Barbara Shirk’s house, Eugene, OR

It was an auspicious beginning at Barbara’s house this Tuesday morning…

      We were greeted with warm mini-croissants and chocolate shortbread, as well as a tour of Barb’s craft room & charming home. Above are: Ardas Calhoun, Barbara Aten, Tricia Clark-McDowell, Penelope Youngfeather, Jan Brown, & hostess Barbara Shirk.

      Then Barb introduced us to the folding cubes, samples in basket.

     In the corner was the supply layout, as well as written instructions with illustrations (once  a superb teacher, always a superb teacher!)

    Barb Aten, Jan, Ardas Calhoun, and Tricia got right down to it…take six little wooden cubes (used as math manipulative in elementary school), then cut white sticker labels to fit across two…

    Barb demonstrates for Erik how the cubes go together so that they will open up – this is tricky & complicated! He gives a sigh of relief when his complete folding blocks work right. Yay!

           Tricia cuts carefully, trims the excess after applied to the blocks so that they open up, and then applies a design which will change as the blocks open and fold in a different direction.

     Penelope delights in getting the first set of blocks stickers together. Later she photographed a sample design to inspire her at home.

        Barb A gets the next block section turned just right for the next sticker application, and gets down to doing designs on her blocks.

         Jane and Barb Sommers work on their block collection. Barb refers to one of the samples for design ideas. They had to be seen to be believed at how one design would morph into another!

We had a great time, and we were all successful at getting our folding cubes put together. This definitely got our brains working in a different direction, thanks to Barb Shirk. Now, back to sketching.

Friendly St. Market, Eugene, OR

     Jane followed her recent advice, draw what’s in front of you.

          Erik drew what was in the front of his mind, including this morning’s sunrise!

     Jan got started on the challenge of some Indian corn – wow.

    Ken was working on the cover sheet for his 85th (!) sketchbook, but quickly got distracted by the fascinating radishes Barb A brought in.

   The radishes got us all busy drawing what was in front of us – Ken, Barbara, Erik.  And here’s Barb’s final sketch.

      Erik did his radish sketch with crayons, Jane with ink & watercolor.

     Ken takes a phone call break from his sketch in ink, while  Tricia gleefully shows her collection of radish sketches.

Friendly St. Market, Eugene, OR

The decor set the mood at Friendly Street Market – fall is here!

      Penelope spread out an array of leaves she’d picked up on her walk, much to Ken’s and Tricia’s appreciation!

       Penelope’s workshop share had Ken clicking away to save a sample; then Barb Sommers got some advice about carousel animals.

         Then someone noticed the sun was glowing outside, so off we went – here’s Tricia, Barb So, Barb A, Penelope, & Barb Sh (getting those leaves into her preexisting journal page).

      Penelope & Tricia were enthralled with the autumn leaves.

      Barb So tackled the plant on the table – what a challenge! She did it!

    Barb A brought a little basket of tiny persimmons to paint – how charming is that! And here’s Jane’s sketch of the market decor, finished at home (because she had to leave early).

Outside Market of Choice, 29th & Willamette, Eugene, OR

It was a lovely fall day to gather on the patio under the trees, but several things twisted our minds…

    To begin with, Barb Shirk showed a recent “blue” ink sketch where the ink turned purple, and Barb Aten surprised us with windmill sketches from her recent travel to Sicily. (They have windmills ?!)

    Then Barb Shirk had us turning over and around with her cubed art (more on that later – stay tuned!), and Tricia brought out twisted gourds from her garden that had her & Jan immediately sketching!

    While Jane couldn’t resist the gourds, Ardas Calhoun (new to the group from the last trip to LaRomita in Italy) had already started sketching a tree, using little pencils purchased at Tarquinia, Italy.

   While Barb A sketched the gourds, Penelope perused Barb’s sketchbook from Sicily, then started sketching a map of Sicily which we all agreed was an omen that she would certainly go there, too!

Market of Choice, 29th & Willamette, Eugene, OR

We’d announced our meeting was a gelato tasting at MOC…and there it was, alright. But it’s too early to eat gelato at 9:30 a.m., we decided.

     So the “Barb-wires” (Barb Shirk & Barb Sommers) started us off artistically by showing work they’d done recently.

Ken, as usual, had a book he just had to share – this on letters from famous people. Jan, Barb Shirk, Penelope were fascinated. Tricia and Barb Sommers were otherwise occupied.

      Then Ken & Penelope joined in with work they’d been doing.

     Penelope also shared her page of people, which was also the current focus of sketching for Jan and Barb Shirk.

     Here’s the view of what they were doing – Barb building on a background sketch, and Jan trying to find the perfect shocking pink.

      Meanwhile, Barb Sommers was sketching the autumn decorations, as was Tricia (along with a hint of what goodies got consumed).

       Jane (wearing her Susan Detroy design t-shirt) dutifully sketched the decorations, too, as well as a woman across the room, eating…

You guessed it! GELATO!

Oddly enough, only Tricia (above) and Jane ate any gelato, caught up in reminiscing about being in Italy (where it was ever so good!).