Intaglio Printing

The summer is going by quickly.  I can't believe it has already been a month since Anna and I participated in an Intaglio workshop at Wingtip Press.  We did the drypoint technique on a copper plate. With this technique you "draw" into the plate with a sharp tool.

Our instructor, Cassandra Schiffler, had us practice on CDs first.  Here she printed three of ours together.  (Mine is in the middle.)

Then, we worked on the copper plates.

This is my setup.  

Anna working on her plate.

While we were working, we were listening to the destruction outside of the road being torn up and the beautiful gingko trees being taken down.

When the plates were ready we inked them up, ran them through the press and decided if we needed to go back and work on them some more.

Anna printing.  It's common for people to hover around the press when someone is printing because they want to see how the print turns out.

This is the print Cassandra was working on.

Here's one my friend, Mary, was working on.

Here is Anna's print of a hedgehog in a mug that looks like a tardis (if you watch Dr. Who then you know what that is).

This is one of the prints that I did, which I actually like.

Here is another print I did where I was trying to be more abstract.  This one has a romantic wipe of the ink.  That means you don't clean off as much of the ink before printing.

I enjoyed the workshop and hope I can do more of these in the future.

Legos

We didn't do very much in Orlando besides enjoy each other's company.  But one night we did go to Downtown Disney which is mostly restaurants and stores.  My favorite store was the Lego store.  They had built different Lego sculptures that were outside the store and one on the inside.

I wonder if there is a structure underneath that they just built the Legos on top of.  Or if they are all solid Legos.  They probably have a computer program that you can put an image in and it tells you how to build it because it kind of looks like pixels.

They had one large wall with just bins of Legos and you could pick which ones you wanted (I think there were different sized boxes you could fill).  Fun stuff.

Housemates

I'm back from a long weekend in Orlando, FL.  It was a trip to get together with my college housemates.  We all turn 45 this year and decided to celebrate together.  We did this for our 40th birthdays as well.  It was great to see them all again and get caught up on their lives.

Here we all are in Orlando for our 45th birthdays.  Me, Laura B., Sue, Verna, Michelle, Laura S., Heather

Here we all are in New Orleans for our 40th birthdays.  Laura S., Michelle, Verna, Sue, Laura B., Heather and me.

At our house in college.

Around Montreal - Part Deux

The tower at the Olympic park.

Around Montreal

Yum! Crepes.

Montreal International Jazz Festival

After our lake day, we spent a day in Lake Placid.  Then, we drove up to Montreal, Canada.  It was a pleasant surprise to find out that we were there while they were having their International Jazz Festival. Several blocks in the downtown area were blocked off and several different stages were set up around the area.

There were lots of different musicians scheduled for the the different stages.  Some would just play on the street.  All the outdoor events were free.  There were some bigger names performing at indoor venues, but you needed to purchase a ticket for those.

Since it was only a few blocks from our hotel, each evening we would go listen to some music.

The main stage - with Morgan James

Anna with the "cool cat" mascot of the festival.

A band performing on one of the smaller stages.

Playing on the street.

Frank and Anna enjoying the concert.

Lake George

The wedding we attended was held at the northern end of Lake George (NY).  Anna's second cousin, Chelsea, married Chase at her father's house right on the lake.  Tents were set up on the lawn and spilled into the neighbors yards (they were o.k. with that).  Unfortunately, there had been a lot of rain so it was very muddy.  The catering staff wore rubber boots and I even saw a guest wearing rubber boots with her dress.

At some point during the reception, many guests took off their shoes, rolled up their pants and just walked in the mud barefoot. Dresses were tied up a little higher and everyone carried on.

Chelsea and Chase

A view of the neighbor's house with the tents set up to the right.

Susan, Frank, Peggy, Willie

Anna and Alexandra had great fun together.

The next day we all went back for a "lake day".  We tried paddle boarding, which is a little bit harder than it looks.  The girls and I got in the water and swam around.  The rest of the time was spent hanging out, catching up with family and eating.