Just Playing

This has been on my mind for a long time and now that the challenge books are out of the way and I'm eager to start going through the other book projects lined up with their directions and materials, I thought I could kill two birds with one stone. "Real" painters are quite passionate and insistent about swatching your paint colors, to get a feel for how they react on paper and their true color once mixed with water or other colors on a brush. You can probably guess that true to form, I've wanted to swatch my watercolors but never made the time. But I made time this weekend.

Here was my thought. I'm planning to make another 5 Day Mixed Media Journal Challenge in a larger size. It's the one with the accordion fold spine that I had painted with acrylic paints. Journal pages painted with acrylic paint have a bad habit of sticking to each other, or just to an opposing blank page. When I got my journal out to refresh my memory about its construction, those parts of the folded spine sticking up between the signatures had to be gently pried away from them. So after some thought, I hit upon the idea of using watercolor paint instead to bring some color to the spine.

A "what if" posed itself. What if I paint the spine paper while I swatch? I knew there'd be lots of paint left on the brush after painting each tiny swatch square so rather than waste it, I could expend it on the spine paper. So I can't start that book project until I do my swatching. I decided on inch wide vertical stripes on the paper because the accordion folds will be made at each inch. Kinda iffy about this now that it is done. Maybe need to add some pen drawing over the top, zentangles? Note: I actually have two watercolor paint palettes. My original purchase was a nearly half-price mini Sennelier set. These paints are quite pricey but even with my limited knowledge and  experience, beautiful to work with. But I was frustrated that I couldn't manage anything resembling pink with the red that's in it. So when a larger palette went on sale with only a few duplicates and a red that would dilute to a pink, I splurged on it. It also has a purple that I would soon need.

Because there's actually a third bird to kill here. I'd finally gotten around to putting the plants I'd bought into various pots and planters early in the month and in doing so, had broken off a stem full of blooms off one of them. I put it in some water and studied the flowers, ending up doing a simple sketch of them. A few days later, I matched their color to a colored pencil and added that to the sketch. 

But because of a certain watercolor artist's videos about bringing the garden in and making simple botanical sketches, I was compelled to try that too. Again, I wouldn't be using much paint and I could do it while I swatched, using my colored pencil sketch for reference. Nothing to write home about, but it was a chance to get a feel for how to use the brush and how the paints flowed (or didn't flow) on this mixed media sketchbook page. Also in the picture at the top, everything is laid out on a new investment: Tim Holz Media Surface Mat. Not cheap but I think it will definitely reduce some of my frustrations when working with inks and paint. It's a non-stick surface that is also heat resistant (i.e. you can use a heat gun over it and hot glue dripped on it won't hurt it) and the corners are slightly weighted to keep it flat. The flip side sticks to almost any surface - it's rock solid on my work table. A big improvement over the freezer paper I'd begun to tape down shiny side up on my table.

The deck garden is a sorry sight at this point. All that was blooming when I bought them have spent those blooms. Most that had buds only saw those buds dry up rather than open up. A few scraggly pink blossoms have emerged, and I'm sure once our roller coaster weather settles, the rest of the blooms will come. In the meantime, the pot by the front steps has taken up the slack. While pondering what I might buy to put in it, the violas from last year have come back with a vengeance! They are now showing 4 or more inches above the rim of the pot, saying, "No need for anything else!" We'll see how long that lasts, but in the meantime, they are a cheery sight as I come and go on my walks.

Last of the Little Library Book Challenge

The final binding in this challenge is a staggered running stitch. Really quite simple as long as you remember that not all signatures have sewing holes in the same place! I used leather from the smooth leather bomber jacket on this one and was moved to get those pieces of marbled fabric back out. The one used to line the cover is one on heavier fabric but what about this one which is very similar but on very thin fabric? Could I cut it into partial signature wrappers? Yes I could! And to make it easy on myself, I used Scor Tape to attach them to the signatures. The only down side to this was the way the Scor Tape gunked up my awl as I punched sewing holes.

A "feature" we could add if we wanted to was a peep hole in the spine, one of the reasons I wanted something decorative along the fold of my signatures. I tried several ways of marking the hole before cutting and used applique scissors to make the cut. The teacher warned not to expect our circles to be perfect but I was still surprised at how difficult it was to follow the line I'd drawn, so yeah, my circle opening is not perfect.

But it worked perfectly fine all the same. Again, enjoyed the option of using two different thread colors.

