Rabbit Hop Flood Pix 2019 Plus

The Tennessee River is flooding our little town of Clifton, as well as surrounding areas. We live about 3 1/2 miles out of town on the river, but far enough and high enough that we are ok, however, many of our neighbors, family, and friends are losing, or will have a lot of damage to their homes and property. I didn't make pictures of town, because so many other people were sharing theirs. These pictures were all made Sunday (yesterday) and the river and backwater has risen quite a bit since then.

The first few pictures were made about a mile below our house where there is a bridge over what is usually a creek under a fairly high bridge, and one of our neighbor's pastures. It is probably up in the end of our little pasture where our main pond is, but it's too muddy to check.

This is a pasture and people live behind it. Their road is closed off. They can only get out by boat.

Today the water is partially across the road on both sides of the bridge and is still rising, so by morning the road will be closed, as many of the  roads around us already are.

The next few pictures are Glenkirk Landing, a popular camping/fishing spot on the river. It is across the road and just under the hill in front of us. The river already has the landing covered and is already covering much of the little road leading to it. The trees out in the middle of the river are actually on Towhead Island, which is probably totally submerged today. I made these pix from our neighbor's yard, overlooking the landing, and toward town, with the water coming up the road behind it.

The last picture is what's left of an old button factory between our house and the river, which was run by a neighbor when I was growing up. They made buttons from muscle shells, and my mom worked there some.

Today was the first time the sun has shined in many days, and it was lovely to be out riding around in it. Everyone else had the same idea. The little narrow backroads around the main road were really busy. All main roads into Clifton have been closed and are under water in places.

This is about a mile on the other side of us going toward town. Backwater is over the road just over that little hill. Luckily, there is a little back road just this side of the blockade that we can maneuver around if we need to get out.

The next few are of Praters Chapel Church/cemetery, where many of my family are buried, and where I grew up going to church and dinners on the ground with singing. Decoration day is still held here the second Sunday of June each year.

Not in danger of water, but there has been reports of vandalism lately, and I wanted to check my grandparents graves, which were still ok. Too muddy to get a picture. I took these while riding around the cemetery.

The next one is a country road, which is under water today.

The road going into town from the college, off Hwy 64 below

The next few are of Riverstone Marina across the river from Clifton and were made from the bridge

This one is on the other side of the river-Riverstone Marina looking toward the river

These were all made two days ago, Sunday. The river rose some more, cutting off many of the roads around us. The river is supposed to crest today (Tues) and start receding, leaving many people with a lot of property damage and cleanup to do.

This area has been through this before, when the water was even higher, and God kept us safe and allowed people to pick up and go on. I trust that He will again this time.

I cancelled an appointment with the eye Dr. this morning, which means I'll have appointments with the dentist, the doctor, and the eye doctor all within a week, or so, of one another. Fun stuff! NOT!

I am not getting anything done creatively right now, but hopefully everything will be kind of back to normal in a few days, and I can get focused enough to resume doing what I love in my art space!

Just thought I'd share other things going on in my life right now. You never know what the next minute will bring! But, for now, all is ok with us, and I'm grateful.

Yard Pix Feb 2019

We have had days and days of pouring down rain here, as many others have had, and I went out on the front porch and made some pictures. I was leary of going into the yard and sinking up to my knees because of the sogginess of it.

The seasons are all confused. We have dead trees, trees with dead leaves, and blossoming trees, with a few feral cats mixed in. These were made Saturday when it was still cloudy. The rain has stopped for a couple days, but is supposed to be back mid-week.

Our beautiful red plum tree bit the dust this winter and is now covered in some sort of greenish-silverish crusty stuff.

Spring is around the corner maybe!

New Gelli Prints on Colored Cardstock and Parchment Papers

Several days ago, before I completely dismantled my studio/dining room for cleaning, de-cluttering, and organizing, I did a quick gelli plate print session with things that were handy, which included my 6" x 6" plate, Golden Open Acrylics, my handmade button stamp, a couple of feathers, a piece of rubber mat, and a brush handle to write with. Cardstock and parchment writing paper, in colors, that I have had for years were the papers of choice this day.

The colored papers didn't come across in their true colors for some reason, and some of the pictures are a bit fuzzy. Sorry! When I get everything back together, hopefully I will be better situated to make better pictures!

I started on a lt colored rosy gray cardstock and printed a solid square, which I intended to  put another layer over, but haven't yet. I have an idea though!

The back of the first print, where, for some reason unknown, I decided to clean off my roller.

 A ghost print of the first print on a darker gray cardstock, where it also picked up some paint from a previous printing, making it interesting.

This parchment writing paper is actually a pale yellow. Don't know what happened, but the print is much prettier on the yellow...

Close up of the print, which I love...

Ghost print on lt blue parchment writing paper of the above print...

More ghost prints of the above prints, and the cardstock is actually a cream color...

Parchment paper, which is actually yellow, and feather print..

More ghost prints on yellow parchment of the print above...

Prints and ghosts, all on the same sheet of lt blue parchment writing paper. I really like this one!

It's a slow go at getting my work space back in order, so I may get very little creative stuff done for a while, but I have so many things that I want to get done. Just praying my eyes don't give completely out on me!

