back again

Yikes - another week without blogging! I suppose at this point I will be booted out of the bloggers' club for non-compliance. I skipped last week because, once again, life intervened and handed me a lot of stuff to deal with that had nothing to do with art. I did manage to print this scarf but was too tired to blog about it. If you're into lime green, purple, and fuchsia, you probably love it. Soy wax and dye on crepe de chine. I may overdye it - these are just not my colors. I dyed a couple of others but haven't had a chance to work on them yet. I also have some yardage I need to print: where does the time go?? At one point in the last week I took up a challenge from someone I met who works at a quilt shop. She sent me a piece of this fabric and dared me to improve it. I must admit it was not easy, but I finally managed to modify it by adding black with one of my screens of the trees behind my house. I don't know whether she likes it better, but I do! Friday, I dropped off 4 pieces of artwork for an exhibit at the Carole G. Simon Cancer Center of Morristown Memorial Hospital. On the way home, I stopped at Trader Joe's -- normally not in my locus -- and stocked up on good stuff. I was pretty restrained - and I am still experimenting with what's good and what isn't. I can see I will have to make a return trip in another few weeks. For those of you with Trader Joe's near you, what's your favorite stuff? Somebody already recommended the black bean salsa and it's yummy. I am hooked on their dark chocolate covered espresso beans and am still hoping to find a good, strong, flavorful English tea there. On Sunday, Marty and I went to Art in the Park especially to say hi to Wen Redmond, who had a booth there. While she lives in N.H., she grew up in N.J. and her dad still lives here. It was great to see her and meet her husband...and there were lots of customers coming in to look at her work while we were there. Unfortunately, I was too busy gabbing to remember to take a photo. Because last week was so full of family stuff, I could not do my printmaking homework till yesterday. That means I had to make a plate (fabric on masonite), glue the stuff on, put many coats of medium on it, blah blah blah. Spent all morning in the studio doing just that and it was almost dry when I went home for lunch. The weather was so gorgeous and the sun was so strong that I put it in the hood of my car to finish drying. Stop laughing! Spent the afternoon back in the studio, making a second plate. Needless to say, my print in last night's class was not a roaring success. THIS week I am going to do my homework tomorrow. Really! And with that, I am off to read my book on collagraphs.