I didn't particularly care for the closure option, but we were encouraged to experiment to come up with our own anyway. I've had this buckle for the longest time, since my mother in law decided she was done with sewing clothes and offered me some of her things. Could never figure out how to use it until now. I love how it looks.

I chose a 24lb specialty Southworth Granite paper to fancy this one up a bit. It will end up being a gift like the last one too, if I can bear to part with it.

The inevitable gap between signatures which in this case also exposes the hole in the cover spine. Not sure that I like that.

And as always, I pen my name, the date, and kind of paper in the signatures along the back cover.

A lovely little trio of books, all about 4-1/2 x 6 inches, ones I wouldn't mind making again, perhaps with Kraftex covers and different types of closures and slightly larger sizes. This staggered running stitch one in particular is calling out to me to end its asymmetry by adding a 5th row of stitches to even things up. It'd still be staggering. ;-)

Book Two of the Little Library Challenge

Honestly, things would go faster if I quit thinking about ways to deviate from the suggested materials, not to mention, just work on the books in order. Once I started doing that, convincing myself I can try the many ideas floating through my head on additional books after I finish these first three, things moved right along. I already showed you a sneak preview of book two - the cover with its sewing holes punched and an edge turned back to reveal the lining. Above you can see the inside of the cover in the background as I hold the signatures that I've put decorative wrappers around. You may remember that I started saving security envelops for the interesting patterns and I had a few from some oversized envelops, big enough to match the size of my signatures. I've not done the signature wrap thing before, not really understanding the why of it, but tried it here as it was a suggestion to help bulk up the signatures.

The back of two of these wrapper had a bit of printing that needed covering. Just quickly cut strips from the leftovers that are held in place with Scor Tape.

It dawned on me that I'd made this book before and was unhappy with how the signatures didn't fill in the gaps between them and came up with a solution after much pondering. This time I chose to really load up each signatures with almost twice the recommended number of sheets. There - nice and fat. But I must admit, it was a bit hard to get the awl through all those layers when it was time to make the sewing holes.

The binding is called a Long Stitch with Packing and while not as difficult as it looks like it might be, it can be tricky to get those wraps from twisting and pulled up next to each other. In the book I made before, I used a hemp thread that I waxed myself. This time I used a heavily pre-waxed linen thread and oh my, what a difference! I was given a tip on how to move the wrap up which also made a difference, but without the wax from that heavily waxed thread grabbing on to the wrap above it and holding it in place, I still would have struggled. Yes, you can make do but sometimes having the right tools/supplies makes the job much easier. Using two different colors of thread as I'd done on the first book per suggestion from the examples was something that wouldn't have occurred to me to do, but is so much fun.

Here's the finished book complete with a leather strap closure. The strap was cut from a welted seam, threaded through two slits on the flap and finished off with an piece of elk horn with a large hole in the center.

I cut the cover across a seam so that it would angle across the front but not fall where I had to punch a hole in the spine for sewing.The two slits in the flap allowed the strap to create a place where a pen could be slipped.

I dithered over using these security envelop wraps for this book as I had originally thought I'd make the third book's cover out of black Kraftex where the grey would coordinate so well rather than stick with leather for all three books as in the examples. But this was one of those times when I realized I just had to get on with it and finish this one up for a friend who will need all those pages and the convenience of the pen holder which I don't believe I could have pulled off with my Kraftex idea. Using them here influenced my choice of lining a bit, going with the fabric that had some black in it. I think my friend will love it, probably more than my other idea, which of course I could also make for him at a later date. :-)

The last book is actually done except for the closure which I am still deciding on. I know what I want to use, just have to figure out how to attach it.

The Little Library Bookmaking Challenge

The leader/teacher of the Handmade Book Club that I belong to periodically makes available for a small fee to those outside of the club a class to learn how to make a particular bookbinding (members automatically have the class included in their monthly fee). As a rule, you make one book in which, besides how to make a particular binding, you learn several bookmaking basics, like the importance of paper grain, cutting bookboard, what kind of thread to use. Whether you know nothing about bookmaking or have been making books forever, everyone agrees there are new things to learn and sometimes surprisingly, you end up with a beautiful and usable book. But for some reason, said teacher and her team decided that this class, presented as a 5 day challenge, would show how to make not one, but THREE little books, each with a different binding method. Even those of us who have been making books for awhile were surprised and daunted. Say a prayer for the newbies! And being presented with 3 books and three times the possible options, I definitely spent days floundering. Not unlike how my quilting projects go, I couldn't just quickly choose an option and get on with it. But when I finally did, I started having great results. It helped a lot when I finally decided on which signatures and binding to use with this beautiful teal suede from a Goodwill woman's blazer (not as good of a deal as my 99 cent bomber jackets but still pretty inexpensive) and started deconstructing it. One part of a sleeve had a section big enough for a cover, but I was still dithering over linings. In the end, none of the marbled fabric worked as well for me as the ones pulled from my slightly heavier cotton stash. That one on the left ended up getting fused to the inside of the cover.

