Piecework Wallets & Things

I always draw at meetings, so this morning's crit group felt pretty normal in terms of drawing.  I did notice that I felt already warmed up, however, and I dove into a contour drawing of Clara's large leather bag.  It was really fun to make a sort of landscape of it, hills and valleys and drapey , slumpy paths.  I enjoyed the bright stripes that peeked out from the inside.  As usual, I took some notes during the meeting, and  the diagram on the top half of the right hand side is more of a diagram than a drawing (and you will note that I did NOT count it as one of the 10,000). 

At the bottom of the page I did a careful drawing of an antique treadle sewing machine that I saw while browsing at the Tobacco Barn antiques place.  I've been thinking about buying my soon-to-be 9- year- old grand daughter her own treadle machine for her July birthday.  She can sew a bit on my treadle, and we like to make things together on the machine.  So when I found this little early 20th century Davis machine in such fine condition (it has a perfect oak cabinet, six perfectly operational drawers, a bunch of tools and shiny metal extra things AND a complete if slightly moldy manual, and even a good treadle belt, I raced over to the checkout desk and bought it.  Then I went back and drew it while admiring its lovely decals and sweet surfaces.

Back at home I stretched out on the back porch futon and drew one of our plants, a very old pittosporum or Chocolate Soldier.  We brought it home on the train back in the early 90s after a visit to New Orleans.  My aunt had several of these and gave us one.  Over the years it has flourished.  We divide it every few years, give some away, move it around from pot to pot, even had some end up in the garden this year where it made it through the winter.  A couple of weeks ago we divided the over-burdoned mother plant into three pots, and I noticed today that the babies are starting to send out new leaves and the old leaves are standing up and no longer drooping.

And finally, while waiting for dinner to do whatever it was doing, I sketched a GMO onion that had a Green Giant sticker on it.  I have yet to convince P to drive the extra five miles to shop at Whole Foods/Greenlife.