A Fun Saturday Workshop

A couple weeks ago I took a Folding Book Sculpture workshop with my good friend and inspirational teacher Laura Gaffke at Above Elite Studio in Westerly, RI. It was a beautiful summer morning and we students were greeted with coffee and homemade cranberry scones! If you have taken one of Laura's classes here I'm sure you would agree that her studio is such a welcoming space with wonderful natural light and a great creative energy.

For our book sculptures we painted backgrounds for the pages, painted on old book pages to use later as collage elements, then painted some more, cut, collaged, stenciled and stamped. We were having so much fun that the day flew right by. As usual, since I work on the slow side I did not finish my book by the end of class but did keep my promise to complete it by the end of the week.

I've been enjoying working in my garden so much this year that what else would my book theme be but about gardening. I created pages with three generations of gardeners in mind as I was thinking about where my love and appreciation for plants and gardening came from. I mentioned my Mom's special summer Hollyhocks in my last post and although my grandmother was known for her collection of indoor African Violets what I remember most are the Bleeding Hearts in her yard every spring. I thought they had the prettiest and most unusual flower - I still find them amazing. My page is about the Cosmos. I love the bright colors of the flowers and delicate feathery leaves. I can't imagine my garden passing into the fall season without those hardy flowers.