Now to my signatures made from 90lb mixed media paper. One would think they would be plenty thick enough to fill this cover but this binding has wider gaps between the signatures than most. Many people were compensating by adding "wraps" around each signature - a decorative piece of paper that could be the full width of the page or less, of a heavier or lighter paper. I've not used wraps before but I had a bit of an aha moment over a piece of paste paper a friend had given me and left over from using it to cover the boards of a different book project. Too big to toss, challenging to figure out what it was big enough for, again that beautiful teal I cannot get enough of. But wait - about the same height as my signatures and if cut into 4 six inch long pieces, each piece wide enough to wrap around the signatures showing about an inch on front and back. Beautiful! These were held in place with glue stick as there were random paint marks on the back and then the stitching holes could be punched in each.

As for the cover, it too needed stitching holes punched in the spine and a button chosen and sewn at the center of it. No dithering over the button; I knew just which one to pull from my button jar. In high school, I'd made myself a long midi skirt out of (what else?) teal wide and narrow wale corduroy which was a wrap around design with buttons down the top edge of the wrap. Yes, THIS button and its buddies. As for that paper punch, it's a 1/16" hole punch that in the past I'd discovered does a pretty good job of punching sewing holes in leather. Otherwise just using an awl, the holes tend to close back up. It has a two inch reach so can't quite make it to the center-most holes, yet this soft cover can be gently rolled to allow the punch to reach them.

The example from the challenge teacher showed using different colors of the stitching thread, another opportunity to freeze up over decisions, but by now I was pretty sure of my direction, choosing white and orange threads to make the chain stitches securing the signatures. I've always liked the look of teal and orange, which explains my lining choice as well. 

The closure is a simple piece of elastic that loops over the button on the spine. Looking at it now, I think I intended to angle cut the top and bottom corners of the front edge of the flap. Could still do that. Doesn't that rusty orange elastic look great?

A peak inside showing the lining fabric and signature wraps as well as the gap between signatures. The teacher insists we will be adding things to the pages (like collage) that will bulk up the signatures and fill up the space. I honestly don't know yet what I'll be using this for, only that I love the finished results which is a bit of a surprise. I'd considered not making this one at all because I didn't think I liked the chain stitches on the spine. But it definitely grew on me, and it is a surprisingly quick and easy stitch.

I unexpectedly ended up on a very long phone call today or I might have the second book in the trio ready to show you. I realized that this is one I've made before, with some alterations, and I'm making alterations again. Here's as far as I've gotten: fabric chosen and fused to cover and holes punches, the signatures await sewing in.

More Diversions And Some Plants

Azalea Mosaic II: Garden Path

For all my good intentions to focus on the 5 Day Book Challenge last week, it turned into a week of diversions and distractions instead. The routine car servicing of the week before turned up a "sooner than later" need for a 3 hour repair that got scheduled for Wednesday - another hour each way run into the somewhat big city. Time was spent on Thursday digging out a couple of quilts to hang at University of Idaho Sandpoint Organic Ag. Center with this new charity group I've joined - see photo above and below. Both were exercises in matching colors from the garden with my hand-dyes. It's an absolutely gorgeous building with lots of wall space for quilts and I was happy to have a place for these two to be out again. In fact, I didn't realize just how long they'd been in the closet - both made during the time I lived by the lake prior to a move in 2012. And if you've ever had a quilt in an exhibit, you know it's more than steaming out any wrinkles and running a lint roller over them. There's paperwork to fill out and photos to attach and yes, all those things that are not my favorite part. Then Friday it was out to the location to drop off my quilts, but not just drop them off, hang them and help with hanging some others. Just like old times.

