The Fleur-de-lis Project

The second Enders Island Sacred Art project, Fleur-de-lis, Fun with Acanthus Leaves was another challenging project. We began by tracing the fleur-de-lis designed by Dan Mooney. The lily was gilded with flat and raised gilding which was also tooled. The center of the crossbar was supposed to have a Swarovski crystal, but I didn't realize that and gilded a raised dot.

Painting the intricate leaves trying to get lights, darks, twisting, and movement was going to cause me agita. I mixed colors right out of the tube. Winsor Red and Winsor Prussian Blue. I really liked the Prussian Blue color. The project took us two days to complete.

All our Fleur-de-lis.

Whatcha Doin?

I am re-doing the last project we did in class with Dan.  I didn't finish it. We didn't have a lot of time to complete this project on the last day.  I work slowly, and I had a hard time floating the Instacoll in the center of the "O" designed by Dan. The letter was 2 1/2 in. square and larger than anything I've gilded. I found the edges were drying before I had the center filled. 

Instacoll is to be applied in a thick-ish layer, but in my haste I had added too much. The paper buckled and the goop pooled at the bottom of the letter. Instacoll takes 45 minutes to dry before you can apply whatever metal is being used. 

The surface of the Instacoll had dried, but underneath was still wet. When I went to tool the gold with the thin, cross-hatched lines, the gold tore revealing the Instacoll. 

Though I called this an epic fail, it really wasn't. I mixed the delicious blue-black background using red, yellow, and blue watercolor.  I learned how the materials reacted. How much time is needed for things to dry. How much time I need to work. All valuable lessons.

Dan told me I could try to salvage the piece by thinning some Instacoll with water, applying it again to the center, let it thoroughly dry, and lay another layer of gold. 

I think I'll add some lettering and re-do the project.

Whatcha doin?

Reunion Name Tags

My 50th high school reunion is the Saturday after my Enders week. The reunion committee announced they had name tags. We were all told to bring a (yearbook) picture to attach to the name tag.

So I decided I would make name tags for Teague and myself. She also asked if I could make a tag for another friend of hers. 

The school colors are red and blue.

Teague didn't want to use her high school yearbook picture. Instead she said to use a picture of us taken when she moved to California.  I cut the picture in half and put each half on the corresponding tag. When we stand next to each other, the picture will be whole. We have always referred to this photograph as "I'm with Stupid."

Name Tag

Tuesday was part 1 of Kathy Milici's Modern Ornamental Initial's class. During the afternoon session, we were supposed to work on painting an intricate H. 

While the good students followed the lesson plan, I was designing a name tag for a work event. I just didn't want to wear the peel and stick Avery label. 

I worked my design on graph paper. On Wednesday, I transferred the design to watercolor paper using a piece of Saral paper. The size of the name tag which will fit into a plastic sleeve is 3.5 in. x 2.5 in.

With Dr. Ph Martin's Black Star ink, I wrote my last name using Kathy's Modern Storybook Script. The Black Star ink is truly waterproof. I was going to ink the entire design, but chickened out because the center line was so narrow. The initials and stars were done using a Micron Pigma pen .01.

I thought I would take process photos, but I got into the zone so here's the final piece. I was tempted to gild the stars and center line with 23K gold (just because I can), but worried that the plastic sleeve would harm the gold. The gold designs were painted using Schminke Gold Perl watercolor.

Oh, and if you are wondering about the star design suggesting I have an inflated opinion of myself , well I do, but that's not the reason for the stars. I have recurring dreams with star fields and magnificent blue skies so these motifs are important to me.

Happy, Little Time Wasters

 

Famous Brand Logos Are Reimagined as Medieval Art Illustrations

T Stands for Illuminated Initial Bookmarks with Middle Schoolers, Again.

I had the pleasure of teaching illuminated initial bookmarks to two more classes of 9 and 10 year olds from the same school as last time. Talking with other teachers, this age group is supposed to be the most difficult to teach. If you're teaching children, or thinking about teaching children, my friend, Andy Fish broke down the age groups and wrote about the pros and cons of teaching babies to adults. Andy also labeled the pre-teens as "children born of hell."

I had two, one hour classes with the 9 and 10 year olds to teach.. I don't know whether it was a combination of the school and parenting, or the kids being on their best behavior because they wanted to make sure they were on Santa's nice list. These kids were well behaved, excited to be at the museum, and engaged.

The class was only an hour long so I find it helpful to have a small project and to break the project down into steps and show examples of what they can do. 

We talk about decisions artist need to make. Whether to hold the paper in landscape or 

or portrait. Whether to use only one initial

or to use all three.

We talk about some of the things they like such as pets

or things they like to do like playing soccer and basketball.

I talk about how medieval artists used real gold or silver to add bling to their work. We can't use real gold or silver in these classes, but we have gold and silver markers. Boy howdy, are those gold and silver markers a big hit. If you're teaching kids, make sure you're supplied with metallic markers.

I tell them that medieval artist pretty much worked in traditional colors of red, green, and blue, but that we aren't limited to that color palette. They can use any colors they like

I tell them how they can put the initials in a box, if they want.

This little girl was making a bookmark for her mom and included things her mother loved. Coffee (which is my drink reference), ramen noodles, hearts, and stars.

This little dude was a medieval artist in a former life with his fancy initials.

The gold and silver markers are a godsend

I try to keep the class so we all work on the same step at the same time. I think it helps them to have a road map to follow. Not just the kids, but I do this for my adult classes, too. 

