Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A Day in the Rainforest

So, here we are at the Lake Quinault Lodge in the lovely Quinault Rain Forest.


It was in the low 60s when we arrived last evening, so C and I grabbed a couple of the old wooden chairs on the lawn and enjoyed a glass of wine while overlooking the lake, and children playing horseshoes on the shore. It was lovely. Later we migrated into the large livingroom and sat reading (and blogging) in front of the huge fireplace, in which there was quite a blaze warming the room.

When we awoke this morning, it was overcast, but appeared dry. We threw on our hiking clothes and took off on one of the many trails around the lodge. I had brought along an umbrella, because the sky appeared threatening. Of course it began to rain......and it hasn't stopped yet. That is ok. We have been blessed with wonderful weather on this trip, and as the hostess in the lodge restaurant reminded a diner, "this is the rain forest".

We took a great ride out to the coast and on down to the town of Aberdeen, where we enjoyed a lunch of razor clams, Dungeness Crab, and shrimp. MMMMMM!

Here are a few pics from the drive:

those of you who know C, are well aware that signs like this simply energize him!






Here are a few more pieces from the rice paste resist on silk class that I took last week in Coupeville.

a piece of silk that I have stenciled with a hand cut stencil and then used the tsutsu to draw the squiggly lines:
I stamped over the blue stenciled area with a chartreuse rice paste resist (above) and then dyed the background with a scarlet red:

The piece below is a lovely textured silk that I first stenciled (blue) and then overstamped (red). I liked how the two techniques seemed to play off of eachother.


After both of the resists were dry, I painted the background with the lemon yellow rice paste resist:


My favorite piece from the class: a collaborative, last-minute effort with Nita, Akemi's class assistant:
isn't it wild?

I am eager to get home and practice what I learned in Akemi's class!


PEACE

4 comments:

Gerrie said...

It is rainy here today. A good day to be in the studio.

I am still loving those pieces you did in the class. I think you should send me half of the collaborative piece!! Hee...

Joyce said...

That gravel road would be just my cup of tea too!
Love the resist work you have done.

Carol said...

Oh it all looks so gorgeous, you must be having the best time. I'm pleased to see I'm not the only person who keeps taking photos of the road ahead, I love to do that. Silk looks wonderful and yes, that lovely orange piece does look wild and so vibrant. I have a dumb queston about cherries. You said you hadn't seen sweet dark cherries - ours are almost all sweet and dark, what are yours? Occasionally we get pale orangy ones which taste great but they are usually exported to Japan and we're lucky to see them. XXOO

Barbara said...

We will have rain again tomorrow, but today was a beauty! Dry and warm with the scent of the ocean in the air!

Love the pictures of the ride. The hike in the rainforest must have been awesome. I hope you took some more pictures.

Your silk work is so pretty. The last piece make me think of Easter. What will you do with all that you created at your class?

Safe travels.

Peace!