Poppies and Peonies

Ah but now it's the holiday weekend and surely I can make time to work on the challenge. But I mostly watched not just the instructional videos but also the daily hour long recorded morning and afternoon community zoom sessions where questions were answered and featured artists interviewed. Let's face it, I did my usual freeze up after making the signatures for two of the three little books in this challenge early in the week. Making life more difficult than it needed to be as I decided to use different kinds of paper for each book and possibly altering one of them to a book with more signatures. Plus we are encouraged to use leather for the covers and the leather from my 99 cent bargain jackets is too thin to use on its own - it needs fabric fused to it which means one more decision to make. So I went plant shopping instead. It's time and I'm getting pretty tired of viewing the dead plants in my deck pots.

It's a start. And there's a purple (!) geranium in there

Ok, yesterday was the day surely when I could make real progress if not finish at least two of the books. (The third is still waiting for me to decide on paper and if I want to paint a Kraft Tex cover.) Then my brother called to catch up. Nice of him to help with my procrastination - lol. But once off the phone, it was time to decide on fabric, find the few I have that are a little heavier than quilting cotton, match them up to the leather which in itself slows me down as I ponder just where to cut. And then this happened.

I'd briefly considered fusing felt to the leather like I've done with the blank journals I make for myself from fabric. I opened that closet door, shifted various small stacks of felt (I'd forgotten that I had more than just the eco felt I buy by the yard) and cracked opened a small bin, only to find these small marbled pieces I'd totally forgotten about. Done in the early days of experimenting with dyeing fabric, I was never very happy with my marbling but did manage some smaller pieces I felt good enough to sell along with Judi and my hand-dyes. My eyes were dazzled and a quick measurement told me these were big enough for the covers and some even on a heavier weight fabric. Now I only have to decide which ones to use . . . freezing up again.

No need to rush I guess. Rushing leads to disappointed results sometimes, and I've had time to think about my choices and how to approach the next step. More confident now to proceed. But first, it's a lovely day, and I have not been on the Bay Trail for too long. It's my maiden voyage as it were back out on a trail since my surgery. My stamina still needs some shoring up, and I couldn't keep myself from walking farther than intended, but it was oh so good to get that walk in. The book project isn't going anywhere.

Lilacs and a New Bookbinding

Lilacs are now blooming and just in time for the Lilac Festival Torchlight Parade which was Saturday night over in Spokane, WA - a little over an hour away from me. I have fond memories of marching in that parade when I was in high school. Always enjoyed band trips and nothing like the sound of drums to get my adrenaline going. Whether or not there will be lilacs the week of the major festivities is always questionable. Will they bloom early or late, or right on time as they did this year? I was delighted that the bush I pick a few blooms off of every year was indeed in full swing and sending out its beautiful scent so I'd have a lovely bouquet for my livingroom this weekend.

And as long as I was enjoying them from my couch, I did a sketch of them in my downstairs sketchbook. Not the first time I've tried my hand at sketching lilacs, and let me tell you, with all those small little flowers making up each large bloom, it is not an easy thing to sketch! It's one of those things that makes you creative in how to portray the general gist. And that vase was fun to sketch as well.

To my exasperation, my handmade book club's next 5 day challenge starts today and of course, I want to participate, but I still hadn't made any of the regular monthly book bindings I have laid out on my work table with instructions and papers. So I set aside more re-quilting of the couch quilt so I could at least make up this Butterfly Binding from January. Members were so thrilled with this one, saying it was quick and easy, and I had some signatures leftover from another project ready to go, so it should be even quicker, right? And handmade paper was suggested for the covers, and guess who succumbed to buying some quite awhile ago and has never used it?

The covers wrap around the first and last signatures, the narrow end glued to the signature and the wider one creating a flap. Holes are then punched through the signature and cover as well as the other two signatures. The handmade paper has bits of flowers embedded in it.

Four needles are used which though sounds complicated, actually makes the sewing easier as one signature after another is attached. I opted to use purple thread to match some of the purple flower bits in the paper.

The result is an elegant slim book with signatures that lie close to each other when open, always a plus. And I opted not to trim any of that flap, but use double sided Scor tape on top and bottom to create pockets. The paper is actually a little thin so it needs that doubling up for a sturdier cover. The size of the book is 9 x 6 inches, and I can see making this in smaller sizes too.

If I had any complaint, it would be that by using 4 needles, you end up with stitches in the center of the signatures that are doubled, but that's a little thing that won't keep me from making this book again. After all, I have an additional 4 leftover signatures to use up and that piece of handmade paper was exactly the right size for a second set of covers.

