Sunday, August 16, 2009

A Wedding and Art. Things Have Been Hopping!

THE wedding is July 11, 2010, so it's not as though that's what I've been doing for the past few days. But my granddaughter is getting ready for that big day, next year, and on Saturday she held a gathering of mothers and grandmothers to preview "The Dress."
The girl knows what she wants and doesn't want. The wedding dress is lovely, with an over-skirt of tulle embroidered with a cascading floral pattern and squiggly "wedding cake" embroidery on the bodice. The veil tops it off perfectly, but of course it's the girl inside the dress that's the prettiest and brightest thing in the world. Kind, generous, loving, her head on straight, future plans galore - she's got it all in hand, down to not forcing her fellow, cash-strapped, student friends to spend a fortune on clothes just to be in the wedding.
She is lucky to have worked at the Joel Palmer House, which is where she will have her wedding and reception. Check out the menu. I am looking forward to eating there. Mushrooms - of all sorts - in almost everything but the panna cotta (I am hoping).
After having lunch with Marissa, my granddaughter (and her future mother-in-law, her mother and other grandmother), I arrived back home and then went with a young friend, Ashley, to do gelatin prints at Art on a Lark. (It's an art store where you rent space and tools to work.)
This was the first time many of us had done this. Led by Dawn S., we proceeded to paint up a storm on the gelatin, putting down natural materials and other stuff that turned up. Then we pressed paper on top, rubbed it and took both a negative and positive impression on our paper.
There's no other way to learn these processes except jumping right in and spreading on the paint.
We had plenty of paper and lots of enthusiasm, so very soon every available space for drying paper was taken up. The gelatin is very sturdy - surprisingly so. I have a tray of gelatin I brought home that I'm going to try before bed tonight. Forget the dinner dishes!
Here is one of Ashley's prints. I especially loved the colors, and the stamp she used added a very modernistic appeal. This would make great gift wrap, don't you think?
Just a couple more that I did - they are side by side - and then I'm signing off so I'll have some time to go paint a bit. I, as always, loved the bit of copper paint. I love metallics. They are a great substitute when you're trying not to "glitterize" the entire world - femminismo

3 comments:

Candace said...

Congratulations on what was a big weekend for you. I still have trouble wrapping my head around your having granddaughters for some reason. Perhaps because I don't.
Everything looks fabulous and wow, the Joel Palmer house... incredible.
The gelatin prints you made of that fern? Perfect!

And I agree -- sometimes we just have to jump into it, eyes open and feet first. You do excel at that!

Have a great week, Pal.
Candace in Athens.

donna said...

Weddings are so exciting! How fun!

I love the gelatin prints. I will have to try that.

I see that you love peonies as much as I do. Have you been to the Peony Place here in Portland?

reb said...

Amazing gelatin technique- looks like fun! And what a lovely "bringing together" type of thing weddings are..or can be, anyway. Sounds like your grandaughter's will be wonderful!