Fall's Gifts

The rains are coming. The richness of fall's palette will soon be gone. A walk through the garden and neighborhood yielded many glimpses of patterns in nature but my photography didn't do justice to the majority of them. My friend reports this is the first year the heart-shaped leaves have displayed the speckled coloring.

Block Printing in Adobe Illustrator

Recently, I've been experimenting with a new-to-me printmaking process. The above image is the result of my activities mixed with a bit of alchemy...truly! I scanned my original print, which was French blue and cordovan, altered the colors to deep turqoise and dark coffee in the scanning program, put the pattern into repeat in Adobe Illustrator, and imported it into this blog. Voila! Deep turquise magically turned into shocking lime and dark coffee turned into deep periwinkle! Wow -- shocking but lovely! Below, is the original print.

And below, is the altered print put into repeat. (I finally figured out how to import it without changing the color.)

Discovering La Bella Casa in McMinnville

I've always been enamored with all things metal: Heavy or light guage; aluminum, iron, tin, or steel; smooth or with most any kind of pattern (be it perforated, embossed or woven). Drains, manhole covers, gasoline tank covers and other mundane objects offer some examples of very good design. I found the above drain cover on a recent trip to McMinnville, which by the way, was charming. It's definitely becoming a destination spot for tourists coming to visit Oregon's wine country. Within a few blocks--which, basically, comprise the town--there were several eateries and boutiques, as well as the wonderful stationery, gifts and accessories store, La Bella Casa. I like what McMinnville is becoming, but I especially like that it's still a farm town that caters to the hardworking folks that grow our food.