Little Sprouts Grow Up

Here's a photo I took on Thursday of Jon with the agave plant. You can see how much it's grown from when I took the last photo of him on Monday. He said to me this evening as I was leaving that we need to take another photo, so we'll do that tomorrow. The flower stalk is certainly growing quickly. And that's what everyone was predicting. Several of the artists are calling this an agave plant. I think it is. I know the agave is the plant they make tequila from. I'm not sure if this is that variety. But I find it attractive nonetheless.

I spent today making jewelry. When I went to the bead supplier yesterday, I picked out a number of strands that are semi-precious stones, in polished but rather rough shapes. So today I made three necklaces, one jade, one agate, and one which was labeled "assorted stone." I don't like that kind of label. It's too vague, and my knowledge of stones is not expert. However, as I look at the stones, they look to me as though they are at least partially red or poppy jasper. I know they're not agate. According to the gem book I have, agate has bands, and this assorted stone does not. It has dots or circles. Anyway, it's very pretty I think and looks wonderful with gold wire and chain between each piece.

I spent time talking to Philip about my upcoming printmaking class. One of the things I've wanted to do for a long time is to create a broadside, a large poster sort of piece that has a combination of drawing and writing on it. Philip has a printer that prints paper up to 13 by 19 inches. So I could print an etching on rag paper and then give it to Philip and he could print text on the same paper using his computer and printer. It wouldn't be the same as using a letter press to print the text, but I think it would be satisfactory. Anyway it's worth a try. I could of course use my own printer, but I think it probably only takes an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of paper, and I want to make something bigger.

So, my plan is to spend time tomorrow working on a few more jewelry pieces, one anyway that I started late in the afternoon. Then I'll put that aside and start concentrating on the etching. I have a number of plates ready to print. I know that when I go to class on Tuesday, I won't be able to print, but at least I can clean out my flat file drawer left from several years ago and get ready to move forward. Who would have thought I'd be going back to school. Certainly not me.