workshop Saturday

Well, we can now add more Thermofax addicts to the roster! Today's class in my studio was a relaxed, happy group who discovered that this way of printing was exactly what they needed. I gave them a list of resources where they could buy pre-done screens or have their own images made into screens - but at least one person has already decided that must have her own machine. Debbie Bein is standing with me at the back of the room, just before putting her image through the machine. Here goes!Debbie drove down with her friend Kate who lost no time getting to work with her images. Behind her on the wall are some of Debbie's prints, drying. And below Kate's picture are her wonderful screens of koi, which look like woodcuts but are not. Patricia Gaignat is a printmaker who works in mixed media and wanted to add Thermofax screens to her arsenal. Her work appeared in the first issue of Art Quilt Studio magazine, so if you have a copy, check it out. She will also have some work in other magazines, so I didn't photograph the pieces she brought with her. (but they are wonderful). She screened on paper as well as on cloth. Her drop cloth turned out so well that I was tempted to wrestle it away from her, but restrained myself. Sherry Shine found the class by pure luck and I was thrilled because she turned out not only to live in the same town as the studio but we have a couple of friends in common. We were happy to have discovered that we live in the next town from one another! She creates vivid story quilts by painting on cloth: here is one she brought to show us.And here she is with a print she made with her screens today. She brought a sketch she had made of Barak Obama and it made a wonderful screen.The energy was so good that even I felt energized after a whole day on my feet! In fact, tonight I started sewing together the blue piece on my wall. Now here's what happens when you work like this: once you trim and sew and trim again, you discover that some things don't fit where you had them when you arranged them on the wall. They overlapped in some places because - well, that's the way you put them up. Of course, everything gets smaller when you sew it and you have to make adjustments as you put the pieces back because now they don't fit. The challenge continues! It's like putting a puzzle together when you discover you don't have all the pieces. I love this way of working because it forces me to improvise and come up with design solutions along the way. (am I nuts? Isn't life challenging enough without MORE?) It also changes the piece - but I can't predict how. On that note - off to dreamland.