Home Again

I have gone....... and come home again! Artful Journey and the Monterey Peninsula are packed away in the summer 2010 memory vault now. The weather was all over the map, from very cool to sweltering. But the sun was shining and that was the bottom line for me!

Artful Journey was in it's second session of the year. There were about 60 of us at the Presentation Center, in Los Gatos, for four different classes. I took Synergy of Forms from DJ Pettitt. She was a very thorough, prepared teacher and gave her full attention to the students throughout all three days. We were learning her methods of layering, as applied to what would become covers for our journals. I realized I didn't have a lot of pics to share, for this trip, because I was so focused on getting a lot of clips on my Flip video! So hopefully, a video will follow this soon. In the meantime, a few snaps of our class time.

Here is DJ making the rounds in class...which she did MANY times a day! She was diligent to be sure people understood what was needed on their projects. I appreciated her personal attention and expert opinion when we got stuck!

This was a fun transfer technique that DJ demonstrated to the class.

As we were building up layers, one of them could be stamping....this is a collection of handcarved stamps that DJ cut, and provided for our use. They were fabulous.

OK....could not resist this gorgeous combination of green and brilliant blue! Not a cloud in the sky, and the sky was truly that exact blue!

This was the front cover of my journal. Most of our work time was spent on the front and back covers. The bird was an original photo, provided by DJ, but in the layering process, becomes transformed into what looks like a painting!

...and the back cover. Also layers and layers of process here. The flower was a transfer...loved the way it turned out!

I was able to also paint and embellish the inside pages, before binding the whole thing together. I will post a few of them later. Rarely do I finish a project, at an art retreat class, but this one went together nicely for me. It is great to have it done, and not hanging over my head as one of those many unfinished projects, calling my name.