Pssst! There's a Pinecone in Your Purse

I love pinecones. I pick them up where I see them. Sometimes my purse gets a bit lumpy. 

Part of a long, thin cone.

Practicing line work

It's all about etching really. An Urban Sketcher acquaintance of mine, Sigrid Albert, was recently involved in a cool, creative collaboration. She and poet, Christopher Levenson put Sigrid's etchings and Chris' poetry together in a book called Getting to Know You. They worked with master printer Peter Braune to produce a lovely, hand printed,  limited edition tribute to Vancouver. Check out Sigrids blog to get a taste of the book. http://www.urbansketcher.ca

As with all things creative, finding the money to do projects like this requires lots of creativity in and of itself. So the trio decided to crowd source the money through the website Indiegogo. (to great success - they raised $5000) The cool thing about this fundraiser was that, instead of just making a donation, you actually buy something, in my case, an etching session with Peter's printshop, New Leaf Creative Solutions.

Oh my gosh! Great idea, right?! Except now I have to be able to draw something worth printing, straight onto a metal plate! I pride myself on adding watercolour to make lovely my less than amazing drawings. As far as I can see, there is no watercolour involved in etching. The whole premise is that the drawing part is lovely from the start!

Do I sound panicky? All this to say, I am practicing with fine black pens. And yes, I am panicky…..and excited.