La vie continue

La vie continue - life goes on.
Despite the fact that I went to bed feeling sorry for myself and sad, I did in fact wake up this morning and life went on. Dan's in California on business (crash test at some lab out in the middle of the desert). We talked on the phone a couple of times. Work was hectic, but I came home and had time to water the garden, eat a quick dinner, and...drum roll please...take my new print table for its maiden voyage. I started working some black line detail back into a batik piece that I brought back from PV. I'm feeling too lazy to load pictures right now. I'll batch it tomorrow, and it if washes out well we can have before and after shots tomorrow.

Oh, wait. I do have a before shot. Here it is hanging on the clothes line in the back yard.

The circles & swirls ($5 trivet from Target, thank you very much) are a little bit high contract in this photo. I don't think they read as strong in person. Up close, it actually looks like it needs a little more punch and a bit more spontaneity. Whenever I feel that way it's usually a hint that it needs some black. From Kerr I learned about the magic dental syringe. Trying to draw/write with the curved tip of a good-sized syringe held in a way that you would never hold a pencil or brush is somehow liberating to me. Once you start squeezing you've got to move or you'll just make a big blob of thickened dye. The need to move, to think quickly--better still, to not think so much, but rather to act--is good for my brain. We'll see what the result looks like tomorrow.

In other news, I'm selling one of my sewing machines on eBay: my Bernina 153QE. After 3 1/2 days of people looking at it I'm finally getting bids. I'm happy to say that at this point I've probably gotten enough to consider the sale a tentative success. Fingers crossed it will end smoothly.