Continuing Work

Summer is flying by here "Down Under." March 1 marks the official beginning of autumn, although the warm days usually continue well through that month. The weather has been so hot and humid this year that I really look forward to cooler days to come. Still, I'm not sure about freezing Vermont as the alternative....I can't really complain.

Tea bagging progresses. Last week I finished the big grid piece and am pretty happy with the results:



Then I started work on a "green" bag. (I believe it was Carol who gave me the idea some time ago!) I used one that I had to make the pattern and started adhering pieces of bags to the canvas in quilt-like fashion. Here are the components, ready for final assembly:



I met up with my friend Lisa Giles last week. Lisa is a photographer, book artist, newly a printer, and very creative soul. We shared our artist experiences of the last eight months and I got to see some of her new work. I will try to post some photos.....her work is so original and beautiful realized!

Starting Over...

How can it take so long, require so much energy and eclipse everything else to move from Gaysville to Woodstock?  It's barely 25 miles but it might as well be 2500 miles because everything you own has to be picked up, considered,  discarded or packed, moved, unpacked and installed somewhere in the new house.  And that's after the new floors and walls have been sanded, patched, painted and painted again.

The most fun painting was the dining room floor which was painted with a checkerboard "rug" using the colors of the walls in the living room, dining room and office.  Here's Sandy working on the Rockport Gray squares (thank you Sandy!) using Carol's little stool (thank you Carol!).

And here is the finished product....

Now that the really necessary curtains are up and only a little tweaking here and there is required, I am back in the studio.  Two months and fifteen days since I last posted, I am starting over!   And having a studio at home again will be lovely....

Line Drawings for my Adult Coloring Journal

Finally! Today I finished the last interior drawing for my second adult coloring journal, this time around the theme of things Edible. Here are a few of the drawings I've recently completed:

Hops


Coffee & Tea


Raspberries


Onions

Toiling and Coiling

A very welcome cool rain today was the perfect backdrop for studio work. I was away most of the past week, so was especially happy to be back to my tea bags. The large piece, really resembling a quilt in many ways, is almost finished (rather "tea"dious after a while)....just the edges left to complete. This photo was taken a couple of days ago, before it got to today's stage:



I've also been playing with making some 3 dimensional pieces. For now I've been experimenting with wrapping the tea bags around rope or upholstery cording. The idea is to create something made of long coils, perhaps a vessel. Here is a tea bag bracelet and a wrapped coil I've started. The jury is out on this one!

Updating My Adult Coloring Journal

News from Cynthia's Studio:
Last year I created an adult coloring journal called "A Tangle of Flowers." I didn't even get around to promoting it before I sold out of the first printing of 100. This week the second printing arrives with a slightly heavier laminated cover. You can find these at the Shiretown Bookstore in Woodstock, VT or in my Etsy shop HERE.


I've decided to make this concept into a series of journals and coloring books. First I am re-formatting the journal to a slightly larger, more standard size of 8x10 inches. I am already working on the designs for the second and third journals. I still need to create about 20 new drawings though. Hopefully all will be done this spring.