Intimidation and Insight

Let's start with intimidation. With what was left of my week, I was determined to get out in the nice weather and sketch. I had a place I wanted to capture, and although the view itself was not complicated, the location would put me in full view of traffic along a busy street. Now this would not be the first time I've sketched outside in areas where people and cars might be passing, but for some reason, I found myself intimidated by the thought of doing it at this spot. I'm usually pretty good at just gathering myself up and making myself get on with it, but it took me three days to get over this intimidation. First day, I left all my sketching supplies at home and merely "scoped out" where to position myself for the best view. I was hoping to find a spot where I could sketch from the car - much less intimidating and something I do often - but there was no place where I could get the proper angle. Nope, I was going to have to do it from the sidewalk. Day two, I balked and opted to sketch instead from my front steps again. I'd been eyeing my neighbor's rattan lounge chairs and decided to "warm up" on them.

That turned out to be more difficult than anticipated. Lots of odd angles and trouble getting sizing right. I was so frustrated with how it went that I ditched my original intention to add colored pencil. As an afterthought, I loosely added some tree branches which really seemed to help the overall picture. But boy, this was doing nothing to help alleviate my feeling of intimidation. Luckily, when I looked at it the next day, it looked better than I remembered, and knowing I just had to go do it, I packed up my collapsible stool and sketching supplies and took off for my chosen location across the street from a bus stop shelter flanked by big trees sporting some of that bright spring green I've been seeing and wanting to capture. Did I feel conspicuous? You bet. Did I dread that passing cars might honk at me? Yes, but not a one did. Did I quickly relax into the task at hand, starting with the shelter itself, oblivious to most all around me? Exactly, as how it usually happens. And this fairly easy subject came together with not much problem, a very satisfying session.

I'm sure I've said this before, but I'm not much of a fan of this particular sketchbook's toned tan paper, and a part of me wished I'd just used a sketchbook with white paper. Kind of a live and learn how to work with it. And the rollercoaster of emotion my sketching activities put me through sometimes surprises me, that how can I be so adept one session only to struggle the next. Well, to be honest the same thing happens to me with my quilting. One hopes to build on success, but it's not always a given from one project to the next. And too, if you're not consistently practicing, there are going to be rusty moments.

My studio gallery with quilts both mine and friends showing our quilting paths

 

As for insight, I had an odd experience last week. I'm nurturing a newish friendship, one of my yoga classmates that helped me in the weeks after my back surgery. This out of class time opened the doors to learning how much we have in common and that we wanted to keep doing things together after I no longer needed her help. She had mentioned hoping that she could see more of my quilts than just the ones hanging downstairs and I thought that would be fun too. My upstairs though, particularly my studio, has been off limits to guests for quite awhile, but heck, if I waited until I got it into shape, she might never get to see it. So I just told her to put her blinders on and ignore my piles. But as I moved from design wall to gallery wall to framed work leaning against the bookcase to the quilt on my bed and on the upstairs walls, I experienced something different, a realization how all these quilts represented not just my history as a quilter but also the history of quilting itself during the last 25 years. Showing them to someone mostly unfamiliar with quilting, I realized she would not know that this one's fabric was generated during a surface design experiment phase, and this one a snow-dying phase, and this one the result of burning holes in sheer leaf shapes added for a 3-dimensional touch, and this one stamped with a leaf shape I carved myself. And batiks, do you know what a batik is and it marked a new buying craze for me. Oh, and that small one, it's from when making fabric postcards was all the rage, and these slightly bigger ones are during a journal quilt phase. 

I could go on, but perhaps you could look at your own quilts and see the influence of fads and experiments and the art quilt movement in general. I'm not sure why it hit me the way it did, but it all made me feel a bit unsteady, one who always felt she knew where she had come from and where she was going with all this. Maybe it's because I've not had to talk about my quilting history and techniques for quite some time? Did I feel like a relic? Or did it emphasize how I've gone from one thing to another without settling on any one technique or style? Honestly, this was a totally new experience, and I'm still uncertain what it meant. The insight is limited.

Diverted and Distracted

Late in posting this week, partly because not much has happened since I last checked in. I'd mentioned that I'd made a trip into the somewhat big city last week, something that at minimum takes up 3 hours of my day, but then I had to go again a couple of days later. The first trip really wiped me out - sometimes my auto immune syndrome doesn't mind the extra energy tap of trips like that, other times it hits me with debilitating fatigue once I get home. No way of knowing which it will be in advance or how long it will take to recover, but was glad that the second trip didn't bother me at all. At any rate, I didn't make progress on much of anything before the weekend, although I took a stab at reducing part of a studio pile by getting back to catching up on my documentation files.

