Yes, I did make some, despite what everyone said. I enjoy making a yearly resolution or three (or ten) and then seeing at the end of the year what I managed to accomplish. I don't ever beat myself up about missing out on some of them, though, as I know I set myself far too much to do in a year!
My artistic goal was somewhat simple this year -- produce one artistic piece per month. So far, I have managed to paint the nutcracker (see previous post) and am working on another project via the art class I am teaching on Monday evenings.
The class is called "Picasso's Playgroup for Adults" and mimics my daytime Picasso's Playgroup (designed for 2-4 year olds and their caregivers) by offering a variety of art activities each week. It is a chance for adults to get out and play without the pressure of creating masterpieces. So far, we've splashed around a lot of food colouring and paint, done a faux stained glass picture on paper, used an Itajime dyeing technique on paper and made some wonderful placemats. A larger project, started just last week, is batik and I am basically one step ahead of everybody else! Rather than go for the traditional batik, which asks for dye baths and a variety of safety equipment and chemicals, I decided to try painted batik, using fabric paints, which all clean up with water and soap. The wax we are using is soy wax, which is biodegradable and washes out in hot water. I like to iron out as much as I can first, so as not to send too much down the drain (even though it is not supposed to clog the pipes, according to everything I've read). After that, I can wash out the little bit of residual wax in hot soapy water. The advantage to this method is that ironing out the wax also serves to heat-set the paints!
Here is the piece I batiked last week -- it is still a work in progress and is asking to be stitched into, once I've shown this stage to my students, who saw it as a wax-encrusted piece of "something" last Monday night:
My artistic goal was somewhat simple this year -- produce one artistic piece per month. So far, I have managed to paint the nutcracker (see previous post) and am working on another project via the art class I am teaching on Monday evenings.
The class is called "Picasso's Playgroup for Adults" and mimics my daytime Picasso's Playgroup (designed for 2-4 year olds and their caregivers) by offering a variety of art activities each week. It is a chance for adults to get out and play without the pressure of creating masterpieces. So far, we've splashed around a lot of food colouring and paint, done a faux stained glass picture on paper, used an Itajime dyeing technique on paper and made some wonderful placemats. A larger project, started just last week, is batik and I am basically one step ahead of everybody else! Rather than go for the traditional batik, which asks for dye baths and a variety of safety equipment and chemicals, I decided to try painted batik, using fabric paints, which all clean up with water and soap. The wax we are using is soy wax, which is biodegradable and washes out in hot water. I like to iron out as much as I can first, so as not to send too much down the drain (even though it is not supposed to clog the pipes, according to everything I've read). After that, I can wash out the little bit of residual wax in hot soapy water. The advantage to this method is that ironing out the wax also serves to heat-set the paints!
Here is the piece I batiked last week -- it is still a work in progress and is asking to be stitched into, once I've shown this stage to my students, who saw it as a wax-encrusted piece of "something" last Monday night:
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