Suminagashi Class (Japanese Paper Marbling)

Recently Himself and I had the opportunity to take a 'suminagashi' (literally floating ink) class.  It is a Japanese art where you can marble paper or fabric using 'sumi' ink.  Traditional uses only black ink.

Starting with black sumi ink.

The ink spreading on the water surface.  

One carefully puts a drop of ink on top of a floating piece of rice paper.  This help to control the ink so it remains on the water surface.  The two dark spots are where the water tension broke.  The ink sank to the bottom.

I REALLY wish I had stopped here and printed.

But I continued on with the layering of inks; the second layer using yellow this time.

I added several more colors (red, blue, & orange) until I like the pattern and color blend.  

The next step is to drop your paper face down on top of the water.  The color you see on the paper is what is bleeding thru onto the back.

Here are a couple of other patterns.

Once you pull the paper off the water & ink, you place it on a piece of Plexiglas and give it a good rinse.  This removes the excess dye.

My papers.

I would do a primary pull of the fresh inks... then would do additional pulls from the original inks.  That gave a more muted color, which I liked more than the really bright primary pulls.

Himself did only primary print pulls so his papers were really bright.

OK, it is really hard to visualize this so we did a quick video to show the process.

Making a Wood Turned Pen

I've always admired a beautiful ink pen, they look so classy.  So when I saw that the wood shop on Ft. Campbell was offering a class to learn how to make a turned wood ink pen both Himself and I signed up.  

When we arrived our kits were waiting on us.

After picking out our 'blanks', the instructor started showing us the ins and outs.

(That is my wood blank... not sure what sort of wood it is but it started out looking purple.)

Measuring the pen housing against the wood blank.

(That one belongs to Himself and it is Osage Orange/Hedge Apple wood.)

We had only JUST taken our shop safety class so I wasn't comfortable yet with using the saw.  I hadn't even touched it yet!  So I had the instructor do the cutting.

Once cut the ends are smoothed with the belt sander.

After that it was time to drill thru the middle to make the space where the housings will fit.

Getting it centered.

And drilling!

After that we put a 'dimple' in it to mount it on the lathe machine.

Mounted and ready to turn.

I've been working it down for a while.

Smoothing on some sort of finishing paste.  The instructor started it because it can get a bit messy.

But I finished it!

Now to start putting the inside together.

Pressing in the pen's end piece...

...and its cap and clip.

Our finished pens!

Bonsai 101: Soils, Top Dressing, and Making Our Own Bamboo Potting Chopsticks

This most recent Bonsai 101 class did NOT have us working on a tree.  GOOD!  Worked on trees have to be babied over the winter and I didn't want any more needing coddling.

This time we learned the what and why of bonsai soil.  We learned why to do a top dressing (moss layer) on our trees and how to make it instead of paying big money to buy.  And we made bamboo potting chopsticks in various sizes.  It was a very interesting day.

Top dressing is one half dried sphagnum moss that has been soaking in water with a touch of Sume ink (for a better color).

After the soaking, it has to be laid out to dry.

The other half is 'pillow moss' (aka driveway moss!).

You have to trim off the 'roots' and dirt...

Then grate it on a 1/4 inch mesh screen.  It then is dried.  When that is finished, it is mixed with the dried sphagnum moss.  It can be stored quite a while.  

It is spread over the top of 70% of the soil.  Just add water and you have moss!  This protects the feeder roots of the tree and in the summer helps with moisture control.

Our teacher Eileen showing how to make the chopsticks.

It starts with splitting off pieces from a large bamboo piece.

Then you use nippers to shape one end in a wedge shape (like a bullet train).  This works better than the round shape of culinary chopsticks.

After you make the basic shape, it is time to refine and smooth with a sander.

Finished (almost- could use some more sanding) chopstick and the piece of bamboo it came from.

Bonsai 101 - Shimpaku

The bonsai club offers a class called Bonsai 101.  It meets the first Saturday of the month (except December).  Each class builds on the skill sets learned at the previous meetings.  

I was so excited to get in to this year's session!

I was not excited about the 95*F heat...

The instructors Eileen and John C (we're at John's house for this session).

We each picked out the shimpaku juniper we wanted.  Eileen has a brilliant way ordering the picks... the first person to arrive gets first pick, the second gets second pick, and so on.  Great incentive to get there a bit early!  

I was #4.  This is my shaggy little tree.

Eileen first taught us what to look for in a pre bonsai... both for health and for the shape that will be easiest to work with for that tree type.

Then we started looking at the 'nebari' (base of trunk and top of roots).  And we learned out to 'pick the front'.  That step is the basis for everything you will do with that tree from there on.

  

I spent some time cleaning up the surface so I could make my decision of "front".

Then the first pruning and shaping began.  This took up a lot of class time.  Every two students had a 'mentor' to help... and we all keep them busy!

The last task for the day was the first wiring of our trees.  This gives them the shape they will have.  Eileen is showing how to support the wire as you wrap so you don't mess up the branch by having too much torque.

Wiring.

You use really sturdy wire for the heavy trunk.

Going up into the branches.  My tree is going to be very 'twisty'.  I've also decided to do a double trunk form, which is a little more difficult.

And here is my twisty little shimpaku after the class.  His name is "Checker".

He now gets to rest until next spring.

Splat Painting

When the pour painting class was over, I decided to have just a wee bit more fun...

I knew the woman sitting across from me and noticed she had a lot of paint leftover in her catch pan.  It was really pretty so I wondered what it would look like if I dropped a canvas on top of it.

So I did.

SPLAT!!

Not quite what I was hoping for.

So C and I decided to keep fooling around with it.  I took more paint from the tray and filled in the areas where there was no paint splatted in.

Then C took some leftover paint from her pour container and dripped onto the canvas.  I did a bit more smearing with the palate knife (and my fingers) until I was satisfied.

Here's the finished piece.  One person said it reminded her of Monet's water lilies.

I like that!  😉