There were back to back motorcycle races to watch on Saturday and Sunday so a few more stitches got put into the stitch camp piece. I decided to do the spiral running stitch in the two oblong blotches as well as to squeeze it into the smaller blue circles after I finished a bit of the twisted running stitch. I can see a few more areas where I can work that stitch in, hoping that I will use up that teal rayon embroidery thread. Pondering where I can work in some different stitches like seed stitch and satin stitch and what color thread I might use to do that.

I thought there'd be more to catch my eye and add to my downstairs sketchbook but there really isn't from my place on the couch. However, I realized that in watching tv, I'd become a little obsessed with eyebrows, especially as I watched different newscasters. These are just experiments as I tried to remember some of the ones I'd noticed that were different from the usual arch. Then I found myself adding some full faces which to be honest I'm not very good at. But it exercises one's imagination.

I can report that in the space of a few days we went from bleak winter with nothing showing on the branches of trees to full-on spring with bright lime green leaves unfurling and beautiful blooms emerging. The chokecherry in front of my place obliged with not just blooms but heady fragrance. I'm really feeling the urge to get out and sketch some of the trees around town before the blooms fade. The weather will be heating up again, and I am free of obligations for the rest of the week so I have no excuse not to!

A Little Mending A Little Painting

Look for the orange and blue yarn ties

Not quite a year ago, I was showing you what I called a quilting fail, where the invisible thread had worn through the cotton bobbin in numerous places on my couch quilt. This left me with loops big and small on the right side, loops that my fingers easily caught on when I pulled the quilt over me. In the ensuing year, more of these fails have shown up, and for reasons justified and not, I put off doing anything about it, save to tie a piece of yarn through the loops as I found them so they'd be easier to find once I did mend those places. Well, the loops never stopped showing up and that couch quilt is covered in yarn knots as you can see in the above photo. But honestly, it's difficult to convince myself to spend time mending when I could be working on something new. However, I had a surprise visit from some high school friends on Saturday, and since I didn't know exactly when to expect them, starting the mending on this quilt was a perfect project. And because there are so many breaks in the bobbin thread with the expectation of even more fails, I decided to just requilt along all the stitch in the ditch lines. And even as I rearranged the quilt as I stitched, my little finger found more loops. And there are also some spots where I did a clam shell design in the borders and setting triangles that will have to be resewn, but that will not be over all of them. 

I'm using a sturdy Superior The Bottom Line polyester thread in the bobbin that I think must have come in a grab bag sort of offer from Superior. Surely, I would not have picked this pink thread on my own, but fortunately it blends pretty well with the backing and should be impervious to the invisible thread. There's a part of me that can't believe I'm actually wearing out a quilt, but it really has had almost constant use since it was made over 20 years ago and it has been washed more than the quilts I have used on my bed or the guest bed. I can't imagine what I would replace it with. I think I care too much about the other quilts this size I have made whereas with this one, I knew I was using lesser quality fabric that was some of my first purchases and didn't cost nearly as much per yard as fabric I got in the habit of buying as I got more knowledgeable about those things. After all, I was using a mystery quilt pattern so if I ended up not liking it, I wasn't out much. But I did like it - a lot!

I did do a tiny bit of painting last week. I've had this pussy willow branch waiting for me for well over a month, thinking it would be an easy subject to practice on. I thought I could sketch it with a variety of mediums: pen, pencil, colored pencil, watercolor, brush pens. It would provide a quick study for trying out these different tools. But I also thought about that botanical drawing with India ink class and the sketchbook I used for that. Plenty of pages left so I got a brush and a few drops of ink and drew the above. I was astounded by how easy it was to get this good result.

And because I am a waste not want not kinda gal, I painted a second page with what ink was left in the tiny container. Tulips are not blooming yet but since I'd just sketched those tulip leaves, I thought I'd do a quick leaves and blooms with the India ink. NOT as successful - my up stroke was pretty steady while my downward stroke was not. Oh well, this is supposed to be a practice book, with some sketches a learning tool leading to more success. Thinking of adding some color . . . could be with ink or could be with the Posca Pens I picked up yesterday when I was in the somewhat big city for a doctor's appointment. Yeah, I had a coupon and I keep seeing people using them. We'll see if they are really better than the Painters ones from Walmart.