamping - two things happened this morning that were pure synchronicity. Enough to make me really wonder about the universe... First, there was an e-mail from the lovely and talented Sherrill Kahn, whose classes on creative stamping many of you may have taken. She wanted to show me some of the fabrics she had gelatin-printed for the first time --and sure enough, they are as gorgeous and luminous as her other work. With her permission, I'm posting a couple of them because although she used the techniques in my book, her fabrics are undeniably hers. I forgot to ask her what kind of paint she used - the colors look good enough to eat.I love the geometry of the stamps she used and they look very cool used with gelatin plates. Of course, I am sorely tempted to buy some - but do I need ONE MORE thing to print with? (don't answer that). Then, I saw that Kate Pullen, who runs About.com's Rubber Stamping forum, posted a review of my book for the rubber stamping audience. Who knew? I love that people are sending me pictures of what they printed. Laura Reardon, who owns The Quilted Banty Fabric Shoppe in Meridian, Idaho, experimented with some gray fabrics she had in the store, doing rubbings with paintstiks, rubbing plates, and stencils. This was the first time she had printed and she was delighted with her 10-minute results.

Fall is in the air. You can't see it but you can feel it and smell it. The temp dropped into the 60's overnight, the humidity is gone, and I can taste September in the air. The windows are open, the a/c is off, and everybody's energy level has soared. I'm working on a piece I brought home from 66 Franklin (my "real" studio). It wasn't quite there, but I brought it home to sew it together. In the process, I decided the proportions were wrong and (GASP) I CUT two of the too-beautiful-to-cut fabrics down to size. Better. Now, back to the design wall. Can you tell I posted mid-afternoon as a procrastination??