Yesterday was my first time teaching a paste painting class, held at Origin Design Lab in Eureka. I hope the afternoon passed as quickly for them as it did for me. In addition to painting on paper, we also did some Tyvek and Wet Media Dura-Lar. Perhaps not traditional, but strangely satisfying.
what a production, what great results!
and the ones on Dura-lar: super special;
I can imagine the excitement in the room…
Bravo!!!
Thanks Anna! It was a good afternoon. I figured the Dura-lar isn’t exactly a traditional paste painting material, but sure is intriguing! The couple of little folded books I made a while back with the paste painted Dura-lar have not flaked or anything. When I told them you can fold it and make holes in it and sew it and it won’t flake or tear . . . you could see the eyes light up. It was delightful.
As for you, I hope you had a wonderful opening!
Oh wow. Magic. Such beautiful results for one afternoon. Vibrant, exciting. Opening up new worlds for people. Making me wish I could play too.
And I hope this one didn’t leave you as wasted as the last. Hugs
Thanks so much E.C. I wish you could play too. And that you were closer and could play with us.
And this one, I’m happy to report, was easier on the body than the last, definitely. I had a feeling it would be. It’s much more laid back and the students get to do most of the work, in the form of painting. I was also smart and had the car completely packed by the night before (there were lots of toys . . . um, tools . . . to bring). I must say I do like the place where these have been held–it’s run by very nice, helpful people.
Oh, paste paper! :-) Looks like a good afternoon with good results. Makes me want to make paste paper again, too.
(Is the feed of this blog broken or am I doing something wrong? This post doesn’t show up in my reader.)
Hello Buechertiger! So good to hear from you! I hope things are going ok on your end.
I do like paste paper. I was surprised how quickly the afternoon went by. I think they were too. It was good, I am glad to report.
SIgh… I’ve had so many problems moving and setting up this blog. Things are still not completely the way they should be–for one, I do actually have an avatar set up, but you wouldn’t know it. I’m not sure what’s happening with your feed. Frustrating. I do have a new feed going out for the new address, and I checked Google Reader (which I use) and it is being updated on my feed reader. I don’t know what to tell you, to be honest. I’m assuming you did resubscribe to the new blog? Thanks for persevering and checking in on me! It’s always good to hear from you.
I, too, am using google reader. Weird. I did resubscribe, and when I click on the blog’s name in the reader I am sent here, so it should have worked o.k. But it didn’t show a new post, and even when I click “view all items” the moving day post is the newest that shows up. Mhm, I´ll have to look into it again.
My one thought is that it has something to do with the forwarding I set up from the old Blogger blog. If anyone goes to the old address, they will automatically be forwarded to the new one almost instantly, without anything saying that they are actually being forwarded.
Is the moving day post the one that shows an orange and white moving van? That post was never on the new blog, and is indeed the final post that shows up on the feed for the old blog. It sounds like you might actually still be subscribed to the old blog without realizing it. I’m thinking (hoping) perhaps the answer is as simple as going directly to paperchipmunk.com and resubscribing again. The forwarding widget claimed that it was going to forward the old feed to the new one as well, as well as allowing my old followers to be automatically moved to the new blog. Alas, that was overly optimistic!
Sorry this turned into a hassle! I do appreciate you trying to stay connected. And I’m glad you let me know this was happening. Take care.
mhm, indeed I am still subscribed to the old feed. And still, and still… I am on this site here, came here directly, hit “subscribe” on the right bar, and thus subscribe to the old feed.
Sorry to be bothering you with this… I feel I should manage a simple subscription on my own, but somehow I can’t.
This is where the subscribe button on the right panel takes me:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/ChewingWithThePaperChipmunk
Sigh… I am so sorry you’ve had this hassle! And I’m very grateful you told me there was a problem. It took some digging, but I discovered that even though the new feed was working for me, it was not working for the buttons on the blog, as you noted. The sanity-challenging thing is that I swear it all worked when I set it up. I checked and rechecked. I’d tried to set it up so that I could redirect my old subscribers, but I think what I did instead was completely confuse my feed. I despair. I also discovered that the email subscription was not working, even though it did when I first set this up. The upshot was there was no obvious way to fix the problem without wiping out the feed and starting again from scratch. So… try resubscribing again, please. It should work now. Really sorry about this.
I hope things are going ok at your end.
Hi, Your paste papers are awesome. Which kind of paste do you prefer–you get such crisp definition…
Thanks Lynn! I usually use cornstarch paste, although I also sometimes like to experiment with other starches. I’ve found cornstarch to be the easiest to use, and it has the most consistent results. I also like rice starch paste, but cornstarch is so much easier to get and so much cheaper… and I think I still like the results slightly better. I’ve sometimes used methylcellulose, but like it a lot less. I’ve never been able to get the crisp marks and designs with it that I get with starch. I recently tried a new recipe that I liked–1 part cornstarch to 9 water. Heat it, stirring constantly, until it thickens. After you’ve removed it from the heat and put it in a bowl, add a small squirt (few drops?) of dish soap and (optional) glycerin. I discovered that the soap keeps it very smooth and it doesn’t clump as easily. But, as I say, this was a new discovery for me… I’ll have play with it some more. Usually I just make it with cornstarch and water. Do you wet your papers first and smooth them onto a smooth surface before you paint? Also very important.