Another sketch from my Oregon trip in June.  Loved, loved the whole trip.  Ashland for sewing and design with Diane Ericson, then up the Oregon coast for my ocean fix, and finally to Portland to fly home.  Perfect weather, great trip.

 Santa Kilim, Canyon Rd., Santa Fe, NM

 Hollyhocks, Canyon Rd., Santa Fe, NM

 Painting on my back Patio

 Back Patio pots

 Playing with new paints

 Seashells and seaweed

New Paints, mostly Schminke with some Daniel Smith

Since I haven't posted for awhile I thought I'd just include some Summer sketches from my sketchbook.  Most of these are drawings with some watercolor added, others are just plain pen and ink, usually Pitt pens in black or brunt sienna.
The paint box is my new fav.  Great metal palette with 12 half pans of paint from Schminke and twelve empty pans to add some of your other favorite colors.  On sale from Wet Paint.  Nice, small palette to add to your travel kit.

My new jacket, all ready for my trip to Ashland, Oregon for the Design Outside the Lines Retreat.

The main fabric is African vintage indigo dyed cotton, handwoven in strips on a backstrap loom and hand stitched together.   I then added some running stitches after cutting the fabric for the jacket.  The pocket decorations are old (vintage - 30 - 50 years old?? or more??) from Thailand, cut from old, damaged fabrics, and the trim fabric is printed cotton (new) from my local quilting store.

This was fun to make, but I did quite a bit of various hand stitching on it and it ended up being a lot more work than I originally thought it would.  Oh well!  I'm happy with it and will enjoy wearing it this next week at the retreat.

I'll report on the retreat when I return.  New creative ideas, friends, scenery.  What could be better?

A couple of new watercolor sketches from my sketchbook.  They both had a bit of candle wax rubbed on the preliminary drawing to create resist highlights.  Just experiments, don't think I'd actually do that in a 'real' painting -  too harsh.  I like the highlight on the bowl (no candle wax) best.

This is an older drawing, as you can see by the date, but I hadn't included it in any other blogs so thought I'd do it now.  This was painted with Durwent Durer watercolor pencils.  Lots of fun and I love the way they blend and intensify when you wet them, but you can also use them like colored pencils for lines and shading.  They'd be great for traveling.

collinsstudio: I've finally finished the hand painted vest I star...

collinsstudio: I've finally finished the hand painted vest I star...: I've finally finished the hand painted vest I started at the retreat in Santa Barbara.  This is it below. Now on to the next project. ...

I've finally finished the hand painted vest I started at the retreat in Santa Barbara.  This is it below.
Now on to the next project.

This was a long road trip and on the way home I stopped in Tucson to visit a friend, and we spent a day at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.  We could easily have spent a week looking at all the beads, and minerals and gems, and still not seen it all.  What an awesome display of beauty and glitz. Below are a couple of wonderful crystal stones, and two pieces of African handwoven indigo fabric.  I brought the fabric home with me, but unfortunately I couldn't bring the crystals.  Maybe next year, but I'm thinking that fabric will make a nice Boro type jacket.  Will let you know.

These are a few pics of some work I did after one of Kay Khan's workshops.  I'll do more, and I can see these ideas used in clothing embellishments.

After the workshop I stayed at a nearby hotel in Santa Barbara to unwind a little, and on Friday took a trip up the coast of Piedras Blancas to see an Elephant Seal Rookery.  There were thousands, literally, of mothers and babies and a few males.  The breeding season hadn't quite begun yet so the really big males were just beginning to arrive.  But what a site this was.  Those alpha males can weigh up to 5000 pounds.  And it was wonderful to just enjoy that beautiful north central California coastline.

There were 16 of us in this retreat/workshop in Montecito, California, just south of Santa Barbara, a really beautiful place to spend a few days. Near the beach, great weather (a little rain, but not bad), a wonderful and talented group of ladies, good food, and lots of fun shopping in nearby Santa Barbara.

These are vest pieces that I was working on in the workshop.  I'll send pics when the piece is finished, but this gives you an idea of what I was doing, and a piece Diane brought to show a reconstruction and wild collar.

Well, I'm sure you won't be surprised, but I'm off on a new exploration.  I've always worked with fibers and fabrics in one form or another, but recently I took a workshop with Diane Ericson (Ashland, Oregon) and Kay Khan, (Santa Fe, NM) called Design Outside the Lines (DOL), working with clothing design,  re-purposing, and embellishment.  What a fabulous, fun time I had.  Definitely over my head, but what a learning experience.

Diane and Kay

Kay demonstrating