Card Weaving

I recently watched an online class on card or tablet weaving. It’s interesting. It took me much longer to warp the loom and set up the cards than I expected, but the weaving goes very quickly after you’re set up. These are going to be a pair of shoelaces. The loom is an Ashford Inklette.

"1985" Reduction Screenprint

This print was based on a still life Jon helped me set up and light with his Jetfire transformer toy, which he still has, and a can of coke that I then drew to look like New Coke.

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. Jon's favorite Transformer toy was Jetfire. Jetfire and New Coke were both released in the US in 1985.

The print was done using Speedball Screenfiller in 5 layers of Golden Silkscreen Medium mixed 50/50 with Liquitex Basics (Blue Gray, Cadmium Red, Mars Black and Titanium White). I printed an edition of 13 on Arnhem 1618 paper using a 230 screen. I have found this to be the most reliable combination of ink, paper, and screen mesh count for me.

I have another screenprint in the works that I am excited about!

Rigid Heddle Handwoven Towels

A new set of 8/8 cotton towels woven on my rigid heddle loom. These were done on my 16” Ashford Sampleit Loom using a 7.5 epi reed and two pick-up sticks.

These towels were very quick to weave and the pattern was a lot of fun. I don’t enjoy knitting with cotton, because it is stiff, but that isn’t an issue with weaving. The rigid heddle loom is really versatile and forgiving. You can weave just about any type of yarn, at any weight, as reeds are available in a range of sizes.

Triple Chocolate Coffee Cake

Triple Chocolate Coffee Cake. Photo by Jon with my D750 50mm prime lens, no filters (Jon bought me the D750, similar to his D850, but I’m still not very good at using it!).

This was one of the 2023 Recipe of the Year coffee cakes from the King Arthur site. This is the first time I've made this one. It's very good, and very rich. We had it for breakfast this morning, but I think it would make a better dessert. I used chopped up Callabaut batons instead of chocolate chips.

Wildly out of date blog post....

I haven’t updated my website in a couple of months!

I’ve been really busy making things, and will update with new pictures this week. I spent a lot of time last Fall and this Winter making ceramics and baking. I have a new reduction screenprint in the works.

My big news is that I bought a small, Skutt Glazetech Kiln, which will allow me to fire some of my own ceramics in my garage, which I’m really excited about.

My favorite creation over the past couple of months was a Yule Log. It featured birds and pinecones created out of modeling chocolate and a birch tree texture. Very happy with the results.

More from me soon!

Happy Halloween 2024!

I love seasonal candy mixes and snack cakes. For Halloween this year, I made double chocolate cookies with “Ghoul's Blend” M&Ms. And Jon set up, and photographed a beautiful still life with them.

Blueberry Scones

For breakfast, I made Blueberry Scones and Amaretto Blueberry Sauce. I attempted to make clotted cream in the slow cooker. This was only moderately successful, as it tasted really good, but it didn’t get as thick as I’d have preferred, even after 12 hours. I will try it again later in my oven.

New Ceramic Pieces

I have spent time this summer learning ceramics. I am interested in combining handmade ceramics with some of my other interests, like painting and printmaking to create mugs and functional bakeware with illustrations.

Experimenting with ceramics

I recently took a class at Fountain Square Clay Center and have been playing around with making pieces at home and firing them at Alley Cat Ceramics.

I would like to be able to incorporate printmaking and painting into some functional ceramic pieces that I can use for coffee and baking.

"Watch Party"

16x20 PanPastel and Pitt Pastel Pencils on Colourfix Optimum board. I made this to celebrate the solar eclipse this year--it was such a big deal. Lots of events around the state, and businesses and schools closing so that everyone could enjoy it together. Very positive! Several years ago, we drove to Carbondale, Illinois for a solar eclipse, and I made a small wall quilt about our trip when we got home.

Baking and playing with new camera

I recently bought a Nikon D750. I really love the beautiful pictures Jon captures with his D850, and wanted to try to improve my own still life photography. It will take me a while to get comfortable with the camera and figure out how to balance F stop, shutter speed, ISO, etc. to get the results I'm looking for. But, so far I’m enjoying the camera.

