Saturday, April 13, 2019

April 2019 Member Playday

Jeanne Rhea opened her studio and her home to the members for a playday that focused on nature and earth-friendly projects or, as Jeanne has deemed it, "au naturale."

Eco-Dying 

Susan and Maggi had everything set-up for members to start compiling the eco-dying layers, alternating watercolor and copy paper with layers of leaves, flowers, and grasses.  



Each member had a wire packet of papers and natural items.  These sandwiched items were then set into a large press to condense even tighter.  Then the whole batch goes into a pot of simmering water, vinegar, and iron oxide to stew for a couple of hours.  


It took a delicate hand to peal the paper layers out after their 2-hour simmer, but the results are beautiful!  


Haiga in Handmade Books

While everyone was waiting for the papers to boil, Amy showed the group how to make Blizzard Books out of upcycled brown paper bags and their favorite mixed media or watercolor papers.  


The pages of these books remove easily for easy painting, drawing, or doodling.  Amy also shared details of Haiga, the Japanese art of illustrating Haiku poetry.  

 
The project was inspired by Penny Arrowood's submittal for the Tiny Sketchbook Project.  

Garden Wishes/Prayer Flags 

Laurel introduced the group to the concept of wishes/prayer flags where you include good thoughts and hopes onto the flags and install them outside.  Your wishes are then carried off on the wind.  Laurel had some lovely examples of sizes and techniques in creating them.   
 


Love Laurel's teeny flag pin!  Everyone set to task with fabric paint markers, stencils, and embellishments.  

 

 

Thursday, April 11, 2019

April 2019 Meeting - Curated with Care

Our exercise this week was lead by Peggy.  She brought in a few props, and then sat as our model.  We drew her from three different perspectives for three different amounts of time.

Philanthropic Activities  

CMMAG voted to make a donation to St. Jude's Children's Hospital in honor of Frank Becallo, the husband of our member Maria.
CMMAG voted to continue to make its annual donation to Chavis's Carousel Angel Fund.  The Guild donated 100 tickets that will be available at Chavis for any child who cannot afford to purchase their own ticket.

Member Challenge #1:  Curated Box Swap  
Several members participated in the box swap, where items were thoughtfully curated into a box or bag to be shared with a fellow member.  Members were asked to put items in the box that they enjoy using and thought others would enjoy.  There were a lot of great items were shared.

  
 

Member Challenge #2: A Photo Three Ways  
Ilona reminded members about the Photo challenge that is due at the CMMAG meeting on June 13, 2019.  Members have been asked to choose a photo with strong lines and print in color and in either black & white or sepia tones on an 8 1/2 x 11 paper or larger.  The challenge is to make art that replicates the photo exactly in different art media in the same size as the original photo.  This will force you to look at all the different elements that go into making art: line, color, shading, perspective, positive/negative space etc.

Member Playdate
The slate of activities for the Au Naturel Playdate at Jeanne Rhea's studio in Sanford was presented and included making garden prayer flags, folded book technique with haiku and learning to print on paper with natural materials.

Meeting Demonstration 
Katherine and Lisa presented a side-by-side comparison of the Sizzix and Cricut with pros/cons and main features. For example, you can use tissue paper in the Sizzix and emboss with it. The Cricut can be used to pull images from the internet and create stencils/masks with. Lisa gifted members with the template of a file folder book and tag and various other small cut-outs for use in our art. It was interesting and helpful information.