Changes In Methods

Here's what's left of the vine at school. Almost every leaf has fallen off except a few in protected spots. Now what's left is a bunch of stems that have turned red and these little grape-like "fruit." I guess the vine could be some sort of ornamental grapevine or something related. I know that grapevines lose their leaves in the fall. I've seen the bare vines when we've gone up to Napa Valley in Northern California. And I've seen photos of them with their leaves turning in the fall.

Although fall tends to be one of my less favorite seasons, the red, orange, and yellow leaves I see around town are lovely. I was at the bookstore this morning, and I noticed trees with bright red leaves growing next to some palm trees. In fact I tried to take a photo of them, but it didn't turn out.

I spent time at the bookstore looking for books on book arts and also jewelry making. Despite the fact that I have plenty of books, too many really, I still can't totally resist them. I had a 40% off coupon, and I admit it lured me to the store. I chose a book on Tiffany jewelry that I've been looking at for months. I had decided it was too expensive, but at 40% off it was much more reasonable. I also found several magazines with metalsmithing tips in them. But I also resisted a number of other books that I might have purchased in the past. Anyway, I'm a firm believer in my mind's ability to store images and ideas that I introduce it to.

I went to printmaking this afternoon. I had several zinc plates that I wanted to etch for a long time. One was not finished. In fact, I'm still not finished with it. The other one was sufficiently complete for me to use it to experiment. I left it in the nitric acid for two hours, and I don't think it bit as deeply as I would have liked. I want to put it back in again on Thursday and see what will happen if I leave it in several more hours. I realized that I have two plates in my drawer at school that I tried to do the same thing with. This was when I took the class several years ago. I'll just keep trying. And it occurs to me that I could try to etch a piece of copper very deeply as well. That would probably take overnight. The thing about zinc is that it doesn't etch as cleanly as the copper does. The copper makes such a nice clean line. Of course, I've never tried to etch it really deeply. I will. That will be a goal for this week or next.