We can't give up!

Of Horses and Dreams!

The other day hubby and I were out of town on business, which was tiring and somewhat draining. When we started home, he stopped at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store in Savannah, TN to pick up a few things. This little horse sits just outside the doors between a coke machine and some newspaper stands.

I've seen it many times, and it always reminds me of being a child,  and my parents putting a coin in the machine so that I could go for a ride and dream of having a real horse one day. I have always loved horses, in any form, and it was such a thrill! The ride was never long enough!

I rarely see a child riding it though, which makes me sad.

As I wondered what it would be like to ride on one now, as an old woman, and smiled to myself, I used my cell phone to make these pictures reminiscent of my childhood.

We never really grow up, do we? 😀

Maybe I will paint this wonderful remnant of the past and a happy childhood one day!

Photo Inkjet Transfer Trials

So, I'm up a little earlier than usual, and hubby is still sleeping, and I should be installing the new router that the phone company sent us that's supposed to give us better internet within the next few weeks (fingers crossed), but I decided to share a new photo transfer technique that I tried yesterday.

I am sixty-nine years old and have a lot of old photographs myself, but I've recently inherited all of my parents old photographs, and there are so many of family and friends that I would love to use in my art that I've been looking for ways to transfer prints of them into my art projects.

There are numerous video tutorials on youtube, and I've watched several of them, and tried some of them on transferring magazine pages with a gelli plate, but I prefer using my own photos, and I have an inkjet printer. I know laser is better, but also more expensive, and the nearest place to me for laser photocopies is twenty-five miles away, so not too handy about spur of the moment photo projects, where I come across a photo and want to put it on a project immediately.

I found this technique on naysworld's youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hcWHzUwCKQ and gave it try. Thank you, naysworld, for sharing!

In the video she used a vinyl notebook divider, but I didn't have one of those, so I improvised. I first tried a soft vinyl sheet used to protect photographs taped to a printer sheet, but it wouldn't feed through the printer. Second try was a plastic folder cover taped to printer paper, but it wouldn't feed through either. Third try was freezer paper taped to printer paper, shiny side up, printer set to glossy photo paper. It went through! Trick, I learned, is to leave the printer paper a tad longer than the other surface, so the feeder can grab hold of it. I used masking tape to hold together. After the freezer paper, I tried the plastic folder cover again, leaving end of the printer paper a bit longer, and it fed right through! Yay!

   

This is an old B/W photo of me, my Granny P, and my doll, Susie, and is one of my favorite photos. I printed it onto the shiny side of freezer paper, in a 5" x 7" size, with a standard ink yield. I had to be really careful taking it out of the printer, turning it over, and laying it down on my journal page, because the ink was beaded up on the glossy paper. It's a journal with mixed media paper, so the image, after I laid it down and rubbed it on the back to transfer it, is a little grainier than I would have wanted, but I did it! Only problem with freezer paper is that it isn't transparent, so you can't see where to put your image. I was only practicing here on journal pages, so it didn't really matter, but if I want to do it on a gelli print, or something, where the image goes onto a specific area, it will matter. So, although, it worked, it will depend on the project as to whether I will use it or not.

I spritzed some water onto the ink leftover on the freezer paper and transferred it to the other page by rubbing. Then I remembered that naysworld said not to rub it, to just press on it. Too late! Anyway, it's interesting!

PS: My doll's face didn't transfer, because that's where I had masking tape to hold the papers together to print. It printed onto the masking tape, but then wouldn't transfer to my journal page. :/

Since I had only used half the sheet of freezer paper, I turned it around, set the printer to 4" x 6" with a high yield. on glossy paper, and moved the tape on the side so it wouldn't blot out my doll's face, and printed and transferred to the journal page. Better, but still grainier than I want. I also forgot to just press, and not rub, to transfer the leftover ink to the other page. I think I spritzed this one a bit too much, but it's still interesting.

After reasonable success with the freezer paper, I decided to try the vinyl folder cover again. I taped it to the printer paper, leaving about 1/4" of printer paper longer than the vinyl, and this time it fed right through! I made sure the tape edges were all down good before feeding, so the tape wouldn't get stuck in the printer roll and cause big problems. Painters tape might be better, but I didn't have any.

Anyway, again the ink was beaded up on the slick surface after printing, and I carefully removed the vinyl from the printer paper, laid it down on a gelli print that I had previously made, and wasn't too happy with, rubbed the back good, and pulled it up. This time, because the vinyl is transparent, I could see where to place the image. Perhaps, not the best background for it, but I like how it came out.

Again, I spritzed the leftover ink on the vinyl and transferred to a journal page. This time I remembered to press, not rub! I like it!

I used an old photo of my mom when she was about sixteen. Not happy with the gelli print background colors, but it's ok for practice purposes, and I do need more practice, but for now, I think I did ok with my experimental play, and it can still be used in a collage or something.

Since inkjet ink is not permanent, and will smear, especially if it gets wet, I sprayed all of these trials with an acrylic sealer to help protect them.

I had fun trying this technique. Still not quite what I wanted, but interesting, and worth knowing. Now to find a way to print on regular paper and transfer it. I'm wondering about glossy photo paper, only it's not transparent either. Hmmmmm....