Rubbing Plate Roundup

Earlier this year Shelley Stokes, purveyor of all things paintstik related, asked if anyone had an unusual use for rubbing plates. She was writing a book about using rubbing plates which are normally used with paintstiks to create rubbings on fabric. I've used rubbing plates to add texture to a screen full of thickened dye when I do deconstructive/breakdown screen printing. I did some samples for her, took a few pictures, wrote up how I did it and sent it off to her. She included it in the book along with several other very interesting techniques. There are twelve different techniques included in the book, some of the others uses are, texturing clay, foil applications, embossing metal, flexible acrylic sculptures gelatin prints and paper castings.

My copy of the book arrived a few days ago, along with some goodies that Shelly very generously provided to the contributors of the book. I spent an evening reading through all the different ways to use the rubbing plates and now I'm ready to play!
Shelley has a talent for writing and illustrating very clear directions. I always recommended her first book "Paintstiks on Fabric" when I was vending and doing demos, it was how I learned to use paintstiks. I highly recommend this book also, not because I'm a contributer, but because it shows so many great ways to use those rubbing plates that I have stacked up!



You can get the book here.

My wrist and shoulder are healing, I'm no longer wearing the brace, but still have to be careful of what I do. I did get my Christmas postcards made. I did a very simple wreath using a thermofax screen of circles, stitching and then an added stamp of a bow.

A creative repurpose

I found out yesterday that I've also done a bit of muscle and ligament damage to my left shoulder when I fell. Apparently since I was walking very fast when I fell the velocity of the fall jammed my arm bone and shoulder causing the damage. I was given some exercises to do to regain full motion of the arm. One of the exercises uses a 5 lb. weight, I don't have any weights so went looking thru the house to find a substitute. The perfect substitute was in my studio on a windowsill.



I bought this iron at a yard sale a few years ago. The ball holds kerosine and there is a burner in the body of the iron to heat the sole plate. It's very rusted and unusable until now! The handle is easy for me to grip with the brace on my wrist and it weighs 4.75 lbs. , close enough for me.

A slight bump in my plans

Thats my left wrist in that big black contraption. Yesterday I fell while taking my morning walk, tripping over the sidewalk in the dark. The wrist is not broken just bent, bruised, swollen and sprained. Luckily it was very cold out and I had on several layers of clothes to pad my fall. I was more concerned about my knee and right hand as I walked home, but knew I had a problem when I got home and couldn't open the door with my left hand. The rest of me is a bit sore today but okay.

I'm discovering all the things I can't do, like finish the fingerless gloves I was knitting for the texting teenagers on my Christmas list. Oh well, they may get them late. I have been able to do a bit of hand stitching and a whole lot of reading.