When the Eldest was in grammar school, she would race through the project before the teacher had finished giving directions. There will always be a couple of kids like that.

Make sure you have another project or two for them to work on while their classmates finish the project. Fortunately for me the coordinator for this class, had several sheets of coloring book pages of medieval initials, knights, and ladies available to color.

My fallback plan is having a stack of larger drawing paper so they can draw whatever their hearts desire.

Sometimes the class gets too noisy. I find Gentlemen! Ladies! May I have your attention, please. Usually works. Sometimes I have an assistant who claps and chants things like One, two, three, eyes on me! And can instantly bring silence to the room. Be sure to thank your assistant for helping you to keep order and to keep kids on task. 

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Throwback Thursday - Illuminated Initial

 

Between today and tomorrow, I'm teaching 4 more classes of middle schoolers illuminated initials. I came across one of the first illuminated initials I made.

This was done for an online group Christmas card exchange. From 1995 or 1996, "Angels we have heard online" Is that a groan I hear?

T Stands for Illuminated Initials with Middle Schoolers

Another call from WAM  to teach middle schoolers (4th grade, 9 - 10 yrs old) illuminated initials this month. It is my subject so I raised my hand. We'll start with my ticket to the T party, my water bottle.

Before class, I hastily drew some examples to illustrate the steps to creating an illuminated initial. The project was to make a bookmark. We talked about letters having decorations or telling a story. And all this time of drawing Ink on the letter C, I just realized I have a new monogram, but I digress.

The kids were having a field trip day and had spent the morning in the Medieval galleries looking at the art and trying on piece of armor.

They were energetic, enthusiastic, listened to directions, and asked questions. I had brought in the House Blessing to show how real gold was used. They were very excited about the gold and disappointed to learn they had to pretend the gold and silver markers were real gold and silver.

"How come we can't use real gold?"

I thought of answering like Ms. Trumball from Matilda, "It's too good for children", but settled with "It's too expensive."

There were a dozen kids in the class and some of them gave me permission to show their work.

Some of their designs were very detailed

This little dude was all about the bling

This little dude decided to make 3 D letters and he asked for help to make the vine. I showed him on scrap paper how to make the vine go under, around, and over the letter. He did a great job.

This little dudette worked on both sides of her bookmark.

One class down and four more classes to go next week.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Birthday Cards

 

Birthday month has come to an end. It was really nice being able to celebrate the girlies' birthdays with them.

My friend, MB from Coloring Camp (Enders Island), sent the girlies and I gorgeous, illuminated, birthday cards.  Thank you, MB

Whatcha Doin?

 

Another plea for instructors to teach Illuminated Initials to 8 to 10 year olds. I raised my hand to volunteer. It's only an hour long class what could possibly go wrong? 😺

Illuminated Notecard

 

Last week, my students worked on illuminated or decorated initial bookmarks. Since my tablemate, L, sent me a valentine, I made her a notecard with an illuminated initial. Her artwork features pen and ink drawings of sheep so I illuminated her initial with a chubby lamb.  The centers of the flowers are 23K gold dots, but they don't show up well in the photo.

Saturday Morning at the Library

 

When I was 5 years old, I was forced to take dancing lessons while the Brother was forced to take accordion lessons. I hated dancing class. The Knights of Columbus Hall where the classes were given had no heat or it wasn't turned on. I hated wearing the pink beginner tights. I liked clacking around in the tap shoes, but Ma wouldn't let me practice inside the house on the wood floors. I spent most of my time in class being miserable and crying. Eventually, I was taken out of class.

While the Brother still had to endure accordion lessons, Dad took me to the library. He would leave me upstairs in the children's library where I could look at the books and choose to take some books home with my own library card. As I got older, I would go downstairs to the adult library and wander among the stacks enjoying the scent of the books before going to find Dad in the reference area consulting the law books and catching up on his work.

So for the next several weeks, a list of my favorite books, some I have read as a child, others as an adult and some  I have read more than once.

This week, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. A Hester Prynne gives birth to a child out of wedlock in Puritan New England. She is shunned by her village and forced to wear a scarlet letter "A" as a mark for committing adultery.

If you haven't read this book, you can read it for free at Project Gutenberg, or you may be able to find it at your library or favorite bookstore. 

Happy Mail

This time of year is always great time for Happy Mail. Elizabeth and Bleubeard sent this lovely creation. I like the non-traditional colors.

Inside, they're dreaming of a white Christmas. Not me! Sunny and warm would suit me better.

On the back this handmade tag which includes Bleubeard's paw print.

From my teacher, friend, and mentor, Gerry, this stunning creation. When I grow up, I want to be just like Gerry.

At first, this card was a puzzle. The return address was Theodore with a Westchester, NY postmark. Who do I know that's Theodore. Years ago I had a boss named Ted, but this can't be from him. And then I laughed when I opened the card from Anne's Creative Cornucopia. It seems Anne's photographic assistant and model was getting up to some shenanigans

Holiday mail is being postmarked with this gorgeous cancellation mark of Santa and his sleigh

My Enders Island classmate, MB sent an envelope stuffed with goodies. I couldn't capture the shine of the iridescent medium MB used for the lettering. 

She also included this sweet, watercolor robin.

and a bookmark. Again, my photography doesn't do the piece justice.

Thank you all for brightening my mailbox.