CJ & Ink

Saturday, February 11, 2023

Fun Facts About the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Massachusetts has an official ode titled Ode to Massachusetts , words and music by Joseph Falzone. The ode was designated in 2000.

"Ode to Massachusetts"

Freedom, Freedom, Freedom

From the Freedom Trail in Boston

To the dome on Beacon Hill

To Framingham and Worcestor

And Springfield if you will

From Concord on to Lexington

No matter where you roam

There's a not so common Commonwealth

It's the place that I call home

You are the heart of New England

Old Ironsides and Bunker Hill

Where JFK once paved the way

To the day the world stood still

Your one by land and two by sea

Helped set our country free

You can't get better Massachusetts

You'll always be sweet home to me.

No, you can't get better Massachusetts

You'll always be sweet home to me.

Freedom, Freedom, Freedom

Friday, February 10, 2023

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I saw the male cardinal at the front feeder. It's been a long time since I've seen the cardinals.

2. I finally made the whoopie pies Himself asked for at Christmas

3. The Big Valley is on Amazon Prime.

4. We talked about plans for an after Valentine's Day dinner and where to go for the Teaching Assistants' Lunch

5. I had a play day with Teague. After being sick for so long, it felt good to get out of the house.

How was your week?

Thursday, February 9, 2023

Working with the tool we created and waterproof ink, we made marks on the paper. Not too many, not to few so the watercolor paper was visible. Since I'm used to working small, I found this exercise particularly challenging as I had to swap out my fine hand/finger motor skills for whole arm gross motor skills. Again, we worked on both sides of the paper.

Wetting the ink and blotting it was supposed to create the resist with the gesso. That didn't happen very much on my page. Too much gesso? Not enough? Oh, well. Wabi Sabi. Nothing is perfect. Nothing is complete. Nothing is permanent.

This book is very freeing as there isn't a right way or wrong way to make marks.

Wednesday, February 8, 2023

Whatcha Doin?

Whatcha doin?

Tuesday, February 7, 2023

T Stands for Making A Tool

to be used for mark making in the Book of Marks. The tool is like a mop brush and is made using shoelaces and a dowel. I was able to sip my tea while the glue dried.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monday, February 6, 2023

Book of Marks Process

The Book of Marks workshop was taught by Jacqueline Sullivan. The book was made out of one sheet of Strathmore 400 Watercolor paper, size 22 in. x 30. The book format is based on Teesha Moore's Amazing 16 Page Journal Teesha Moore used the same size sheet of Fabriano Artistico to maker her journals. The journal measures 8 in. x 10 in. when finished so the 22 in x 30 in. paper size is important.

When the materials list came out and I saw the size of the paper, I had a feeling we would be making the Moore book. I was hoping we would be making a different structure as I've made and taught Moore's journal. However, there were other mixed media techniques that would be new to me.

The first thing we had to do was gesso portions of the page using any stencils we had. Both sides of the page had to be done. The gesso was to act as a resist for the mark making.

Sunday, February 5, 2023

How Does Your Garden Grow?

At the beginning of the week, I was too busy with homework for the Book of Marks class. By the end of the week when the class was over, my area was in a deep freeze and it was too cold to go out and take pictures. I took pictures of Harvey, the weather station.