Peeps Family Portrait

"Peeps Family Portrait" reduction screenprint. I layered yellow, then green, then blue, then magenta using screen filler. Then, I completely cleaned the screen and used the print at that stage and my reference photo to add a shadow layer that I drew as a positive with Speedball drawing fluid. With the 2nd screen, I created two values of shadows and the Peeps' eyes. For the shadow I mixed a blue-gray ink with a lot of Speedball transparent base.

86th Annual Student Show, IAC

The 86th Annual Student Show at the IAC has just closed. I was absolutely elated that two of my prints and a painting were juried into the show, and my watercolor still life, “Knife with Shallot and Pepper,” won Best in Watercolor and a Blick Materials Award for Merit in Painting or Drawing as part of the 86th Annual Student Show at the Indianapolis Art Center. So excited! That piece was especially fun to create as the knife in the painting was one I made in a Blacksmith Blade Making class, also at the Indianapolis Art Center.

More Reduction Screenprinting!

I recently finished two reduction screenprints, including “Chicago-Style Hot Dog,” an 11-color 11x14 print. I worked on this one for several weeks at the Indianapolis Art Center, as the screen is too large to handle in my sink at home. I also finished “Yellow 6, Red 40, Blue Solo Cups” for Pressing Matters Blue and Orange challenge.

KAF Recipe of the Year

This weekend I made the King Arthur Flour Recipe of the Year—a really big chocolate chip cookie! It has a lot of steps, including a tangzhong, browning butter, and a long rest. You also have to chop the chocolate and it includes milk, but no white sugar.

It was good, and a very fun bake, but it's not my favorite. My favorite chocolate chip cookie is a modified version of the Tollhouse recipe.

Sweet Breakfast at My Desk

Daniel Smith Watercolor on Fabriano Hot Press. I really enjoyed making this painting of a coffee and a homemade “pop-tart" created using homemade jam and the Pâte Sablée recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking with a simple cookie icing.

DQ Chocolate Dipped Cone Pastel

I am planning a much larger pastel piece, and it’s been a little while since I have worked in panpastel so decided to do this small piece of a DQ cone.

Last summer, we stopped at a really cool old Dairy Queen with old-school signs. We took a lot of reference photos of the building, and our treats. I got a chocolate dipped cone. I thought the imperfection of the cone, with the vanilla ice cream dripping through the chocolate coating looked interesting and really delicious, particularly compared to the very perfect versions in DQ ads.

The food subjects I like to paint and draw usually aren't perfect versions, but very typical versions. The messiness can be more real and charming and nostalgic.

Acrylic Painting for Reduction Screenprint

"Chicago Style Hotdog" acrylic painting for reduction screen print. Liquitex Basics and Golden Open on Arches Oil paper.

I will be working on turning this painting into a screenprint. I don't usually use acrylics for anything but crafts, mixing with textile medium, or mixing with silkscreen medium for printmaking. Generally, I'm a lot more comfortable drawing than painting, and when I do paint I like watercolors. Acrylic dries really fast for me. This go-round, I used open medium, and blending wasn't an issue since I did large blocks of color, in anticipation of the screenprinting.

For Christmas, Jon made me a much larger screenprinting board with hinge clamps and bought me a new screen and squeegee. This one will probably take me a while to finish, because I usually work smaller with fewer colors. I'm excited to get started!

Cherry Cake

Homemade Maraschino or “Cherry Chip" Cake.

This is a modified white cake, similar to a box mix cherry chip cake. I added 1.5 cups chopped marachino cherries, replaced the 1 cup of milk with 4 tablespoons powdered whole milk and juice from the cherry jar, and replaced some of the vanilla extract with almond. I also added cherry juice to the buttercream frosting. The taste and texture were very nice, but the cherry flavor could be stronger. If I were doing it again, I would add 2 cups of chopped cherries, and a small amount of cherry extract to the frosting.

Yule Log

I made a Yule Log/Buche de Noel for the first time this year. I worked on it over two days. Lots of work went into this project, but it was worth it. I had a lot of fun creating it, and would love to do another version in the future . I made mushrooms from meringue, cocoa powder and melted semi sweet chocolate . I made modeling chocolate with Lindt white chocolate for the other decorations (except the holly berries, which are peanut butter M&Ms). The filling is a stabilized peanut butter whipped cream, using Hard Truth Peanut Butter Whiskey.