Kick-ass Artist’s Date

Took myself out today to a place where there are a variety of craft projects and supplies, and you just walk in and decide to make something. There was a yarn room, ceramics, a pottery wheel, leatherworking, etc.

I picked out a bisque vase, painted it with acrylics, remembered what a fanatical perfectionist I am, tried to just roll with it, and had a great, solitary time. After I was done they sprayed it for me to give it that shiny seal. Then, I got to make pretty papers.

Here’s what I made

Here’s how I made the paper

I picked color combinations of scrap papers, added them to a blender with water, and liquified it. Then I poured that into a mold submerged in a pan of water, let it settle, then picked to mold up and the water drained out. Then I took the screened bottom out of the mold and put it on a tray, then used sponges to collect some of the water from the pulp. After that I transferred the screen and pulp to another area where I used paper to blot up even more excess water. (Ok, as an aside, that blotter paper was called a couch, written pronunciation of ‘kuch’ but when the lady was giving me the instructions out loud it sounds like ‘cooch’ and this kept cracking me up. Especially when talking about moving my ‘cooch’ over to the ironing board. Lol) Anyhoo, after most of the excess water was removed, I ironed the paper on both sides to further dry it. And that’s it! 🙂

Here’s a few shots from the paper-making process

It was awesome! I made 5 sheets of paper. I’m thinking that a couple of the sheets will be used for the covers of a little poetry book I’m working on.

Later, I treated myself to some good Mexican food (avocado enchilada, omm nom nomm!) and then got some new books from the library.