BRIARWOOD'S 5TH GRADE ART CLASSES MAKE PAPER!

The 5th grade art students at Briarwood school are terrific paper makers! Mrs. Baker, Briarwood's art teacher, invited me to demonstrate the process and to help her classes make handmade paper this week. We recycled paper by shredding it and making it into a pulp.

Then mixed it with lots of water and interesting additives such as chopped yarns and threads, colored papers, wrapping paper, dried flowers and leaves, cut-up photos, lots of glitter- just about anything you can cut up into little pieces and toss into the pulp bucket.

Once the water has drained through the mesh of the paper mold, the newly formed sheet of paper is ready to be transfered to a drying felt and pressed.

Students kept pleasing color and texture combinations in mind as they put together the additives for their paper. They will be using it in another project later this spring.

Here's a nice example of a blue monochromatic piece using small squares of blue paper and snippets of blue yarn.

GLITTER PAINTING WORKSHOP-WOW!

We had a razzle-dazzle time making wall artwork using the glitter painting technique in our Glitter Painting Workshop. I started with this photo of my David Austin apricot roses. It was put through a filter using Photoshop to simplify the image. Then various colors of glitter were applied, one value or hue at a time resulting in this sparkling interpretation.

Patti selected a close-up photo of one of her Echinacea blossoms. Here she is applying shades

of pink for the variation in the petal color. If you cannot find just the right hue of glitter, you can actually mix two or three colors together just as you can with paint.

Patti's finished glitter painting.

Sarah is working with a photo of a tree she shot on her trip to Japan.

Blaze chose this image of a pink water lily from the fish pond. This close-up image works very well with the glitter painting technique.

Tori loves blue and is using an enlarged image of an Echinops plant. There is a broad range of beautiful blue and purple glitters available on the market. We purchased our glitter colors online from kitkraft.biz.

LAUREN AND DAN FROM CABIN TIGER STUDIO

Lauren and Dan from Cabin Tiger Studio were my "neighbors" at the Metropolitan Lawn and Garden show. Lauren is a photographer and Dan is an exhibition designer from Waverly, Alabama. Let me tell you what! They were great people to get to know and were selling an awesome perpetual record book to keep gardening notes and observations in order for several years. I had to have one of my own! You can check them out on Lauren's website: cabintiger.com.

METROPOLITAN LAWN & GARDEN SHOW

From the Summer's Garden has a booth this year at the Metropolitan Lawn & Garden Show held in the American Royal Exposition facility. Show dates run Friday and Saturday 10:00a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. If you are planning on going stop by our booth #384, and say "Hi". It is exciting and very motivating to be surrounded by so many wonderful gardens and new product ideas especially when it is cold and snowy outside. Stop by if you can!

Check it out online at: http://www.patrihaproductions.com/MetroLawnGardenShow/

FOLLOW UP - 2009 HOLIDAY GIFT OPEN HOUSE

Hearty thanks to all of you who visited our Holiday Gift Open House this past November. We had an exciting sale and experience. Because of your participation and generosity we were able to provide a check in the amount of $608 to Project Mexico and St Innocent Orphanage to help further the wonderful work they are doing in Mexico to steer orphaned children on a path to healthy, successful lives. In the words of Gregory Yova from Project Mexico, "Thanks so much! May God richly bless you in the new year."